euce take it, friend, if he's one of thy friends thou wilt ruin him in
saying so."

"Why?"

"Because he may be tried for it."

"Ah! absurd! they don't burn sorcerers nowadays."

"No? 'Tis not a long time since the late cardinal burnt Urban Grandier,
though."

"My friend, Urban Grandier wasn't a sorcerer, he was a learned man.
He didn't predict the future, he knew the past--often a more dangerous
thing."

Mazarin nodded an assent, but wishing to know what this prediction was,
about which they disputed, he remained in the same place.

"I don't say," resumed the guard, "that Coysel is not a sorcerer, but
I say that if his prophecy gets wind, it's a sure way to prevent it's
coming true."

"How so?"

"Why, in this way: if Coysel says loud enough for the cardinal to hear
him, on such or such a day such a prisoner will escape, 'tis plain that
the cardinal will take measures of precaution and that the prisoner will
not escape."

"Good Lord!" said another guard, who might have been thought asleep on
a bench, but who had lost not a syllable of the conversation, "do you
suppose that men can escape their destiny? If it is written yonder, in
Heaven, that the Duc de Beaufort is to escape, he will escape; and all
the precautions of the cardinal will not prevent it."

Mazarin started. He was an Italian and therefore superstitious. He
walked straight into the midst of the guards, who on seeing him were
silent.

"What were you saying?" he asked with his flattering manner; "that
Monsieur de Beaufort had escaped, were you not?"

"Oh, no, my lord!" said the incredulous soldier. "He's well guarded now;
we only said he would escape."

"Who said so?"

"Repeat your story, Saint Laurent," replied the man, turning to the
originator of the tale.

"My lord," said the guard, "I have simply mentioned the prophecy I
heard from a man named Coysel, who believes that, be he ever so
closely watched and guarded, the Duke of Beaufort will escape before
Whitsuntide."

"Coysel is a madman!" returned the cardinal.

"No," replied the soldier, tenacious in his credulity; "he has foretold
many things which have come to pass; for instance, that the queen would
have a son; that Monsieur Coligny would be killed in a duel with the Duc
de Guise; and finally, that the coadjutor would be made cardinal. Well!
the queen has not only one son, but two; then, Monsieur de Coligny was
killed, and----"

"Yes," said Mazarin, "but the coadjutor is not