This books about robbery. If you have never robbed a man - or a woman - of honour! If you have never ruined boy or girl, Monsieur de Berault! If you have never pushed another into the pit and gone by it yourself! If - but, for murder?'.. Thus the lovely Mademoiselle de Cocheforêt seeks to reach the heart of the ill-famed Gil de Berault, known throughout Paris as 'The Black Death'. And the hardened duellist sent to spy out and arrest her brother feels the first stirrings of shame. 'Her gentleness, her pity, her humility softened me, while they convicted me. My God, how, after this, could I do that which I had come to do.