"Mort Dieu!" exclaimed de Vaudreuil, so far forgetting himself as to swear in front of the Queen. "I know you now! You are that young devil of an Englishman."
"Monsieur!" cried the Queen in sharp reprimand.
"'Tis true that I was born in England," Roger admitted; then added with a smooth disregard for the strict truth: "But as I was educated in France I have long regarded myself as more than half a Frenchman."
De Vaudreuil ignored the skilful evasion, which Roger had prepared in advance in case he should find himself in just such a situation, and hastily excused himself to the Queen.
"Your pardon, Madame. In my amazement at finding such a person in your company my tongue ran away with me."
Marie Antoinette's blue eyes widened. "I fail to see, Monsieur, why you should be so shocked. What matters it where Monsieur de Breuc was born ? I have always had a liking for the English, and count many of them among my friends."
De Coigny came to his companion's rescue, and said quickly: "I too recognize him now, and know what Monsieur le Comte had in mind. We can scarce believe Your Majesty to be aware that this fellow is he who seduced Mademoiselle de Rochambeau."
It had never occurred to Roger that such a charge would be brought against him. His deep-blue eyes suddenly began to smoulder beneath their dark lashes, and before the Queen could reply he burst out:
"Monsieur le Due! Were it not for Her Majesty's presence I would call you out for that. I know not what vile slanders were invented about me after I left France; but 'tis a lie. I was no more than Mademoiselle de Rochambeau's devoted servant, and aided her to escape an unwelcome marriage, in order that she might wed Monsieur de la Tour d'Auvergne, with whom she was in love."
The Queen gave a little gasp and turned to stare at him. "Enough, Monsieur!" she exclaimed imperiously. "The whole of that horrid scandal now comes back to me. And on your own confession you must be the villain who murdered M. le Comte de Caylus."
"Nay, Madame! I protest!"cried Roger firmly. "I killed Monsieur de Caylus in fair fight. M. l'Abbé de Perigord witnessed the affair and can vouch for the truth of what I say."
"That unworthy priest!" exclaimed the Queen. "I would not credit one word his purjured mouth could utter. 'Twas reported on incontestable evidence that you ambushed Monsieur de Caylus in the forest of Melun, and there did him to death."
"Madame; 'tis true that I waylaid him, for in my situation it was the only way to make him fight. But I gave him ample opportunity to defend himself, and he proved no mean antagonist."
"At the least then you admit to having challenged him to fight, and having forced a duel upon him ?"
"I do, Your Majesty."
"Yet you must have been aware that there are edicts forbidding duelling, and that the breaking of them makes the offender liable to punishment by death?"
"I was, Your Majesty; but..."
"Silence, Monsieur!" The Queen cut him short. "I was too easily taken in by your fair appearance and glib tongue; but now you are unmasked I have heard enough! Madamoiselle de Rochambeau's father chose Monsieur de Caylus for her. What others thought of that choice is neither here nor there; for in such a matter the right of the head of a family is sacred. Yet you, while acting as a servant in the house, took it on yourself to overrule his judgment, and decided to assassinate the Count. Since you have had the temerity to return to France I should be failing in my duty were I not to ensure that justice takes its course, and that you pay the penalty for your abominable crime."
She then turned to her gentlemen. "Monsieur le Due, be pleased to call my horses, for I would now return to Fontainebleau. And you, Monsieur le Comte, I charge with the arrest and escorting back to the Chateau of Monsieur de Breuc."
De Vaudreuil dismounted, and a moment later Roger was surrendering his long sword. Less than five minutes before he had been in a fair way to being accepted into Madame Marie Antoinette's intimate circle; now he was to be taken to Fontainebleau as a dangerous criminal charged with murder.
CHAPTER THREE
THE FAMILY COMPACT
As Roger climbed into his saddle the thought of attempting to escape entered his mind, but he dismissed it almost at once. His hired hack was good enough for an afternoon's ride but possessed of little stamina; whereas the mounts of de Vaudreuil and de Coigny were both fine animals and still comparatively fresh, in spite of their recent gallop. His mare might have kept the lead for some distance, but he felt certain that his pursuers would ultimately wear her down and that, with no initial start, he would never be able to get far enough ahead to conceal himself among the trees and rocks while the others passed, as de Roubec had evidently done.
If anything could have added to his bitter sense of grievance at the scurvy trick Fate had played him, it was that had the Queen's two gentlemen not chanced to be close friends of Monsieur de Rochambeau, and had they been a little nearer to hand when she summoned them, it would have been de Roubec who would have ridden back to Fontainebleau as a prisoner, instead of himself.
That he was a prisoner was brought home to him in no uncertain manner by the way in which the two nobles closed in on either side of him immediately the carriage set off. His temper had subsided as quickly as it had arisen, and he was not normally given to fits of depression, but with every yard they covered in the wake of the carriage he became more fully conscious of the seriousness of his plight.
He had had perfectly adequate reasons for believing the affair of de Caylus to be done with and forgotten; yet it seemed that the dead Count's hand was now stretching up out of the grave to draw him down into it, and that even evasion of the grisly clutch might be bought only at the price of a long term of imprisonment.
It was not until they had covered over half a mile that Roger's gloomy thoughts were broken in upon by de Coigny saying:
"Monsieur; the fact that Her Majesty has placed you under arrest does not obliterate the memory of a certain exchange that recently passed between us. I refer to your threat to call me out."
"Indeed it does not, Monsieur le Duc," Roger replied icily. He was far from pleased that in addition to his other troubles he had brought a duel upon himself, but it did not even occur to him that there was any alternative to going through with it, so he added:
"When last our paths crossed I was employed by Monsieur de Rochambeau as a secretary, so it may be that you do not consider me as of sufficient rank to meet you; but let me at least assure you that I am fully entitled to that of Chevalier, as my grandfather was the Earl of Kildonan, and my uncle is the present holder of that title. So, if and when I become free of my present embarrassment, I shall be happy to give Your Grace satisfaction with such weapons and at any time and place you may choose."
"In view of what you tell me of your birth I, too, should be willing to meet you, if it is your wish to press the matter," said the Duke quite mildly. "But I am prepared to admit that I spoke without due thought. As you escaped to England shortly after you killed de Caylus, you are doubtless unaware that your duel, and the elopement of Mademoiselle de Rochambeau which immediately succeeded it, caused a positive furore. All Paris was buzzing with accounts of the matter. And as you clearly fought on the young lady's behalf the most generally accepted version of it was that you had abused your position as secretary to her father to become her lover. Like many other people I accepted the ont dit of the day and on such few occasions as I have thought of you since it has always been as her seducer. But I have no evidence that it was so; and had I not been surprised out of my sense of fitness by your sudden reappearance in the company of Her Majesty, I should certainly not have accused you of it."