, what
should he be doing if not conspiring?"

"Well, captain," said D'Harmental, laughing, "I shall never be discreet;
you have divined the truth. Does a conspiracy frighten you?" continued
he, filling his guest's glass.

"Frighten _me_! Who says that anything on earth can frighten Captain
Roquefinette?"

"Not I, captain; for at the first glance, at the first word, I fixed on
you as my second."

"Ah! that is to say, that if you are hung on a scaffold twenty feet
high, I shall be hung on one ten feet high, that's all!"

"Peste! captain," said D'Harmental, "if one always began by seeing thing
in their worst light, one would never attempt anything."

"Because I have spoken of the gallows?" answered the captain. "That
proves nothing. What is the gallows in the eyes of a philosopher? One of
the thousand ways of parting from life, and certainly one of the least
disagreeable. One can see that you have never looked the thing in the
face, since you have such an aversion to it. Besides, on proving our
noble descent, we shall have our heads cut off, like Monsieur de Rohan.
Did you see Monsieur de Rohan's head cut off?" continued the captain,
looking at D'Harmental. "He was a handsome young man, like you, and
about your age. He conspired, but the thing failed. What would you have?
Everybody may be deceived. They built him a beautiful black scaffold;
they allowed him to turn toward the window where his mistress was; they
cut the neck of his shirt with scissors, but the executioner was a
bungler, accustomed to hang, and not to decapitate, so that he was
obliged to strike three or four times to cut the head off, and at last
he only managed by the aid of a knife which he drew from his girdle, and
with which he chopped so well that he got the neck in half. Bravo! you
are brave!" continued the captain, seeing that the chevalier had
listened without frowning to all the details of this horrible execution.
"That will do--I am your man. Against whom are we conspiring? Let us
see. Is it against Monsieur le Duc de Maine? Is it against Monsieur le
Duc d'Orleans? Must we break the lame one's other leg? Must we cut out
the blind one's other eye? I am ready."

"Nothing of all that, captain; and if it pleases God there will be no
blood spilled."

"What is going on then?"

"Have you ever heard of the abduction of the Duke of Mantua's
secretary?"

"Of Matthioli?"----"Yes."

"Pardieu! I know the affair better than any one, for I saw th