For the second time Mademoiselle turned and looked at him.
"Then," she whispered, with white lips, "to what end this--mockery?"
"To the end that seven lives may be saved, Mademoiselle," he answered,
bowing.
"At a price?" she muttered.
"At a price," he answered. "A price which women do not find it hard to
pay--at Court. 'Tis paid every day for pleasure or a whim, for rank or
the entree, for robes and gewgaws. Few, Mademoiselle, are privileged
to buy a life; still fewer, seven!"
She began to tremble. "I would rather die--seven times!" she cried, her
voice quivering. And she tried to rise, but sat down again.
"And these?" he said, indicating the servants.
"Far, far rather!" she repeated passionately.
"And Monsieur? And Monsieur?" he urged with stern persistence, while his
eyes passed lightly from her to Tignonville and back to her again, their
depths inscrutable. "If you love Monsieur, Mademoiselle, and I believe
you do--"
"I can die with him!" she cried.
"And he with you?"
She writhed in her chair.
"And he with you?" Count Hannibal repeated, with emphasis; and he thrust
forward his head. "For that is the question. Think, think,
Mademoiselle. It is in my power to save from death him whom you love; to
save you; to save this canaille, if it so please you. It is in my
power to save him, to save you, to save all; and I will save all--at a
price! If, on the other hand, you deny me that price, I will as
certainly leave all to perish, as perish they will, before the sun that
is now rising sets to-night!"
Mademoiselle looked straight before her, the flicker of a dreadful
prescience in her eyes.
"And the price?" she muttered. "The price?"
"You, Mademoiselle."
"I?"
"Yes, you! Nay, why fence with me?" he continued gently. "You knew it,
you have said it. You have read it in my eyes these seven days."
She did not speak, or move, or seem to breathe. As he said, she had
foreseen, she had known the answer. But Tignonville, it seemed, had not.
He sprang to his feet.
"M. de Tavannes," he cried, "you are a villain!"
"Monsieur?"
"You are a villain! But you shall pay for this!" the young man continued
vehemently. "You shall not leave this room alive! You shall pay for
this insult!"
"Insult?" Tavannes answered in apparent surprise; and then, as if
comprehension broke upon him, "Ah! Monsieur mistakes me," he said, with a
broad sweep of the hand. "And Mademoiselle also, perhaps? Oh! be
content, she shall have bell, book, and candle; she shall be tied as
tight as Holy Church can tie her! Or, if she please, and one survive,
she shall have a priest of her own church--you call it a church? She
shall have whichever of the two will serve her better. 'Tis one to me!
But for paying me, Monsieur," he continued, with irony in voice and
manner; "when, I pray you? In Eternity? For if you refuse my offer, you
have done with time. Now? I have but to sound this whistle"--he touched
a silver whistle which hung at his breast--"and there are those within
hearing will do your business before you make two passes. Dismiss the
notion, sir, and understand. You are in my power. Paris runs with
blood, as noble as yours, as innocent as hers. If you would not perish
with the rest, decide! And quickly! For what you have seen are but the
forerunners, what you have heard are but the gentle whispers that predict
the gale. Do not parley too long; so long that even I may no longer save
you."