"It means, monsieur, that there are more Lesperons than one in
France. I am the Lesperon who was at Lavedan. If you doubt me,
ask this gentleman, who arrested me there last night. Ask him,
too, why we have halted here. Ask him, if you will, to show you
the letter that you left at Lavedan making an assignation here
before noon to-day, which letter I received."
The suspicion faded from Marsac's eyes, and they grew round with
wonder as he listened to this prodigious array of evidence.
Lesperon looked on in no less amazement, yet I am sure from the
manner of his glance that he did not recognize in me the man that
had succoured him at Mirepoix. That, after all, was natural
enough; for the minds of men in such reduced conditions as had been
his upon that night are not prone to receive very clear impressions,
and still less prone to retain such impressions as they do receive.
Before Marsac could answer me, Castelroux was at my side.
"A thousand apologies!" he laughed. "A fool might have guessed the
errand that took you so quickly through that window, and none but
a fool would have suspected you of seeking to escape. It was
unworthy in me, Monsieur de Lesperon."
I turned to him while those others still stood gaping, and led him
aside.
"Monsieur le Capitaine," said I, "you find it troublesome enough
to reconcile your conscience with such arrests as you are charged
to make, is it not so.
"Mordieu!" he cried, by way of emphatically assenting.
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