"Yet you know where she is?"
"I have said, sir, that we parted before I returned to the city."
"Answer me," said Felix, bringing his hand down heavily upon the table beside him.
Lemasle remained silent.
"You will not speak? Then I will see to it that you cannot. We have spies and traitors enough in Vayenne. They shall have warning of the fate in store for them. You shall hang at noon."
The Count, the prisoner, and the soldiers suddenly started, for at that instant the dwarf broke out into a howl of laughter, rocking himself from side to side until it seemed as though he must lose his balance and roll over.
"Peace! fool, peace!" Felix said angrily.
Jean only laughed the more.
"Did I not tell you that traitors and friends were often alike?" he cried. "When you hang that man as a traitor, hang me too, for company."
"It were easily done," said Felix.