should be
assassinated."

"Yes, monseigneur, four were for assassination, and one against it."

"And that one?"

"If I lose your excellency's confidence I must own that I was that one."

"But, then, why are you to accomplish a design you disapprove?"

"Chance was to decide the one who should strike the blow."

"And the lot?"

"Fell on me, monseigneur."

"Why did you not refuse?"

"The ballot was without names, no one knew my vote. I should have been
taken for a coward."

"And you came to Paris?"

"For the task imposed on me."

"Reckoning on me?"

"As on an enemy of the regent, for aid in accomplishing an enterprise
which not only concerns the interests of Spain, but which will save our
friends from the Bastille."

"Do they run as much danger as you believe?"

"Death hovers over them; the regent has proofs, and has said of M. de
Richelieu that if he had four heads he has wherewith to condemn them
all."

"He said that in a moment of passion."

"What, monseigneur, you defend the duke--you tremble when a man devotes
himself to save, not only his accomplices, but two kingdoms--you
hesitate to accept that devotion."

"If you fail!"

"Everything has its good and evil side; if the happiness of being the
savior of a country is lost, the honor of being a martyr to its cause is
gained."

"But remember, in facilitating your access to the regent, I become your
accomplice."

"Does that frighten you, monseigneur?"

"Certainly, for you being arrested--"

"Well--I being arrested?"

"They may force from you, by means of tortures, the names of those--"

Gaston's reply was a smile of supreme disdain.

"You are a foreigner and a Spaniard, monseigneur," said he, "and do not
know what a French gentleman is, therefore I pardon you."

"Then I may reckon on your silence?"

"Pontcalec, Du Couedic, Talhouet, and Montlouis, doubted me for an
instant, and have since apologized to me for doing so."

"Well, monsieur, I will think seriously of what you have said, but in
your place--"

"In my place?"

"I would renounce this enterprise."

"I wish I had never entered into it, monseigneur, I own, for since I did
so a great change has taken place in my life, but I am in it, and must
accomplish it."

"Even if I refuse to second you?"

"The Breton committee have provided for that emergency."

"And decided--"

"To do without you."

"Then your resolution--"

"Is irrevocable."

"I have said all I had to sa