'And even
if he lives, I would not be too sure, my friend. This time the Cardinal
is determined to put it down.'

'He and I are old friends,' I said confidently.

'So I have heard,' he answered, with a short laugh. 'I think that the
same was said of Chalais. I do not remember that it saved his head.'

This was not reassuring. But worse was to come. Early in the morning
orders were received that I should be treated with especial strictness,
and I was given the choice between irons and one of the cells below
the level. Choosing the latter, I was left to reflect upon many things;
among others, on the queer and uncertain nature of the Cardinal, who
loved, I knew, to play with a man as a cat with a mouse; and on the ill
effects which sometimes attend a high chest-thrust however carefully
delivered. I only rescued myself at last from these and other unpleasant
reflections by obtaining the loan of a pair of dice; and the light being
just enough to enable me to reckon the throws, I amused myself for hours
by casting them on certain principles of my own. But a long run
again and again upset my calculations; and at last brought me to the
conclusion that a run of bad luck may be so persistent as to see out the
most sagacious player. This was not a reflection very welcome to me at
the moment.

Nevertheless, for three days it was all the company I had. At the end
of that time, the knave of a jailor who attended me, and who had never
grown tired of telling me, after the fashion of his kind, that I should
be hanged, came to me with a less assured air.

'Perhaps you would like a little water?' he said civilly.

'Why, rascal?' I asked.

'To wash with,' he answered.

'I asked for some yesterday, and you would not bring it,' I grumbled.
'However, better late than never. Bring it now. If I must hang, I will
hang like a gentleman. But depend upon it, the Cardinal will not serve
an old friend so scurvy a trick.'

'You are to go to him,' he announced, when he came back with the water.

'What? To the Cardinal?' I cried.

'Yes,' he answered.

'Good!' I exclaimed; and in my joy and relief I sprang up at once, and
began to refresh my dress. 'So all this time I have been doing him an
injustice,' I continued. 'VIVE MONSEIGNEUR! Long live the little Bishop
of Luchon! I might have known it, too.'

'Don't make too sure!' the man answered spitefully. Then he went on, 'I
have something else for you. A friend of yours left it at the gate