I forgot that a
swordsman has always the ladies' hearts---but I have more. Do
you know, too, that he is in the Cardinal's pay? Do you know
that he is here on the same errand which brings us here--to
arrest M. de Cocheforet? Do you know that while we go about the
business openly and in soldier fashion, it is his part to worm
himself into your confidence, to sneak into Madame's intimacy, to
listen at your door, to follow your footsteps, to hang on your
lips, to track you--track you until you betray yourselves and the
man? Do you know this, and that all his sympathy is a lie,
Mademoiselle? His help, so much bait to catch the secret? His
aim blood-money--blood-money? Why, MORBLEU!' the Lieutenant
continued, pointing his finger at me, and so carried away by
passion, so lifted out of himself by wrath and indignation, that
I shrank before him--'you talk, lady, of contempt and abhorrence
in the same breath with me, but what have you for him--what have
you for him--the spy, the informer, the hired traitor? And if
you doubt me, if you want evidence, look at him. Only look at
him, I say.
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