"This is superb!" and he laughed in fury. "Explain yourself, that I may then kill you. Did you fall in love with this fellow?" "René!" she implored, sinking to his feet, "Have pity on me. I consented because your mother was starving to death before my eyes that little child we saved from the ship. O René, never call her mother again." "Is that what she did?" stammered the Marquis, clasping his hands. "Yes," she replied. "René, my father was right; the crimes of the mighty are expiated by the innocent. How can one hear a little child cry for bread and not save him? Yes, I have taken vows at the altar. I am the wife of your steward." "Why did you marry her?" demanded René, turning furiously on Vilon. "Because your mother said you wished it." "Did you know of the child's starvation?" "By the cross, I did not." "And you dared to love her?" "From the moment I saw her," he cried with impetuous sincerity. "Aha! I find the motive. Obedience to the devil! So you loved her?" "Your lordship, that was not the motive. I could never have dreamed of marriage had it not been for the Duchess--" "Dog, only _I_ am your master. Only _I_--" "True, but here we are not accustomed to distinguish between the orders of your lordship and his mother. Parents represent God on earth." "Jean is innocent. Another in his place would have acted likewise. Be just, René," said Amélie. The steward looked on her in deep gratitude. "René, your mother is the only culprit,--she and that fatality which dogs all who aid our cause. We carry misfortune with us. We should have told Jean our secret to begin with; we should have treated him as a friend, not as a menial. Then our enemies could not have deceived him. But how could we suspect that your mother had a suspicion of my presence here? René, a vicious womb has borne you--the womb of a hyena." "Amélie," he groaned, "I do not attempt to defend my mother's conduct. She has acted like a fiend. But she is mentally incapable of planning the villainy. She was the instrument of the police. O Amélie, 'tis our parents who accomplish our ruin. Your father sets Volpetti free and my mother delivers you to another man. O I rave! You are mine, mine! No other man exists." He clasped her hands and she gazed passionately up into his face, forgetful of Vilon, who frowningly beheld his honor as bridegroom affronted. At length René remembered the importunate presence, and sternly said: "Begone!" "You bid me go!" said the Breton, roused at length. "If I go my wife comes with me." "Your wife!" laughed René scornfully. "This woman is not your wife, fool." "The priest has joined us," insisted the peasant. "Through a fraud,--a crime." "That matters not. She has said 'Yes' at the altar. We are husband and wife before God."