'Where you appear to have made free with the duke's cellar, eh?'
'It is not so, monsieur,' burst in the girl; 'neither he nor we have done that. The wine you have drunk was a gift from madame the duchess.'
There was truth in every line of her features, in the fierce little gesture with which she turned upon me in defence of her lover. I was sorry to let my tongue bite so hard, and said so, and went on with my inquiries.
'And from Anet you came here?'
'It is but a stone-throw,' Nicholas answered, 'and I had a business in hand. After which we were going away.'
Whilst he was speaking Marie lit a lantern, and I saw that my ex-sergeant was evidently in the lowest water. He had been a smart soldier, but was now unkempt and dirty, and his eye had the shifty look of a hunted animal. He wore a rusty corselet and a rustier chain cap on his head, drawn over a bandage that covered his ears. As my eye fell on the bandage I called to mind the mutilation that had been inflicted on him, a brand that had cast him out of the pale of all honest men. Nicholas watched my glance, and ground his teeth with rage.
'I will kill him,' he hissed, 'kill him like the dog he is. Monsieur, that was my business!'
'Then de Gomeron——'
'Is but an hour's ride away, monsieur—at Anet.'
'At Anet! What does he do there?'