o a
watchword as deadly as the 'TUEZ!' of '72. I can imagine all that, but
I cannot imagine a man acting thus out of pure benevolence."

"No?" Henry said, thoughtfully. "Well, I think that I agree with
you." and far from being displeased with my warmth (as is the manner
of some sovereigns when their best friends differ from them), he came
over to my opinion so completely as to halt and express his intention
of returning and probing the matter to the bottom. Midnight had gone,
however; it would take some little time to retrace our steps; and with
some difficulty I succeeded in dissuading him, promising instead to
make inquiries on the morrow, and having learned who lived in the
house, to turn the whole affair into a report, which should be
submitted to him.

This amused and satisfied him, and, expressing himself well content
with the evening's diversion--though we had done nothing unworthy
either of a King or a Minister--he parted from me at the Arsenal, and
went home with his suite.

It did not occur to me at the time that I had promised to do anything
difficult; but the news which my agents brought me next day--that the
uppermost floor of the house in the Rue Pourpointerie was empty--put
another face upon the matter. The landlord declared that he knew
nothing of the tenant, who had rented the rooms, ready furnished, by
the week; and as I had not seen the man's face, there remained only two
sources whence I could get the information I needed--the child, and the
cure of St. Marceau.

I did not know where to look for the former, however; and I had to
depend on the cure. But here I carne to an obstacle I might easily
have foreseen. I found him, though an honest man, obdurate in
upholding his priest's privileges; to all my inquiries he replied that
the matter touched the confessional, and was within his vows; and that
he neither could, nor dared--to please anyone, or for any cause,
however plausible--divulge the slightest detail of the affair. I had
him summoned to the arsenal, and questioned him myself, and closely;
but of all armour that of the Roman priesthood is the most difficult to
penetrate, and I quickly gave up the attempt.

Baffled in the only direction in which I could hope for success, I had
to confess my defeat to the King, whose curiosity was only piqued the
more by the rebuff. He adjured me not to let the matter drop, and,
suggesting a number of persons among whom I might possibly find the
un