"
"But does her saintship do you any good?" I asked curiously.
"Certainly, by your lordship's leave. My wife prays to her and she loosens
the nails in the sorrel's shoes."
"In fact she pays off an old grudge," I answered, "for there was a time
when Paris liked me little; but hark ye, master smith, I am not sure that
this is not an act of treason to conspire with Madame Genevieve against
the comfort of the king's minister. What think you, you rascal; can you
pass the justice elm without a shiver?"
This threw the simple fellow into a great fear, which the sight of the
livre of gold speedily converted into joy as stupendous. Leaving him still
staring at his fortune I rode away; but when we had gone some little
distance, the aspect of his face, when I charged him with treason, or my
own unassisted discrimination suggested a clew to the phenomenon.
"La Trape," I said to my valet--the same who was with me at Cahors--"what
is the name of the innkeeper at Poissy, at whose house we are accustomed
to dine?"
"Andrew, may it please your lordship."
"Andrew! I thought so!" I exclaimed, smiting my thigh. "Simon and Andrew
his brother! Answer, knave, and, if you have permitted me to be robbed
these many times, tremble for your ears. Is he not brother to the smith at
Aubergenville who has just shod my horse?"
La Trape professed to be ignorant on this point, but a groom who had
stayed behind with me, having sought my permission to speak, said it was
so, adding that Master Andrew had risen in the world through large
dealings in hay, which he was wont to take daily into Paris and sell, and
that he did not now acknowledge or see anything of his brother the smith,
though it was believed that he retained a sneaking liking for him.
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