"You have now three motives assigned you in explanation of my conduct:--in the first place, my promise to the priest at Bordeaux; in the next place, the sincere desire of clearing every shadow away from the character of a virtuous lady, whom I wronged and traduced; and, in the third place, my determination to punish a man who ill treats me, and whom," she added, with set teeth and a flashing eye, "and whom I hate from the bottom of my heart. I have another motive," she proceeded, after giving way to this burst of passion--"I have another motive, too, but it I will not tell to any one. This, however, I solemnly declare, as I hope for salvation, that very motive involves more than any other thing the desire of truly serving Monsieur de Villardin, and of doing that for which he himself hereafter may bless me. Now are you satisfied?" "I am," I replied, "and will certainly undertake the task, if ever I recover; but, to put the matter beyond all doubt in the mind of Monsieur de Villardin, to-morrow you must give me a note to him, under your own hand, desiring him to believe fully all that I shall tell him in regard to your conduct towards Madame de Villardin." "Not to-morrow!" she said, "not to-morrow! This very night, or it will be too late. I will write it in a moment:" and she left me abruptly to execute what she proposed. CHAPTER XXVI. In a few minutes Suzette returned, and gave me a billet, signed with her name, in the course of which she prayed Monsieur de Villardin to believe all that I should tell him in regard to his unhappy wife. She seemed anxious now to leave me, and to drop the conversation; but I detained her for a short time, to explain to me how and where she had found me on the night that I had received my wound; and she was in the act of telling me, hurriedly, that it was by mere accident, when steps sounded in the saloon which opened into my apartment, and she started up with evident marks of alarm. Her apprehensions were not without cause, for she had not time to quit the room, ere Gaspard de Belleville entered, booted and spurred as he had dismounted, and after giving a glance towards my bed, which evidently showed him who it was that had been the object of his wife's care, he struck the unhappy woman a blow with his open hand that made her reel, asking her how she dared to bring one of the enemy within his doors. I was in no condition to offer her any protection, but a person who had followed Gaspard into the apartment, though he did not very decidedly resent the blow, interposed to prevent another, and, taking her by the hand, he led her weeping to the door, saying, at the same time, "Come, come, Monsieur de Belleville, you must not strike a woman, and that woman my sister!"