ver a lady of the Marais--of the
Marais, mind you! This friend wanted to save him from himself. The
result was that those two, who had been like brothers, met each other
sword in hand under the lee of the Louvre, and one--it was not the
fool--fell."

The words seemed to thunder in my ears. By some effort, I knew not
how, I managed to restrain myself, and her cold, passionless voice went
on:

"After that came ruin--ruin utter and hopeless. And he who might have
been anything died like a dog of the streets."

Something like a gasp of relief broke from me; but the Medicis had not
done yet. She rose swiftly, and for one brief second let her white
hand, glittering with rings, rest on my shoulder. It was for a moment
only, and then she let fall her hand, with a smile on her face.

"They say, monsieur, that the age of miracles is past. Caraffa the
Legate smiles if you mention them. But I--I believe, for I know. The
dead have come back before. Why not again, Bertrand d'Orrain? Would
you live again, and pledge your faith for that of the Bourgeois
Broussel?"

CHAPTER V

THE PORTE ST. MICHEL

Half-an-hour later, when I quitted the presence of the Queen, it was as
one to whom the world was opening afresh, and in that brief interval I
had felt and begun to understand the subtle intellect of Catherine, of
the existence of which few as yet were aware.

In regard to the mission with which I was entrusted I am pledged to
preserve silence. The people concerned in it are dead, and when I
follow them the secret will go with me. Let it suffice for me to say
that my task was such that a man of honour could accept, and that if I
failed the preservation of my skin was my own affair, for help I would
get from none. Hidden in the inner pocket of my vest was a dispatch to
Montluc, the King's lieutenant in the South. In my hand I openly bore
a letter, sealed with the _palle_ of the Medici, and addressed in the
Queen's own writing to the King. It was to be the means of my freeing
the gates of Paris if difficulty arose, and how it did so I shall
presently show.

I found my friends awaiting me, and Le Brusquet asked:

"Well, have you come forth a made man?"

"Monsieur, I will answer you that," I said with assumed gravity, "if
you will tell me who betrayed me to the Queen."

I looked from one to the other, and they both laughed.

"Behold the traitor, then!" And Le Brusquet pointed with his finger at
me.

"I?"