uld not speak before
them, but I am not proud, and, provided all things turn out as I expect,
I do not care for the means."

Chanlay bowed.

"Monsieur," said the regent, when Dubois had closed the door, "we are
alone, and I am listening. Speak--you understand my impatience."

"Yes, monseigneur. You are doubtless surprised that you have not yet
received from Spain a certain dispatch which you were to send to
Cardinal Olocroni?"

"True, monsieur," said the regent, dissembling with difficulty.

"I will explain the delay. The messenger who should have brought this
dispatch fell ill, and has not left Madrid. The Baron de Valef, my
friend, who was in Spain, offered himself; and, after three or four
day's hesitation, at length--as he was a man already tried in
Cellamare's conspiracy--they trusted him."

"In fact," said the regent, "the Baron de Valef narrowly escaped
Dubois's emissaries; it needed some courage to renew such a work. I know
that when the regent saw Madame de Maine and Cellamare arrested;
Richelieu, Polignac, Malezieux, and Mademoiselle de Launay in the
Bastille; and that wretched Lagrange-Chancel at the Sainte Marguerite,
he thought all was finished."

"You see he was mistaken, monseigneur."

"But do not these Breton conspirators fear that in thus rising they may
sacrifice the heads of the Paris conspirators whom the regent has in
his power?"

"They hope to save them, or die with them."

"How save them?"

"Let us return to the dispatch, if you please, monseigneur; here it is."

The regent took the paper, but seeing the address to his excellency the
Duc d'Olivares, laid it on the table unopened. Strange inconsistency!
This man opened two hundred letters a day by his spies; it is true that
then he dealt with a Thorey or a Dubois, and not with a Chevalier de
Chanlay.

"Well, monseigneur," said Gaston.

"You know, doubtless, what this dispatch contains, monsieur?"

"Not word for word, perhaps; but I know what was arranged."

"Well, tell me. I shall be glad to know how far you are admitted into
the secrets of the Spanish cabinet."

"When the regent is got rid of," said Gaston, without noticing the
slight start which his interlocutor gave at these words, "the Duc de
Maine will be provisionally recognized in his place. The Duc de Maine
will at once break the treaty of the quadruple alliance signed by that
wretch Dubois."

"I wish La Jonquiere had been here to hear you speak thus; it would have