Count Hannibal

He nodded, smiling sourly to himself, as if this confirmed a suspicion he

had entertained.

"Or a priest," he said.

"No, a minister."

"If one could be obtained. If not, a priest."

"No, it was to be at my will; and I will a minister! I will a minister!"

she cried passionately. "Show me M. de Tignonville alive, and bring me a

minister of my faith, and I will keep my promise, M. de Tavannes. Have

no fear of that. But otherwise, I will not."

"You will not?" he cried. "You will not?"

"No!"

"You will not marry me?"

"No!"

The moment she had said it fear seized her, and she could have fled from

him, screaming. The flash of his eyes, the sudden passion of his face,

burned themselves into her memory. She thought for a second that he

would spring on her and strike her down. Yet though the women behind her

held their breath, she faced him, and did not quail; and to that, she

fancied, she owed it that he controlled himself.

"You will not?" he repeated, as if he could not understand such

resistance to his will--as if he could not credit his ears. "You will

not?" But after that, when he had said it three times, he laughed; a

laugh, however, with a snarl in it that chilled her blood.

"You bargain, do you?" he said. "You will have the last tittle of the

price, will you? And have thought of this and that to put me off, and to

gain time until your lover, who is all to you, comes to save you? Oh,

clever girl! clever! But have you thought where you stand--woman? Do

you know that if I gave the word to my people they would treat you as the

commonest baggage that tramps the Froidmantel? Do you know that it rests

with me to save you, or to throw you to the wolves whose ravening you

hear?" And he pointed to the window. "Minister? Priest?" he continued

grimly. "Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle, I stand astonished at my moderation.

You chatter to me of ministers and priests, and the one or the other,

when it might be neither! When you are as much and as hopelessly in my

power to-day as the wench in my kitchen! You! You flout me, and make

terms with me! You!"

And he came so near her with his dark harsh face, his tone rose so

menacing on the last word, that her nerves, shattered before, gave way,

and, unable to control herself, she flinched with a low cry, thinking he

would strike her.

He did not follow, nor move to follow; but he laughed a low laugh of

content. And his eyes devoured her.

"Ho! ho!" he said. "We are not so brave as we pretend to be, it seems.

And yet you dared to chaffer with me? You thought to thwart me--Tavannes!

Mon Dieu, Mademoiselle, to what did you trust? To what did you trust?

Ay, and to what do you trust?"