"Nay, Monsieur, I cannot follow you in your perceptions. I know only that on Monday evening a party of the King's guard appeared before the Chateau de Lavardin—"
"Having been sent from Paris soon after you had arrived there with the documents you found in the chateau."
"Please do not interrupt with your baseless conjectures, Monsieur. As I said, the guards arrived at Lavardin just as, by great good fortune, the Count himself was returning from some journey or excursion he had been on. Thus they met him outside his walls: had it been otherwise they would doubtless have had infinite trouble, for, as we know, the chateau has been for some time fully prepared for a siege, even to being garrisoned by the company of Captain Ferragant."
"What! then those fellows who thronged the court-yard—"
"Were a part of Captain Ferragant's famous company,—only a part, as I should have said at first, unless he has reduced its numbers. Well, instead of having the difficulty of besieging the chateau, the guards had the luck to meet the Count in the road, when he had only a few followers with him. And so they made short work."
"They succeeded in arresting him?"
"Not exactly that. He chose to resist, no doubt thinking he would soon be reinforced from the chateau by the Captain and garrison. And in the fight, the Count was killed,—stuck through the lungs by the sword of a guard who had to defend himself from the Count's own attack."
"My God! the Count killed!—dead!—out of the way!" For a moment I entirely yielded to the force of this news, which to my ears meant so much.
"Yes. You don't seem grieved.—Yes: he will never annoy people again. The Captain, though, seeing from the chateau how matters had gone, came out with his men on horseback,—not to avenge the Count, but to ride off as fast as possible in the other direction. So the King's guardsmen had no trouble in getting into the chateau. A party of them, I believe, set off in pursuit of the Captain, who has long been a thorn in the side of people who love order. If he is caught, it can be shown that he was involved in the treason; and there it is."
"So the Captain has not been caught?"