ue, with a stern gesture, motioned to Chavernay to stand back. "You
presume," he said. "I offer this deluded girl protection. It is for me to
see that she is properly provided for."

Gabrielle gave him a glance that pierced through his specious
protestations. "You wish the daughter of Nevers to die. If you have
killed Lagardere, I have no wish to live."

Gonzague answered her, urbanely: "You take the matter too seriously. You
have shared an imposture. I propose to shield you from punishment. You
shall tramp the highways no longer. Here is an honest gentleman ready to
marry you, to forgive and to forget. Advance, AEsop."

At that command the hunchback, who had been leaning against a chair an
apparently amused spectator of the not untragic scene, shambled slowly
forward more ungainly than ever in his finery, his long sword swinging
grotesquely against his legs.

Flora gave a cry of indignation. "Are you mad? That monster!"

The hunchback's answer to her words was a comic bow, which made
Gonzague's friends laugh. Gabrielle looked at the laughing gentlemen, and
there was something so brave, so stately in her gaze that the laughter
died away.

"Gentlemen," she said, "you bear honorable names, you wear honorable
swords. Gentlemen, the daughter of Nevers appeals to you to protect her
from insult."

Even Gonzague's band, hardened by the influence of long association with
their master, could not hear that appeal unmoved, though no man among
them made any motion of responding to it.

Chavernay, however, rested his hand lightly upon his sword-hilt. "Rely on
me," he said, boldly.

Gonzague looked at him contemptuously. "No heroics, sir. The lady is free
to choose between the husband I offer and the law that chastises
impostors." He turned to the hunchback, who stood near him. "I fear your
love affair goes ill, AEsop."

The hunchback did not seem at all disheartened. "It will go better when I
take it in hand myself. Let me speak to the lady alone."

Flora fiercely protested: "No, no, no!"

But Gonzague turned to her with a look so menacing that even her courage
quailed before it. "For your friend's sake, be quiet, Mademoiselle de
Nevers," he said. Taking Flora by the hand, he drew her, partly by main
force and partly by strength of his dominating influence, away from
Gabrielle. Then he turned to his friends. "Ladies and gentlemen," he
said, "our good AEsop desires to speak to the lady of his love in private.
We are al