secure keeping."

And so we rode out in the grey darkness of the morning through the
solitary streets, where there was never a sign of life except an
occasional dog, which--homeless and friendless--stared wistfully after
us as we went past. I had decided to leave Paris by the Porte St.
Michel, and this all the more as the captain of the gate--the Vicomte
de Crequy--was a near relative of De Lorgnac, and the passage through
might, perhaps, be made easier on this score. It was still dark as we
trotted down the Rue de la Harpe under the shadow of the Sorbonne,
having passed the Pont au Change and the Pont St. Michel without
difficulty, although we expected some check there.

On our coming up to the Porte St. Michel the guard challenged us,
threatening to fire with his arquebus if we did not halt. This we were
compelled to do, and a parley ensued. The result was that the
under-officer of the guard came forth, with two or three of his men,
and allowed us to approach.

On our coming up, and on my explaining that I desired to have the gates
opened, he swore as he surveyed us with the aid of a lantern that he
swung in our faces.

"_Mordieu_!" he said, with a rough southern accent--and a grim old
soldier he was--"are you madmen, or have you dropped from the clouds,
not to know that the gates are shut and will not be opened till
sunrise?"

"That may be, monsieur," I replied; "but I have a letter to the
King--to the King, mind you--which he must get ere he starts for the
hunt."

"_He_!" he said doubtfully. "A letter to the King! You will have to
take it on wings, then. But from whom is this letter?" he added
suspiciously.

"That, monsieur, does not concern you. The fact remains that I have
this letter, and it is you who will have to answer for its late
delivery, not I."

"Then let me see it."

I pulled out the letter and showed it to him, without, however, letting
it pass from my hands. He cast the light of the lantern on it, and
looked this way and that at the seals and at the address, muttering to
himself the while.

"Devil take me! But I never could read. Here! Can any one of you
read this?" And he turned to his men, but they one and all shook their
heads.

"I will read it for you if you like," said De Lorgnac as he pushed his
horse forwards.

"You!"

"Yes. I am Monsieur de Lorgnac, the lieutenant of the Queen's guard."

The old soldier made a mock bow. "And I," he said, "am Agrippa
Pavanes