I
have long esteemed you for those very qualities of dauntlessness and
defiance which have brought you so rich a crop of hatred. If you doubt my
words, perhaps you will recall my attitude towards you in the horse-market
yesterday, and let that speak. Without wishing to remind you of a service
done, I may yet mention that I stood betwixt you and the mob that sought to
avenge my friend Canaples. He was my friend; you stood there, as indeed
you have always stood, in the attitude of a foe. You wounded Canaples,
maltreated Vilmorin, defied me; and yet but for my intervention, mille
diables sir, you had been torn to pieces."
"All this I grant is very true, Monsieur," I made reply, with deep
suspicion in my soul. "Yet, pardon me, if I confess that to me it proves
no more than that you acted as a generous enemy. Pardon my bluntness also-
-but what profit do you look to make from gaining my friendship?"
"You are frank, Monsieur," he said, colouring slightly, "I will be none the
less so. I am a frondeur, an anti-cardinalist. In a word, I am a
gentleman and a Frenchman. An interloping foreigner, miserly, mean-souled,
and Jesuitical, springs up, wins himself into the graces of a foolish,
impetuous, wilful queen, and climbs the ladder which she holds for him to
the highest position in France.
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