"
I said this because I had no mind, if he should perish intestate, to
go in quest of his next heirs and advise them that my late Picardy
estates were now their property.
Castelroux sought yet to persuade me to visit the Count, but I held
firmly to my resolve.
"I am leaving Toulouse to-day," I announced.
"Whither do you go?"
"To hell, or to Beaugency - I scarce know which, nor does it matter."
He looked at me in surprise, but, being a man of breeding, asked no
questions upon matters that he accounted secret.
"But the King?" he ventured presently.
"His Majesty has already dispensed me from my duties by him."
Nevertheless, I did not go that day. I maintained the intention
until sunset; then, seeing that it was too late, I postponed my
departure until the morrow. I can assign no reason for my dallying
mood. Perhaps it sprang from the inertness that pervaded me,
perhaps some mysterious hand detained me. Be that as it may, that
I remained another night at the Hotel de l'Epee was one of those
contingencies which, though slight and seemingly inconsequential
in themselves, lead to great issues. Had I departed that day for
Beaugency, it is likely that you had never heard of me - leastways,
not from my own pen - for in what so far I have told you, without
that which is to follow, there is haply little that was worth the
labour of setting down.
In the morning, then, I set out; but having started late, we got
no farther than Grenade, where we lay the night once more at the
Hotel de la Couronne.
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