Will this writing prove the complicity of the Marquis de Sairmeuse?
Yes, or no?
Have you, or have you not, dared to try and to condemn to death the unfortunate men who were only the tools of your son ?" "Ah, wretch! hussy! viper!" interrupted the duke.

He was beside himself.
A foam gathered upon his lips, his eyes seemed starting from their sockets; he was no longer conscious of what he was saying.
"This," he exclaimed, with wild gestures, "is enough to appall me! Yes, I have bitter enemies, envious rivals who would give their right hand for this execrable letter.

Ah! if they obtain it they will demand an investigation, and then farewell to the rewards due to my services.
"It will be shouted from the house-tops that Chanlouineau, in the presence of the tribunal, declared you, Marquis, his leader and his accomplice.

You will be obliged to submit to the scrutiny of physicians, who, seeing a freshly healed wound, will require you to tell where you received it, and why you concealed it.
"Of what shall I _not_ be accused?
They will say that I expedited matters in order to silence the voice that had been raised against my son.

Perhaps they will even say that I secretly favored the insurrection; I shall be vilified in the journals.
"And who has thus ruined the fortunes of our house, that promised so brilliantly?
You, you alone, Marquis.
"You believe in nothing, you doubt everything--you are cold, sceptical, disdainful, _blase_.