Again there was the struggle in the man’s face, and he was silent, twitching and writhing in his indecision.’

‘It is enough!’ cried the Emperor.  ‘Roustem, call the guard!’

‘No, no, sire, do not send me back to prison.’

‘The guard, Roustem!’

‘I will do it, sire!  I will do it!  I will marry whomever you please!’

‘You villain!’ cried a voice, and there was Sibylle standing in the opening of the curtains at one of the windows.  Her face was pale with anger and her eyes shining with scorn; the parting curtains framed her tall, slim figure, which leaned forwards in her fury of passion.  She had forgotten the Emperor, the Empress, everything, in her revulsion of feeling against this craven whom she had loved.

‘They told me what you were,’ she cried.  ’I would not believe them, I could not believe them—­for I did not know that there was upon this earth a thing so contemptible.  They said that they would prove it, and I defied them to do so, and now I see you as you are.  Thank God that I have found you out in time!  And to think that for your sake I have brought about the death of a man who was worth a hundred of you!  Oh, I am rightly punished for an unwomanly act.  Toussac has had his revenge.’

‘Enough!’ said the Emperor sternly.  ’Constant, lead Mademoiselle Bernac into the next room.  As to you, sir, I do not think that I can condemn any lady of my Court to take such a man as a husband.  Suffice it that you have been shown in your true colours, and that Mademoiselle Bernac has been cured of a foolish infatuation.  Roustem, remove the prisoner!’

‘There, Monsieur de Laval,’ said the Emperor, when the wretched Lesage had been conducted from the room.  ’We have not done such a bad piece of work between the coffee and the breakfast.  It was your idea, Josephine, and I give you credit for it.  But now, de Laval, I feel that we owe you some recompense for having set the young aristocrats a good example, and for having had a share in this Toussac business.  You have certainly acted very well.’

‘I ask no recompense, sire,’ said I, with an uneasy sense of what was coming.

’It is your modesty that speaks.  But I have already decided upon your reward.  You shall have such an allowance as will permit you to keep up a proper appearance as my aide-de-camp, and I have determined to marry you suitably to one of the ladies-in-waiting of the Empress.’  My heart turned to lead within me.

‘But, sire,’ I stammered, ‘this is impossible.’

’Oh, you have no occasion to hesitate.  The lady is of excellent family and she is not wanting in personal charm.  In a word, the affair is settled, and the marriage takes place upon Thursday.’

‘But it is impossible, sire,’ I repeated.

’Impossible!  When you have been longer in my service, sir, you will understand that that is a word which I do not tolerate.  I tell you that it is settled.’