I ask nothing of you, I simply demand my freedom in a matter which concerns my life and myself only,--namely, my marriage." "I understood," replied the old man, all the blood in his body rushing into his face, "that you would not oppose the continuation of our noble race." "You made no condition," said Etienne.

"I do not know what love has to do with race; but this I know, I love the daughter of your old friend Beauvouloir, and the granddaughter of your friend La Belle Romaine." "She is dead," replied the old colossus, with an air both savage and jeering, which told only too plainly his intention of making away with her.
A moment of deep silence followed.
The duke saw, through the half-opened door, the three ladies and d'Artagnon.

At that crucial moment Etienne, whose sense of hearing was acute, heard in the cardinal's library poor Gabrielle's voice, singing, to let her lover know she was there,-- "Ermine hath not Her pureness; The lily not her whiteness." The hated son, whom his father's horrible speech had flung into a gulf of death, returned to the surface of life at the sound of that voice.
Though the emotion of terror thus rapidly cast off had already in that instant, broken his heart, he gathered up his strength, looked his father in the face for the first time in his life, gave scorn for scorn, and said, in tones of hatred:-- "A nobleman ought not to lie." Then with one bound he sprang to the door of the library and cried:-- "Gabrielle!" Suddenly the gentle creature appeared among the shadows, like the lily among its leaves, trembling before those mocking women thus informed of Etienne's love.

As the clouds that bear the thunder project upon the heavens, so the old duke, reaching a degree of anger that defies description, stood out upon the brilliant background produced by the rich clothing of those courtly dames.

Between the destruction of his son and a mesalliance, every other father would have hesitated, but in this uncontrollable old man ferocity was the power which had so far solved the difficulties of life for him; he drew his sword in all cases, as the only remedy that he knew for the gordian knots of life.