ut of them, while all the time you were sheltering them,
protecting them, aiding them, and hiding him--then I was mad. But not
now. However, I ask your pardon. I thought you the cleverest sneak and
the dirtiest hound Heaven ever made. I find you are cleverer than I
thought, and an honest traitor. Your pardon.'

One of the men, who stood about the rim of the bowl above us, laughed. I
looked at the Lieutenant and could willingly have killed him.

'MON DIEU!' I said--and I was so furious in my turn that I could
scarcely speak. 'Do you say that I am an impostor--that I do not hold
the Cardinal's commission?'

'I do say that,' he answered coolly.

'And that I belong to the rebel party?'

'I do,' he replied in the same tone. 'In fact,' with a grin, 'I say that
you are an honest man on the wrong side, M. de Berault. And you say that
you are a scoundrel on the right. The advantage, however, is with me,
and I shall back my opinion by arresting you.'

A ripple of coarse laughter ran round the hollow. The sergeant who held
the lanthorn grinned, and a trooper at a distance called out of the
darkness 'A BON CHAT BON RAT!' This brought a fresh burst of laughter,
while I stood speechless, confounded by the stubbornness, the crassness,
the insolence of the man. 'You fool!' I cried at last, 'you fool!' And
then M. de Cocheforet, who had come out of the hut and taken his stand
at my elbow, interrupted me.

'Pardon me one moment,' he said, airily, looking at the Lieutenant with
raised eyebrows and pointing to me with his thumb, 'but I am puzzled
between you. This gentleman's name? Is it de Berault or de Barthe?'

'I am M. de Berault,' I said, brusquely, answering for myself.

'Of Paris?'

'Yes, Monsieur, of Paris.'

'You are not, then, the gentleman who has been honouring my poor house
with his presence?'

'Oh, yes!' the Lieutenant struck in, grinning. 'He is that gentleman,
too.'

'But I thought--I understood that that was M. de Barthe!'

'I am M. de Barthe, also,' I retorted impatiently. 'What of that,
Monsieur? It was my mother's name. I took it when I came down here.'

'To--er--to arrest me, may I ask?'

'Yes,' I said, doggedly; 'to arrest you. What of that?'

'Nothing,' he replied slowly and with a steady look at me--a look I
could not meet. 'Except that, had I known this before, M. de Berault I
should have thought longer before I surrendered to you.'

The Lieutenant laughed, and I felt my cheek burn; but I affe