"Because I took him unfairly," I answered desperately. "Because, Monseigneur, I am a gentleman, and this task should have been given to one who was not. I took him, if you must know," I continued impatiently,--the fence once crossed, I was growing bolder,--"by dogging a woman's steps, and winning her confidence, and betraying it. And, whatever I have done ill in my life,--of which you were good enough to throw something in my teeth when I was last here,--I have never done that, and I will not!"
"And so you set him free?"
"Yes."
"After you had brought him to Auch?"
"Yes."
"And in point of fact saved him from falling into the hands of the commandant at Auch?"
"Yes," I answered desperately.
"Then what of the trust I placed in you, sirrah?" he rejoined, in a terrible voice; and stooping still farther forward, he probed me with his eyes. "You who prate of trust and confidence, who received your life on parole, and but for your promise to me would have been carrion this month past, answer me that! What of the trust I placed in you?"
"The answer is simple," I said, shrugging my shoulders with a touch of my old self. "I am here to pay the penalty."
"And do you think that I do not know why?" he retorted, striking his one hand on the arm of the chair with a force which startled me. "Because you have heard, Sir, that my power is gone! That I, who was yesterday the King's right hand, am to-day dried up, withered, and paralyzed! Because--but have a care! Have a care!" he continued not loudly, but in a voice like a dog's snarl. "You, and those others! Have a care I say, or you may find yourselves mistaken yet!"