"He _had_ got away before we were down on the beach. It was a wild-goose chase, at best. And so I told his Excellency, the Governor--" "A thankless task, no doubt! But the shots we heard--" "An imbecile soldier saw a shadow; fired at it, and--" "The others followed suit?" laughed the visitor. "Exactly!" The commandant's face grew red; fiercely he pulled at his mustache. "What can one expect, when they make soldiers out of every dunderpate that comes along?" "True!" assented the Marquis. "But this fellow, this Black Seigneur--why is the Governor so anxious to lay hands on him? Who is he, and what has he done? I confess," languidly, "to a mild curiosity." "He's a privateersman and an outlaw, and has done enough to hang himself a dozen times--" "When you capture him!" interposed the visitor lightly. A moment he studied the massive oak beams of the ceiling. "Why do they call him the Black Seigneur? An odd sobriquet!" "His father was a Seigneur--the last of the fief of Desaurac. The Seigneurs have all been fair men for generations, while this fellow--" "Then he has noble blood in him?" The Marquis showed surprise. "Where is the fief?" "The woods on the shore mark the beginning of it." "But--I don't understand. The father was a Seigneur; the son--" Bluntly the commandant explained; the son was a natural child; the mother, a common peasant woman whom the former Seigneur had taken to his house-- "I see!" The young nobleman tapped his knee. "And that being the case--" "Under the terms of the ancient grant, there being no legal heir, the lands were confiscated to the crown. His Excellency, however, had already bought many of the incumbrances against the property, and, in view of this, and his services to the King, the fief, declared forfeited by the courts, was subsequently granted and deeded, without condition, to the Governor." "To the Governor!" repeated the Marquis. "Who at once began a rare clearing-out; forcing the peasants who for years had not been paying métayage, to meet this just requirement, or--move away!" "And did not some of them object?" "They did; but his Excellency found means. The most troublesome were arrested and taken to the Mount, where they have had time to reflect--his Excellency believes in no half-way measures with peasants." "A rich principality, no doubt!" half to himself spoke the Marquis. "I have heard," blurted the commandant, "he's going to give it to the Lady Elise; restore the old castle and turn the grounds surrounding it into a noble park." The visitor frowned, as if little liking the introduction of the lady's name into the conversation. "And what did the Black Seigneur do then," he asked coldly, "when he found his lands gone?"