'Then I can do nothing for you,' he rejoined peevishly. 'Stand on one side, sir.'
But I was desperate. I knew that I had risked all on the event, and must establish my footing before M. de Turenne's return, or run the risk of certain recognition and vengeance. I cried out, caring nothing who heard, that I was M. de Marsac, that I had come back to meet whatever my enemies could allege against me.
'Ventre Saint Gris!' Henry exclaimed, starting in his saddle with well-feigned surprise. 'Are you that man?'
'I am, sire,' I answered.
'Then you must be mad!' he retorted, appealing to those behind him. 'Stark, staring mad to show your face here! Ventre Saint Gris! Are we to have all the ravishers and plunderers in the country come to us?'
'I am neither the one nor the other!' I answered, looking with indignation from him to the gaping train behind him.
'That you will have to settle with M. de Turenne!' he retorted, frowning down at me with his whole face turned gloomy and fierce. 'I know you well, sir, now. Complaint has been made that you abducted a lady from his Castle of Chizé some time back.'
'The lady, sire, is now in charge of the Princess of Navarre.'
'She is?' he exclaimed, quite taken aback.
'And if she has aught of complaint against me,' I continued with pride, 'I will submit to whatever punishment you order or M. de Turenne demands. But if she has no complaint to make, and vows that she accompanied me of her own free-will and accord, and has suffered neither wrong nor displeasure at my hands, then, sire, I claim that this is a private matter between myself and M. de Turenne.'