He was, evidently, not much slower in his recognition than myself, and although I had given him sufficient proofs of my discretion in regard to one of his professions, yet the exclamation of "Diable!" which broke from him before he was aware, showed me that he did not yet feel safe, and would willingly have avoided any fresh rencontre with such an inconvenient acquaintance.
The prospects which my situation afforded were certainly not very consolatory at that moment. There I lay, incapable of offering resistance or of attempting escape, in the presence of two men, one of whom hated me with a good old inveterate enmity, which was quite sufficiently mature to bear fruits of as bitter a--kind as heart could desire; while the other knew his life and reputation to be in my power the moment that I issued forth from those walls. I had also enjoyed the means of learning by experience that neither of these worthy personages were very scrupulous as to their actions; and, certainly, if ever I calculated fully and seriously upon having my throat cut in cold blood, it was at that moment.
I took good care, however, not to make the matter quite certain by claiming any acquaintance with Captain Hubert, while at the same time I resolved to treat Gaspard de Belleville, whom I looked upon, after all, as the worst of the two, in the same manner that I would have treated any other officer in the service of the Prince de Condé.
"Monsieur de Belleville," I said, after having given him plenty of time to speak, without his uttering one word, "I claim your protection and hospitality, as an officer and a gentleman; and I beg, also, that you will have the goodness, if the armies are in this vicinity, to send a trumpet to Monsieur de Villardin, or to Monsieur de Turenne, informing either of them that I am a prisoner in your hands, and requesting them to negotiate my liberation."
The impudence of the request seemed to strike him dumb; and, after staring at me for a minute longer, with a curling lip and contracted brow, he turned upon his heel, and taking his brother-in-law by the arm, walked out of the room without saying one word, shutting and locking the door behind him.
That I was not numbered with my fathers that very night was probably owing to two or three circumstances, which, affecting the brothers-in-law differently, prevented them from doing together what each separately might have been very desirous of executing. In the first place, my residence in his house was known to too many people for Gaspard to put me out of the way without a great chance of discovery; and it is also probable that he did not at that time know how easy and unceremonious Suzette's brother was in the disposal of obnoxious personages. On his part, Captain Hubert had some touch of humanity in his nature, and though the dislike which every man must feel to living in a state of apprehension might have made him forget his better nature, yet, as Gaspard was not aware of all his worthy relative's former occupations, and it would have been necessary to communicate them to him, in order to arrange my destruction as a joint enterprise, there can he no doubt that the Captain was wise in refraining. Indeed, it is more than probable that he looked upon me at that period as a safer depositary of his secret than his brother-in-law would have been; and I think he was right; for no man that I know was more likely to use an advantage ungenerously than Gaspard de Belleville.