"I reveal his name fearlessly to you, my dear father, for you are both too just and too generous to visit upon his head the disastrous consequences of a victory that he deplores." "De Sigognac ?" said the prince.

"I thought that ancient and illustrious family was extinct.

Is he not from Gascony ?" "Yes; his home is in the neighbourhood of Dax." "Exactly--and the de Sigognacs have an appropriate coat of arms--three golden storks on an azure field.

Yes, it is as I said, an ancient and illustrious family--one of the oldest and most honourable in France.
Paramede de Sigognac figured gloriously in the first crusade.

A Raimbaud de Sigognac, the father of this young man without doubt, was the devoted friend and companion of Henri IV, in his youth, but was not often seen at court in later years.