replied the stranger, with a coolness which was barely civil.
“Because we want to know,” said De Guiche, haughtily.
The stranger touched his mule with his heel and continued his way.
In a second De Guiche had sprung before him and barred his passage.
“Answer, sir,” exclaimed he; “you have been asked politely, and every question is worth an answer.”
“I suppose I am free to say or not to say who I am to two strangers who take a fancy to ask me.”
It was with difficulty that De Guiche restrained the intense desire he had of breaking the monk’s bones.
“In the first place,”