atter in a new light; and I sat a
moment looking at him and reviewing Diego's story, which assumed on the
instant an aspect so uncommon and almost incredible that I wondered how
I had ever allowed it to pass. But when I proceeded from this to the
substance of Maignan's charge I found an IMPASSE in this direction
also, and I smiled. "So it is Diego, is it?" I said. "You think that
he is a spy?"

Maignan nodded.

"Then, tell me," I asked, "what opportunity has he of learning more
than all the world knows? He has not been in my apartments since I
engaged him. He has seen none of my papers. The youngest footboy
could tell all he has learned."

"True, my lord," Maignan answered slowly; "but--"

"Well?"

"I saw him this evening, talking with a Priest in the Rue Petits Pois;
and he calls himself a Protestant."

"Ah! You are sure that the man was a priest?"

"I know him."

"For whom?"

"One of the chaplains at the Spanish Embassy."

It was natural that after this I should take a more serious view of the
matter; and I did so. But my former difficulty still remained, for,
assuming this to be a cunning plot, and d'Evora's application to me a
ruse to throw me off my guard, I could not see where their advantage
lay; since the Spaniard's occupation was not of a nature to give him
the entry to my confidence or the chance of ransacking my papers. I
questioned Maignan further, therefore, but without result. He had seen
the two together in a secret kind of way, viewing them himself from the
window of a house where he had an assignation. He had not been near
enough to hear what they said, but he was sure that no quarrel took
place between them, and equally certain that it was no chance meeting
that brought them together.

Infected by his assurance, I could still see no issue; and no object in
such an intrigue. And in the end I contented myself with bidding him
watch the Spaniard closely, and report to me the following evening;
adding that he might confide the matter to La Trape, who was a supple
fellow, and of the two the easier companion.

Accordingly, next evening Maignan again appeared, this time with a face
even longer; so that at first I supposed him to have discovered a plot
worse than Chastel's; but it turned out that he had discovered nothing.
The Spaniard had spent the morning in lounging and the afternoon in
practice at the Louvre, and from first to last had conducted himself in
the most innocent mann