Then permit me to say again, gentlemen, that I am much more
surprised to see you than you can be to see me. For when
Monseigneur the Cardinal honoured me by sending me from Paris to
conduct this matter, he gave me the fullest--the fullest powers,
M. le Capitaine--to see the affair to an end. I was not led to
expect that my plans would be spoiled on the eve of success by
the intrusion of half the garrison from Auch.'
'Oh, ho!' the Captain said softly--in a very different tone, and
with a very different face. 'So you are the gentleman I heard of
at Auch?'
'Very likely,' I said drily. 'But I am from Paris, not from
Auch.'
'To be sure,' he answered thoughtfully. 'Eh, Lieutenant?'
'Yes, M. le Capitaine, no doubt,' the inferior replied. And they
both looked at one another, and then at me, in a way I did not
understand.
'I think,' said I, to clinch the matter, 'that you have made a
mistake, Captain; or the Commandant has. And it occurs to me
that the Cardinal will not be best pleased.'
'I hold the King's commission,' he answered rather stiffly.
'To be sure,' I replied.
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