it earlier he would
not be allowed to proceed.

He had a gift of oratory of whose full powers he was himself hardly
conscious yet, though destined very soon to become so. He told his story
well, without exaggeration, yet with a force of simple appeal that was
irresistible. Gradually the great man's face relaxed from its forbidding
severity. Interest, warming almost to sympathy, came to be reflected on
it.

"And who, sir, is the man you charge with this?"

"The Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr."

The effect of that formidable name was immediate. Dismayed anger, and an
arrogance more utter than before, took the place of the sympathy he had
been betrayed into displaying.

"Who?" he shouted, and without waiting for an answer, "Why, here's
impudence," he stormed on, "to come before me with such a charge against
a gentleman of M. de La Tour d'Azyr's eminence! How dare you speak of
him as a coward...."

"I speak of him as a murderer," the young man corrected. "And I demand
justice against him."

"You demand it, do you? My God, what next?"

"That is for you to say, monsieur."

It surprised the great gentleman into a more or less successful effort
of self-control.

"Let me warn you," said he, acidly, "that it is not wise to make
wild accusations against a nobleman. That, in itself, is a punishable
offence, as you may learn. Now listen to me. In this matter of
Mabey--assuming your statement of it to be exact--the gamekeeper may have
exceeded his duty; but by so little that it is hardly worth comment.
Consider, however, that in any case it is not a matter for the King's
Lieutenant, or for any court but the seigneurial court of M. de La Tour
d'Azyr himself. It is before the magistrates of his own appointing that
such a matter must be laid, since it is matter strictly concerning his
own seigneurial jurisdiction. As a lawyer you should not need to be told
so much."

"As a lawyer, I am prepared to argue the point. But, as a lawyer I also
realize that if that case were prosecuted, it could only end in the
unjust punishment of a wretched gamekeeper, who did no more than carry
out his orders, but who none the less would now be made a scapegoat,
if scapegoat were necessary. I am not concerned to hang Benet on the
gallows earned by M. de La Tour d'Azyr."

M. de Lesdiguieres smote the table violently. "My God!" he cried out, to
add more quietly, on a note of menace, "You are singularly insolent, my
man."

"That is not my intenti