"Think not, think not," cried Corse de Leon, eagerly, "think not that this is a crime of our religion alone, or of any other. It is man, and man's infamous laws, and the foul vice of that strange compact which rogue has made with rogue, and villain with villain, and tyrant with tyrant, and fool with fool, in order that the cunning may have the best means of outwitting the strong; that the criminal may torture and destroy the innocent, and the virtuous be for ever the prey of the vicious. Catholic or Protestant, heretic, infidel, Turk, it is all the same: man is bound together, not by a league for mutual defence, but by a league for mutual destruction and corruption. Here you yourself have a friend and comrade, who fights by your side, and whom you trust. What is the first thing that he does! Betrays you--seeks to injure you in the darkest way--plots--contrives--cabals--" "There is a day of reckoning coming," replied Bernard de Rohan. "Ay, and it may come soon," answered Corse de Leon, "for that very man is now in Lyons." Bernard de Rohan started up and laid his hand upon his sword, which he had thrown down upon a chair beside him; but the brigand went on, saying, "Not to-night, not to-night. Let it be in the open day; and it were better, too, before the whole court of France." "I will not wait for that," replied Bernard de Rohan. "Where I find him, there will I punish him. But, as you say, it must be in the open day. Yet I must not let him escape me; I will write to him this instant." "The way of all others to make him escape you," replied Corse de Leon. "He might, on this occasion, refuse to meet you hand to hand; he might--" "No," answered Bernard de Rohan, "no, he dare not. There is no French gentleman who dares to be a coward. To those whom he has wronged he must make reparation, even though it were with life. Besides, this is not a man to turn away from the sword's point." "I know not," answered Corse de Leon, "for I am not one of you; but methinks--though there is nothing upon all the earth now living that could make me turn aside from my path--there would be something very terrible to me in a wronged friend. However, this man may have an excuse you know not of to refuse you that which you desire: he may say that the matter is before the king, which, as I learn, it is. Be persuaded: wait till to-morrow: then let him be narrowly watched: meet him alone; and, when your sword is drawn upon him, then, as you say, he cannot well evade you." "He shall not," answered Bernard de Rohan. "But still it is not him that I now seek, it is my own dear Isabel; and here, in this town of Lyons, I have lost all trace of her, though she must have been here last night."