ch increased
when he saw M. de Launay, who, hat in hand, advanced toward him, and
said to him, with embarrassment:

"Monsieur, it is with a heart pierced with grief that I am forced to
tell you that the King has commanded me to arrest you. A carriage awaits
you at the gate, attended by thirty of the Cardinal-Duke's musketeers."

Bassompierre had not risen: and he still held the medallion in his right
hand, and the sword in the other. He tendered it disdainfully to this
man, saying:

"Monsieur, I know that I have lived too long, and it is that of which
I was thinking; in the name of the great Henri, I restore this sword
peacefully to his son. Follow me."

He accompanied these words with a look so firm that De Launay was
depressed, and followed him with drooping head, as if he had himself
been arrested by the noble old man, who, seizing a flambeau, issued
from the court and found all the doors opened by horse-guards, who
had terrified the people of the chateau in the name of the King,
and commanded silence. The carriage was ready, and departed rapidly,
followed by many horses. The Marechal, seated beside M. de Launay, was
about to fall asleep, rocked by the movement of the vehicle, when a
voice cried to the driver, "Stop!" and, as he continued, a pistol-shot
followed. The horses stopped.

"I declare, Monsieur, that this is done without my participation," said
Bassompierre. Then, putting his head out at the door, he saw that they
were in a little wood, and that the road was too narrow to allow the
horses to pass to either the right or the left of the carriage--a great
advantage for the aggressors, since the musketeers could not advance.
He tried to see what was going on when a cavalier, having in his hand a
long sword, with which he parried the strokes of the guard, approached
the door, crying:

"Come, come, Monsieur le Marechal!"

"What! is that you, you madcap, Henri, who are playing these pranks?
Gentlemen, let him alone; he is a mere boy."

And, as De Launay called to the musketeers to cease, Bassompierre
recognized the cavalier.

"And how the devil came you here?" cried Bassompierre. "I thought you
were at Tours, or even farther, if you had done your duty; but here you
are returned to make a fool of yourself."

"Truly, it was not for you I returned, but for a secret affair," said
Cinq-Mars, in a lower tone; "but, as I take it, they are about to
introduce you to the Bastille, and I am sure you will not bet