y, I cut
across his preface, saying brusquely:

"Well, I am glad that it is the King's employment and not M. de
Perrencourt's."

He flushed red.

"We know what we know, sir," said he. "If you have anything to say
against M. de Perrencourt, consider me as his friend. Did you cry out to
me as I rode last night?"

"Why, yes, and I was a fool there. As for M. de Perrencourt----"

"If you speak of him, speak with respect, sir. You know of whom you
speak."

"Very well. Yet I have held a pistol to his head," said I, not, I
confess, without natural pride.

Fontelles started, then laughed scornfully.

"When he and Mistress Quinton and I were in a boat together," I pursued.
"The quarrel then was which of us should escort the lady, he or I, and
whether to Calais or to England. And although I should have been her
husband had we gone to Calais, yet I brought her here."

"You're pleased to talk in riddles."

"They're no harder to understand than your errand is to me, sir," I
retorted.

He mastered his anger with a strong effort, and in a few words told me
his errand, adding that by Carford's advice he came to me.

"For I am told, sir, that you have some power with the lady."

I looked full and intently in his face. He met my gaze unflinchingly.
There was a green bank by the roadside; I seated myself; he would not
sit, but stood opposite to me.

"I will tell you, sir, the nature of the errand on which you come," said
I, and started on the task with all the plainness of language that the
matter required and my temper enjoyed.

He heard me without a word, with hardly a movement of his body; his eyes
never left mine all the while I was speaking. I think there was a
sympathy between us, so that soon I knew that he was honest, while he
did not doubt my truth. His face grew hard and stern as he listened; he
perceived now the part he had been set to play. He asked me but one
question when I had ended:

"My Lord Carford knew all this?"

"Yes, all of it," said I. "He was privy to all that passed."

Engaged in talk, we had not noticed the Vicar's approach. He was at my
elbow before I saw him; the large book was under his arm. Fontelles
turned to him with a bow.

"Sir," said he, "you were right just now."

"Concerning the prophecy, sir?"

"No, concerning the employment of kings," answered M. de Fontelles. Then
he said to me, "We will meet again, before I take my leave of your
village." With this he set off at a round