If mercy became the rule and
justice the exception--there would be fewer bodies at Montfaucon
and more in the streets at daylight. I feel much greater doubt
on another point."
Shaking off the moodiness that had for a moment overcome him,
Henry asked with vivacity what that was.
"Who he is, and what is his motive?"
"Why?" the King replied in some surprise--he was ever of so kind
a nature that an appeal to his feelings displaced his judgment.
"What should he be but what he seems?"
"Benevolence itself?"
"Yes."
"Well, sire, I grant that he may be M. de Joyeuse, who has spent
his life in passing in and out of monasteries, and has performed
so many tricks of the kind that I could believe anything of him.
But if it be not he--"
"It was not his voice," Henry said, positively.
"Then there is something here," I answered, "still unexplained.
Consider the oddity of the conception, sire, the secrecy of the
performance, the hour, the mode, all the surrounding
circumstances! I can imagine a man currying favour with the
basest and most dangerous class by such means.
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