The little marquis advanced towards the jesting hunchback with clinched hands and angry eyes. "Assassin!" he cried, and seemed as if he would take the hunchback by the throat, but Gonzague came between his kinsman and his servant, saying, coldly: "Whoever insults Æsop, insults me. Æsop marries the girl whom Lagardere called Gabrielle de Nevers." Chavernay folded his arms and looked fiercely around him. "Now I know why Lagardere sent for me--to defend a helpless woman." The hunchback drolled at him: "She will not need your championship. She will accept with joy the hunchback's hand." Chavernay shook his head scornfully. "That will never happen." The hunchback answered him, coolly: "That will happen, Monsieur de Chavernay." At that moment the door opposite to the antechamber opened, and the figure of a fair girl appeared. "Your bride approaches," said Gonzague, and moved towards the new-comer, suddenly pausing with an angry frown as he perceived that she was not alone, for Gabrielle, very pale, but with courage in her eyes and determination on her lips, entered the room accompanied by the gypsy girl Flora. To Flora Gonzague spoke, angrily: "Why are you here? This is no place for you." The gypsy looked at him defiantly. "This is my place," she said, "for I have found my friend, and I think she needs my friendship." Gonzague spoke, imperiously: "Retire, Mademoiselle de Nevers!" The gypsy girl gave him no answer, but held her ground mutinously. Gabrielle moved a little away from her friend's side. She asserted her right firmly. "I am Gabrielle de Nevers." Again Gonzague addressed Flora: "Mademoiselle de Nevers," he said, "have you not undeceived this unfortunate, this misguided girl?" Flora answered him, steadily: "No, highness, for I believe her." Gonzague began to lose his patience. He was bound, in the presence of his friends, to keep up the assumption of belief in the gentility of Flora, in her heirship to Nevers. He addressed her, harshly: "Mademoiselle de Nevers, if you are mad enough to wish to abandon your rights to an impostor, I am here to protect you, and I order you at once to retire." Flora gave no sign of obedience, and Gabrielle spoke again: "I am Gabrielle de Nevers. Why have I been brought here?" Gonzague turned to her, and his manner was that of a judge coolly courteous to one whom he professed to believe possibly innocent of complicity in sin: "You have been brought here because I did not wish to deliver you to the stern justice of the law. Your offence is grave, but the fault lies with your accomplice, and his alone the penalty." Gabrielle looked all about her, sustaining bravely the bold stares of the dancing-women and the evil admiration of the men. "Where is Henri de Lagardere?" she asked; and then, as only silence followed upon her question, she cried: "Ah, he must be dead, since he is not here to defend me." Gonzague confirmed her fears: "He is dead."