ll," I answered, as if it were nothing but
a whim that led me to pursue the subject. "And good clerks are scarce.
What was his name?"

"Felix," he said--reluctantly.

I had now all that I wanted. Accordingly I spoke of another matter, and
shortly afterwards Nicholas withdrew. He left me in much suspicion; so
that for nearly half an hour I walked up and down the room, unable to
decide whether I should treat the warning of the snowball with contempt,
as the work of a discharged servant; or on that very account attach the
more credit to it. By-and-by I remembered that the last sheet of the
roll I had audited bore date the previous day; whence it was clear that
Felix had been dismissed within the last twenty-four hours, and perhaps
after the delivery of his note to me. Such a coincidence, which seemed
no less pertinent than strange, opened a wide field for conjecture; and
the possibility that Nicholas had called on me to sound me and learn
what I knew occurring to my mind, brought me to a final determination to
seek out this Felix, and without the delay of an hour sift the matter to
the bottom.

Doubtless I shall seem to some to have acted precipitately, and built
much on small foundations. I answer that I had the life of the King my
master to guard, and in that cause dared neglect no precaution, however
trivial, nor any indication, however remote. Would that all my care and
vigilance had longer sufficed to preserve for France the life of that
great man! But God willed otherwise.

I sent word at once to La Font, my _valet-de-chambre_, the same who
persuaded me to my first marriage, to come to me; and directing him to
make secret inquiry where Felix, a clerk in the Chamber of Accounts,
lodged, bade him report to me on my return from the Great Hall, where,
it will be remembered, it was my custom to give audience after dinner to
all who had business with me. As it happened, I was detained that day,
and found him awaiting me. A man of few words, as soon as the door was
shut, "At the 'Three Half Moons,'" he said, "in the Faubourg St. Honore,
my lord."

"That is near the Louvre," I answered. "Get me my cloak, and your own
also; and bring your pistols. I am for a walk, and you will accompany
me."

He was a good man, La Font, and devoted to my interests. "It will be
night in half an hour," he answered respectfully. "You will take some of
the Swiss?"

"In one word, no!" I rejoined. "We will go out by the stable entrance,
a