Yet when the writing materials were brought me, I wrote
not. I sat instead with the feathered end of my quill between my
teeth, and thus pondered the matter of the disposal of my Picardy
estates.
Coldly I weighed the wording of the wager and the events that had
transpired, and I came at length to the conclusion that Chatellerault
could not be held to have the least claim upon my lands. That he
had cheated at the very outset, as I have earlier shown, was of less
account than that he had been instrumental in violently hindering me.
I took at last the resolve to indite a full memoir of the transaction,
and to request Castelroux to see that it was delivered to the King
himself. Thus not only would justice be done, but I should - though
tardily - be even with the Count. No doubt he relied upon his power
to make a thorough search for such papers as I might leave, and to
destroy everything that might afford indication of my true identity.
But he had not counted upon the good feeling that had sprung up
betwixt the little Gascon captain and me, nor yet upon my having
contrived to convince the latter that I was, indeed, Bardelys, and
he little dreamt of such a step as I was about to take to ensure his
punishment hereafter.
Resolved at last, I was commencing to write when my attention was
arrested by an unusual sound. It was at first no more than a
murmuring noise, as of at sea breaking upon its shore. Gradually
it grew its volume and assumed the shape of human voices raised in
lusty clamour.
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