Page:Stanley Weyman--Count Hannibal.djvu/286

274 after resting awhile on the old soldier’s iron visage, had passed to her—“is Huguenot, so you need have no fear of her! There, speak, man,” with impatience, “and cease to think of your own skin!”

The Provost drew a deep breath, and fixed his small eyes on Count Hannibal.

“If I knew, my lord, what you—why, my own sister’s son”—he paused, his face began to work, his voice shook—“is a Huguenot! Ay, my lord, a Huguenot! And they know it!” he continued, a flush of rage augmenting the emotion which his countenance betrayed. “Ay, they know it! And they push me on at the Council, and grin behind my back; Lescot, who was Provost two years back, and would match his son with my daughter; and Thuriot, who prints for the University! They nudge one another, and egg me on, till half the city thinks it is I who would kill the Huguenots! I!” Again his voice broke. “And my own sister’s son a Huguenot! And my girl at home white-faced for—for his sake.”

Tavannes scanned the man shrewdly. “Perhaps she is of the same way of thinking?” he said.

The Provost started, and lost one half of his colour. “God forbid!” he cried, “saving Madame’s presence! Who says so, my lord, lies!”

“Ay, lies not far from the truth.”

“My lord!”

“Pish, man, Lescot has said it, and will act on it. And Thuriot, who prints for the University! Would you ’scape them? You would? Then listen to me. I want but two things. First, how many men has Montsoreau’s fellow in the Castle? Few, I know, for he is a niggard, and if he spends, he spends the Duke’s pay.”

“Twelve. But five can hold it.”

“Ay, but twelve dare not leave it! Let them stew in their own broth! And now for the other matter. See,