'No,' I said; 'nothing should induce me to leave my protectress.'
At least, then, he conjured me to accept food and wine, if I took it
where I was. I hastily considered the matter. There was nothing I
dreaded so much as being drugged; and yet, on the other hand, the
becoming faint for want of nourishment might be equally dangerous,
and I had taken nothing that day except a cup of milk before we set
out from home; and it was now a matter of time.
I told him, therefore, that I would accept nothing but a piece of
bread and some pure water, if it were brought me where I was.
'Ah, Madame! you insult me by your distrust,' he cried.
'I have no reason to trust you,' I said, with a frigidity that I
hoped would take from him all inclination for a nearer connection;
but he only smote his forehead as if it had been a drum, and
complained of my cruelty and obduracy. 'Surely I had been nurtured
by tigresses,' he said, quoting the last pastoral comedy he had seen.
He sent M. d'Aubepine to conduct some servant with a tray of various
meats and drinks; I took nothing but some bread and water, my
brother-in-law trying to argue with me. This was a mistake on their
part, for I was more angry with him than with his friend, in whom
there was a certain element of extravagant passion, less contemptible
than d'Aubepine's betrayal of Phillipe de Bellaise's widow merely out
of blind obedience to his Prince.
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