he late Duc de Vannes.

"The explanation," he said, in answer to St Georges's remark, and
speaking in a voice which he endeavoured to render cold and haughty,
but which was, in truth, an angry, bitter one, "will have to be very
full, very complete, to satisfy his Majesty. You quitted the garrison
of Pontarlier on the last night of the last year, riding on special
service in the king's name, and you have tarried long on the road in,
I imagine, your own service. Beyond bringing one message--that from
the Bishop of Lodeve--you have failed in your duty, sir; indeed,
failed so much that the Marquise de Roquemaure, from whom you were
ordered to bring another message, has actually preceded your arrival
here. Has passed you on the road and entered Paris before you, though
you quitted her manoir before she did; has, indeed, been able to give
an interesting account of you and your supposed adventures."

"Supposed!" exclaimed St. Georges quietly--"supposed! Does madame la
marquise stigmatize them as 'supposed,' or does monsieur le ministre,
Monsieur de Louvois, apply that epithet to them?" and as he spoke,
with still his head thrown back and his left hand resting lightly in
the cup of his sword hilt, he looked very straight into the eyes of
Louvois.

"Madame la marquise is a woman; she believes--and tells--a story as
she hears it."

St. Georges bent his head for a moment, then as quietly as he asked
the previous question, but equally as clearly and distinctly as he had
previously spoken, he said:

"Monsieur Louvois will remember he is speaking to a soldier."

"_Et puis?_"

"Who permits no one, not even the minister of the army, who is his
superior, to question his veracity. What he told madame he told as it
happened."

Louvois laughed somewhat sinisterly and wholly insultingly, yet for
him quietly, after which he said:

"Monsieur St. Georges is also something else besides a soldier--as,
indeed, his present manner proclaims. A little of--if I may say it
without fear of being done to death on my own hearth--a bully."

"A bully!"

"I fear so, disguised in the uniform of the king. It was bully's work
which you performed in the graveyard of Aignay-le-Duc--work which if
done by others than soldiers would lead to the halter; work which,
when done by soldiers, leads generally to a file of their brethren--to
a platoon."

If St. Georges could have had his way, followed his own bent, it would
have been his right hand instead