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116 a man who would place himself under our guidance in all matters."

"And your lordship and you, monsieur, chose a man whose life was so evil—if this lying letter were to be credited—that he only dared to come hither when he had been assured under your lordship's own hand of a pardon for some foul offence. Surely you would not have me credit this of you! I do not. I will not. For it involves a cruel slander upon my true and gallant cousin."

"What the Duke says is true in every word, Gabrielle," declared de Proballe, much relieved at the astute line the Governor was taking.

"We did not know the evil history of this man," continued the Duke in the same quiet deliberate tone; "or he would never have been brought here. I have but learned it within the last few hours. The affair at Cambrai was mistold to us; and I have but just gathered the full details of what I find to have been a foul and most treacherous murder."

A contemptuous smile of disbelief was Gabrielle's only answer to this; but it was more eloquent than many words of her unshaken and unshakable faith in Gerard. The Duke paused, and after a moment resumed—

"We had heard that he had repented of his old excesses and wrong living, and when we sent for him, believed this to be the case. But when we found that his repentance was but acted lying—in which he is an adept—there seemed no course open but to put him to the proof by confronting him with his own writing, so that your eyes might be opened and yourself convinced of the impossibility of a marriage with him."

"I have yet to be convinced, my lord; and know no power or means on earth strong enough to convince me. My parents' wishes"

"Were but M. de Proballe's invention, mademoiselle," interposed the Duke, in the same cold deliberate tone.