"I am weighed down with shame, my poor Rene, for having so misjudged you." More he would have said in the same strain, but Lesperon cut him short and bade him attend to the issue now before him.

They discussed it at some length, but always under the cloud in which my mysteriousness enveloped it, and, in the end, encouraged by my renewed assurances that I could best save myself if Lesperon were not taken with me, the Gascon consented to my proposals.
Marsac was on his way to Spain.

His sister, he told us, awaited him at Carcassonne.

Lesperon should set out with him at once, and in forty-eight hours they would be beyond the reach of the King's anger.
"I have a favour to ask of you, Monsieur de Marsac," said I, rising; for our business was at an end.

"It is that if you should have an opportunity of communicating with Mademoiselle de Lavedan, you will let her know that I am not--not the Lesperon that is betrothed to your sister." "I will inform her of it, monsieur," he answered readily; and then, of a sudden, a look of understanding and of infinite pity came into his eyes.
"My God!" he cried.
"What is it, monsieur ?" I asked, staggered by that sudden outcry.
"Do not ask me, monsieur, do not ask me.