But there was a flaw in his plans which threatened to ruin everything. He had ingratiated himself with the Governor, and the Duke, as keen a gambler as de Proballe himself, had won very heavy sums of money which could not be paid; and he had in this way obtained a hold over him which threatened to have critical consequences to all concerned. The Duke had acted with deliberate intention. A man of reckless life and licentious nature, he had been fascinated by Gabrielle de Malincourt’s beauty, and he had formed a scheme in regard to her which made her uncle’s assistance of the utmost value and consequence. De Proballe himself, despite his evil past and seared conscience, had at first refused indignantly to have any hand in the vile matter; but the Governor, never nice in his methods, had found means to over-ride this opposition; and then de Proballe sought to justify his act to himself by forming a counter-scheme against the Governor. To further the plan, Gabrielle’s uncle had concocted the story and fabricated the proofs supporting it, of her parents’ wish that she should marry a distant kinsman, Gerard de Cobalt, a young reprobate whose life had been if anything more disgraceful than that of de Proballe himself. His culminating act of villainy had been the treacherous murder of a friend at Cambrai, a town within the Governor’s province, and for this he was a fugitive from justice. De Cobalt’s reward for his part in the infamous scheme was to be a pardon for the affair at Cambrai; and he was to come to Morvaix and marry Gabrielle to provide a complacent cloak for the Governor’s scheme. Gabrielle, suspecting nothing of the intrigue which was in progress about her, and deceived by her uncle’s consistently considerate and courteous demeanour to herself, had grown both to trust and like him, and met him now with a smile. He noticed her disquiet and remarked on her troubled looks. “It was the scene in the market place,” she said, and told him what had occurred. “I was there and saw it all, Gabrielle. I fear Babillon brought it upon himself. We live in troubled times, child, and authority must be maintained. The Duke is hasty in temper, and he thought, I am sure, as did I and others, that the smith meant to attack him. It is only in the first moments of an outbreak that it can be quelled; had this gone further much more blood than the smith’s would have been shed. Remember that.” “He was but protesting,” said Gabrielle. “He nearly killed two of the soldiery with his protest, child.” “Not until they were ordered to attack him.” “Who raises his hand in violence must look for violence in return. I am not defending the act. Had I been Governor I would have listened first and punished afterwards, but that is not de Rochelle’s method.” “It was a foul murder, and I care not who hears me say it,” exclaimed Gabrielle vehemently. “And this infamous tax caused it.”