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30 her parents' wish that she should marry a distant kinsman, Gerard de Cobalt, a young reprobate whose life had been if anything more disgraceful than that of de Proballe himself. His culminating act of villainy had been the treacherous murder of a friend at Cambrai, a town within the Governor's province, and for this he was a fugitive from justice. De Cobalt's reward for his part in the infamous scheme was to be a pardon for the affair at Cambrai; and he was to come to Morvaix and marry Gabrielle to provide a complacent cloak for the Governor's scheme.

Gabrielle, suspecting nothing of the intrigue which was in progress about her, and deceived by her uncle's consistently considerate and courteous demeanour to herself, had grown both to trust and like him, and met him now with a smile.

He noticed her disquiet and remarked on her troubled looks.

"It was the scene in the market place," she said, and told him what had occurred.

"I was there and saw it all, Gabrielle. I fear Babillon brought it upon himself. We live in troubled times, child, and authority must be maintained. The Duke is hasty in temper, and he thought, I am sure, as did I and others, that the smith meant to attack him. It is only in the first moments of an outbreak that it can be quelled; had this gone further much more blood than the smith's would have been shed. Remember that."

"He was but protesting," said Gabrielle.

"He nearly killed two of the soldiery with his protest, child."

"Not until they were ordered to attack him."

"Who raises his hand in violence must look for violence in return. I am not defending the act. Had I been Governor I would have listened first and punished afterwards, but that is not de Rochelle's method."