lroux's words were addressed to me, and
that it was I whom he called by the name of Lesperon. In an instant I
was at Marsac's side. But before I could utter a word, "What the devil
does this mean?" he asked, eyeing me with fierce suspicion.

"It means, monsieur, that there are more Lesperons than one in France. I
am the Lesperon who was at Lavedan. If you doubt me, ask this gentleman,
who arrested me there last night. Ask him, too, why we have halted here.
Ask him, if you will, to show you the letter that you left at Lavedan
making an assignation here before noon to-day, which letter I received."

The suspicion faded from Marsac's eyes, and they grew round with wonder
as he listened to this prodigious array of evidence. Lesperon looked on
in no less amazement, yet I am sure from the manner of his glance that
he did not recognize in me the man that had succoured him at Mirepoix.
That, after all, was natural enough; for the minds of men in such
reduced conditions as had been his upon that night are not prone to
receive very clear impressions, and still less prone to retain such
impressions as they do receive.

Before Marsac could answer me, Castelroux was at my side.

"A thousand apologies!" he laughed. "A fool might have guessed the
errand that took you so quickly through that window, and none but a fool
would have suspected you of seeking to escape. It was unworthy in me,
Monsieur de Lesperon."

I turned to him while those others still stood gaping, and led him
aside.

"Monsieur le Capitaine," said I, "you find it troublesome enough to
reconcile your conscience with such arrests as you are charged to make,
is it not so.

"Mordieu!" he cried, by way of emphatically assenting.

"Now, if you should chance to overhear words betraying to you certain
people whom otherwise you would never suspect of being rebels, your
soldier's duty would, nevertheless, compel you to apprehend them, would
it not?"

"Why, true. I am afraid it would," he answered, with a grimace.

"But, if forewarned that by being present in a certain place you should
overhear such words, what course would you pursue?"

"Avoid it like a pestilence, monsieur," he answered promptly.

"Then, Monsieur le Capitaine, may I trespass upon your generosity to
beseech you to let me take these litigants to our room upstairs, and to
leave us alone there for a half-hour?"

Frankness was my best friend in dealing with Castelroux--frankness and
his distaste for