had put in my valise.

It is not necessary to recount the various stages of my journey.
Sometimes with company not of the choicest, but more often alone, I
trudged along, sleeping at night in shed or outhouse, so as to hoard my
scanty stock of money. My shabby clothes, and perhaps the sight of my
sword, saved me from being robbed, and, indeed, thieves would have
gained no rich booty. A sharp sword and a lean purse are not ill
friends to travel with on occasion.

It was afternoon when I reached Paris, and inquired my way to the
Palais Royal. The man, a well-to-do shopkeeper, looked curiously at my
shabby cloak, but directed me civilly enough.

"Monsieur is perhaps a friend of the Cardinal?" said he, as I thanked
him.

"It may be," I answered; "though it is hard to tell as yet."

"Ah!" he exclaimed. "Monsieur, though young, is prudent, and knows how
to keep his own counsel. Monsieur is from the country?"

"Well," said I, laughing, "that question hardly needs answering."

The fellow evidently intended to speak again, but thought better of it,
and contented himself with staring at me very hard. In the next street
a man stopped me, and started a long rigmarole, but I pushed him aside
and went on.

At the gate of the Palais Royal my courage oozed out at my finger ends,
and I walked about for half an hour before mustering sufficient
resolution to address one of the sentries posted at the gate.

"M. Belloc?" he said. "What do you want of him?"

"I will tell him when I see him."

"_Merci!_" he exclaimed, "if you don't keep a civil tongue in your head
I will clap you in the guard-room."

Just then an officer coming up asked my business, and I repeated my
wish to see M. Belloc.

"Do you know him?" he inquired.

"I am here by his own invitation."

"Well, in that case," looking me up and down as if I had been a strange
animal, "you are very unfortunate. M. Belloc left town only an hour
ago."

"But he will return?"

"That is quite likely."

"Can you tell me when?"

"If you can wait long enough for an answer I will ask the Cardinal," he
replied with a laugh.

"It is a pity the Cardinal doesn't keep a school for manners," I
exclaimed, and, turning on my heel, walked away.

Here was a pretty beginning to my venture! What should I do now? I
had not once given a thought to Belloc's being away, and without him I
was completely lost. After wandering about aimlessly for some time I
remembered Raoul B