human
Who are you?
gpt
Are you la Montmorency, he asked,
human
This is a strange question, she exclaimed.
gpt
How does it concern you, sir?
human
Deeply, deeply. These are matters of life and death.
gpt
What do you mean?
human
Do not fear, your lover is safe. I could have killed him, but did not.
gpt
You would not, she said, trying to reason with him,
human
Répentigny! he cried.
gpt
It is because he bore that name that I tracked him to Troyes. It was a Répentigny who slew my father, and blessed was the light of the street lamp which showed me your lover was none of that brood.
human
You would have killed him, you say?
gpt
I was to do so, but it was by mistake.
human
Who are you, then?
gpt
The Instrument of Vengeance. Do you hear it? he continued, as if listening.
human
The Voice of Vengeance in the distance, approaching, approaching, calling, calling? Nearer, year by year, month by month, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, until when it reaches my side I shall slay my enemy. When he fled to the farthest Indies, there he found me; now he is in Paris, and finds me here; wherever he goes he has found me. He knows his fate. He knows that I am the Instrument of Vengeance, that a day shall come that has not come, that this hand is the hand of heaven, and this sword the sword of the Almighty.
gpt
You say he slew your father?
human
Yes, thrust him through on the steps of our house--the House of the Golden Dog.
gpt
What was your father's name?
human
The Bourgeois Philibert, of Quebec.
gpt
And who do you say killed him?
human
Répentigny.
gpt
But not my Germain!
human
No, he is none of that spawn of evil.
gpt
You will bear him no ill-will at any time then?
human
On the contrary, he is now on my side. They are his enemies too.
gpt
The Répentignys; but fear not, Mademoiselle, he is far superior to them. He shall triumph and prevail, for I shall keep him, and heaven has appointed me its Instrument. Nothing they do can prevail against me and our side.
human
Why do you say they are his enemies? They are not always enemies who carry the same name.
gpt
Mademoiselle, I see you know not _this_ name, he said with grave courtesy;
human
I see you know not _this_ name--this name of sorrow, this name of blood--my father's blood--alas! alas! alas! alas!
gpt
Oh, poor man, she cried, weeping.
human
I pity you.
gpt
You know not this name of sorrow, this name of blood, troubled her. The vengeance, the killing, the family feud, to which he referred, what were they all?
human
Oh, Germain, she thought, continuing to weep,