There was that gentleman of
this very town--"
"M. de Varion," put in Montignac.
"Ay, M. de Varion,--a good Catholic. Yet I caused his arrest because he
hid his old friend, that Polignart, who had turned heretic. _Mon dieu_,
what can I do more? I punish not only heretics, but also those who shield
heretics. Yet the Duke of Guise hints that I lack zeal!"
"As to M. de Varion," said Montignac; "what is your intention
regarding him?"
"To make an example of him, that hereafter no Catholic will dare shelter
a Huguenot on the score of old friendship. Let him remain a prisoner in
the chateau of Fleurier until the judges, whom I will instruct, shall
find him guilty of treason. Then his body shall hang at the chateau gate
for the nourishment of the crows."
"Fortunately," said Montignac listlessly, "he has no family to give
trouble afterward."
"No son," replied the governor. "Did not M. de Brissard say that there
was a daughter?"
"Yes, an unmarried daughter who was visiting some bourgeois relation in
Bourges at the time of her father's arrest."
"When she learns of her father's incarceration she will probably pester
me with supplications for his release. See to it, Montignac, that this
Mlle. de Varion be not suffered to approach me."
My eavesdropping was again interrupted by the return of the inn-maid. On
going out of the chamber this time, she closed the door.
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