THE MARQUIS'S VISITOR
On the very day after the Panet documents were added to the Record a
visitor called upon the Marquis.
"The 25th of January," records the latter in his journal, "there entered
my apartments, about half-past ten in the morning, a young man, wearing
a sword and a hat with a white plume, his suit entirely of black
knitcloth with trimmings to match, of middle height, firmly built and
well-looking, skin fine with plenty of colour, eye nearly black, soft
and somewhat large, surmounted by a black eyebrow."
"My name is Monsieur de la Louvière, Gendarme of the Guard," he said. "I
come on the part of the Chevalier de Bailleul respecting the matter of
Monsieur LeCour."
"Be seated, sir," replied the Marquis with interest, indicating a chair
near his writing-desk, at which he himself sat down. "Is this Lecour
known to yourself?"
"I am a friend of his," replied M. de la Louvière.
"Where is he now?"
"A week ago he was in England."
"Have you not heard that he is an impostor?"
"I only know, sir, that he is a very unfortunate man, and that you, who
have so interested yourself against him, have only to show him leniency
and kindness and you would be surprised at his gratitude. I carry the
appeal of the Chevalier to you, desirous of seeing whether the trouble
cannot be amicably arranged."
"Tell the Chevalier de Bailleul, sir, that all who bear the name of
Canadian have a claim upon my good nature, particularly any son of a
servant once in my employ. I shall oppose him no further, provided he
but at once replace himself in his own rank. I only, secondly, exact
that the honour of Monsieur de Léry, as the nephew of Madame my wife, be
completely cleared and sustained with his comrades and officers." The
Marquis here noticed that the Record was lying upon the table under the
eyes of the stranger, but the latter continued the conversation.
"That can be done. But it ought to be so arranged as not to interfere
with the standing, for the present, of Monsieur Lecour, because,
Monsieur le Marquis, one of his protectors, the Duc de Liancourt, has
arranged to bestow on him the commandancy of his cadet institute in the
provinces."
"An infinitely better position for him than remaining in the company of
Noailles," remarked de Lotbinière, removing the Record from the table,
"seeing the Bodyguards have caught the rumour of his birth."
"But it is a part of the arrangement that he should stay in the
Bodyguard eighteen months longer."
"Why should such a person be so much considered? Monsieur de Léry has
done nothing more than tell the exact truth, which is the duty of a man
of honour when pressed by his superiors. He has been most properly
avenged; I see nothing left to arrange."
"But he would be still exposed to a challenge to fight."
"His officers have forbidden him to fight with an inferior."
"There remains the certainty of a caning."
"What do you wish to be done?"
"That Monsieur de Léry should merely say off hand before his friends
that what he had told of Monsieur Lecour was said at hazard."
"Then, sir, tell the Chevalier de Bailleul that when I said I was
willing to arrange that affair amicably I did not know that he would
dare to propose that I commence by consenting to the formal and complete
dishonour of Monsieur de Léry. Judge, now, whether a proposal of the
sort could be made to me about the cousin-germain of my children?"
"Excuse me, Marquis, this was not exactly my meaning, nor that of
Monsieur de Bailleul."
"Inform Monsieur de Bailleul," cried de Lotbinière, "that he must feel
it impossible, and that all is finished and over by the orders given to
each of them by their respective adjutants."
"No, sir," the stranger sternly cried, in reply, "all is _not_ finished,
for so unpardonable have been the offences of Monsieur de Léry towards
Monsieur Lecour that _only one of them must live_."
"Then let him kill Lecour instead of some one of his comrades, who would
make life intolerable to him were he to show himself such a coward as
you have proposed. Has he not proved a brave man to have fought so
often, and with that fellow so below his dignity? As for me, knowing
what I owe to myself, I should refuse most scrupulously to compromise
myself with any one who was not of my station. Were I attacked in a
street by such a man, I should defend my life with the greatest spirit;
but never under the arrangements of an affair _en règle_. Such has
always been my way of conduct, according to the truest principles of
honour."
"Of honour!" the stranger exclaimed sarcastically; "and who taught de
Léry to apply these principles to a fellow Bodyguard?"
"He acted, as I have said, under the advice of his superior officers,
especially of Monsieur de Villerai, who is his relative, and a Canadian
gentleman of distinguished ancestry."
"Ancestry! de Villerai of distinguished ancestry! This, then, is the man
who has undertaken to crush my friend Lecour on the question of
extraction! All the world knows that his paternal uncle, of the same
name as he, is a common carter in Quebec, and his children in the last
ditch of squalor and degradation."
