'Yes, a bad wound, I fear; but it was no time to measure consequences; besides, three others claimed to fight me.'
'No, the affair stands over; for Carcassone--that's his name--they thought was dying, and all their care was turned to him. Meanwhile I was bleeding tremendously, for he had cut a blood-vessel in my arm.'
'Then I can't well tell you what happened. I found myself in the street, with my cravat bound round my arm, and one man, they called Boulet, beside me. He said all he could to cheer me, bade me be of good heart, and that if I liked to make my fortune he would show me the way. "Come with me," said he, "to the 'Trois Étoiles,' declare yourself for us: you are well known in Paris--every one has heard how the Queen likes you." I tried to strike him, but I only tore off the bandage by my effort, and fell all bathed in blood on the pavement.'
'And it was in that state you were found underneath the Queen's window?'
'I know no more,' said Gerald drearily, as he lay back, and crossed his eyes with his hand. 'I have a hundred confused memories of what followed, but can trust none of them. I can recall something of a calèche driven furiously along, while I lay half-fainting within; something of wine or brandy poured down my throat; something of being carried in men's arms, but through all these are drifting other thoughts, vague, incoherent, almost impossible.'
'Is it true that the Queen, with one of her ladies, found you still lying in the garden when day broke?'
'It may have been the Queen--I did not know her,' said he despondently. 'Now, then, for your tidings.'
'You remember, of course, the events which have occurred since your illness, that you have been examined by a military commission, in presence of two persons deputed by the "States-General?"
'Yes--yes, I have had two weary days of it; ten minutes might have sufficed for all I was going to tell them.'
'So you really did refuse to answer the questions asked of you?'
'I refused to speak of what was intrusted to my honour to preserve secret.'
'Or even to tell by whom you were so intrusted?'
'And you thus encountered the far worse peril of involving in an infamous slander the highest and purest name in France.'
'I do not understand you,' cried Gerald wildly.