True, he had not hired the fellow to fire that pistol-shot; but he was none the less obliged to him, and ready to derive the fullest, advantage from the act.
The group that sought to protect that man was battling on, seeking to hew a way out of that angry, heaving press.
"Let them go!" Andre-Louis called down..."What matters one assassin more or less?
Let them go, and listen to me, my countrymen!" And presently, when some measure of order was restored, he began his tale.

In simple language now, yet with a vehemence and directness that drove home every point, he tore their hearts with the story of yesterday's happenings at Gavrillac.

He drew tears from them with the pathos of his picture of the bereaved widow Mabey and her three starving, destitute children--"orphaned to avenge the death of a pheasant"-- and the bereaved mother of that M.de Vilmorin, a student of Rennes, known here to many of them, who had met his death in a noble endeavour to champion the cause of an esurient member of their afflicted order.
"The Marquis de La Tour d'Azyr said of him that he had too dangerous a gift of eloquence.

It was to silence his brave voice that he killed him.

But he has failed of his object.