De Lotbinière's countenance changed as quickly as though he had been
stabbed.
"To the sorrow of his family, you speak but too truly, although the
father was educated very differently. His misfortune was to have married
a fool, who supposed herself obliged, as the wife of a gentleman, to
dissipate their substance in innumerable petty entertainments; but from
this the only rightful conclusion to be drawn is that that branch has
derogated from _noblesse_, and can no longer pretend to enjoy for the
future the state of its ancestors. But Monsieur Lecour must know well
that, as for the branch of the Chevalier de Villerai, the further back
you go in his family tree in Canada the more brightly his _noblesse_
stands forth in splendour."
"His grandfather," the stranger retorted scornfully, "was a runaway
bankrupt out of the prison of Rouen. And who is this de Léry? His
father, during the siege of Quebec, instead of confronting the enemy,
went buying up cattle in the parishes to sell over again to the
commissariat at the expense of the misery of an expiring people."
"Who told you that?" cried de Lotbinière in a passion. "Who is the
author of such an infamy? I have heard that story told of Monsieur de
Lanaudière, but it is as false of one as of the other. It was to Captain
de Lanaudière that the compulsion of farmers to bring in provisions was
entrusted, but even he went out as an officer doing duty, and never as a
trader in beef. Lies, all lies!"
"Let that pass, then," said the unknown Gendarme of the Guard; "but
though I can understand de Léry's reporting to his superior on being
pressed for information, it was nothing less than ignoble and disgusting
of him to have spread these tales concerning my friend among his
comrades."
"What!" returned de Lotbinière, "when Lecour was wearing the name of his
uncle!"
"If he wore it he did not seek it; it was his companions who gave it to
him."
"To have worn it at all, sir, admits of no excuses."
"It was never dishonoured by him; it suffered in nothing."
"That may be, but it does not destroy in the slightest this most sacred
principle of society, that each one carry his true name and not that of
another."
The stranger lost patience.
"Eh, but, sir," he cried, "this name is not so precious! This name is
not so precious, I say, after the adventure of the eldest of the family,
who was hung in effigy in that country for having assassinated a worthy
citizen of Quebec on his doorstep at the entrance to the Upper Town. And
my friend Lecour possesses the proofs of it. It was Panet who was the
judge that condemned him for the assassination and ordered him hanged in
effigy."
"Hold," returned the Marquis, "Panet the judge? Does your friend not
know that Monsieur Panet was only a simple attorney in the days of the
French _régime_? I see that you are very badly informed. He of whom you
speak was my best friend from childhood, and without question one of the
most estimable men Canada ever produced. This is what befell: His
quarters as an officer were given him upon Philibert, a man who, having
kept a bakery, furnished the King's store with bread for the soldiers at
Quebec, whence he grew to look upon himself as the King's
_munitionnaire_, and exempt from providing quarters. Monsieur de
Répentigny presents his order for lodgings. Philibert refuses.
Répentigny replies, 'This must be settled either with the
Lieutenant-General, whose written order this is, or with the
Intendant--but I must be lodged either by you or by some one else.'
Philibert, who was a brute, and filled himself with wine at every meal,
goes after his dinner and insults the Intendant, who threatens him with
prison unless he arranges for Monsieur de Répentigny. The man, leaving
there, rushes, drunk with anger and wine, to Monsieur de Répentigny,
whom he covers with the most insolent and revolting expressions.
Répentigny turns him out of his chamber. Philibert, continuing his
outrageous shouts, ends by delivering the officer a violent stroke of
his cane. Monsieur de Répentigny then, as one might well do on such
sudden pain and provocation, drew out his sword and ran him through the
body, so that he died a couple of days afterwards. That, sir, is your
assassination without cause! Then the Sovereign Court of course was
obliged to order his decapitation in effigy--not his hanging, as you
say; and such is the measure of truth in the information which is given
you by that young man on the occurrences of his native colony."
The Marquis's voice having risen in a towering fury, it was impossible
to say any more to him, and the Gendarme of the Guard, with a smile,
rose and bowed himself out. Immediately after his departure, the Marquis
uttered a sudden exclamation.
He hastened to the lodging of his nephew, and asked him, in great
excitement, what was the personal appearance of Lecour. By close
comparison he arrived at the confirmation of his suspicion--that his
visitor had been none other than the adventurer himself.