"

As I rode out towards the chateau I fell to thinking, and my thoughts
turning to Vilmorin, I marvelled at the part he was playing in this
little comedy of a cabal against Andrea de Mancini. His tastes and
instincts were of the boudoir, the ante-chamber, and the table. He wore
a sword because it was so ordained by fashion, and because the hilt was
convenient for the display of a jewel or two. Certainly 't was not for
utility that it hung beside him, and no man had ever seen it drawn.
Nature had made him the most pitiable coward begotten. Why then should
he involve himself in an affair which promised bloodshed, and which must
be attended by many a risk for him? There was in all this some mystery
that I could not fathom.

From the course into which they had slipped, my thoughts were diverted,
when I was within half a mile of the chateau, by the sight of a horseman
stationed, motionless, among the trees that bordered the road.
It occurred to me that men take not such a position without
purpose--usually an evil one. I slackened speed somewhat and rode on,
watching him sharply. As I came up, he walked his horse forward to meet
me, and I beheld a man in the uniform of the gardes du corps, in whom
presently I recognised the little sparrow Malpertuis, with whom I had
exchanged witticisms at Choisy. He was the one man wanting to complete
the trinity that had come upon us at the inn of the Connetable.

It flashed across my mind that he might be the officer charged with my
arrest, and that he had arrived sooner than had been expected. If so,
it was likely to go ill with him, for I was not minded to be taken until
St. Auban's soul sped hellwards.

He hailed me as I advanced, and indeed rode forward to meet me.

"You are come at last, M. de Luynes," was his greeting. "I have waited
for you this hour past."

"How knew you I should ride this way?"

"I learnt that you would visit Canaples before noon. Be good enough to
quit the road, and pass under those trees with me. I have something to
say to you, but it were not well that we should be seen together."

"For the sake of your character or mine, M. Malappris?"

"Malpertuis!" he snapped.

"Malpertuis," I corrected. "You were saying that we should not be seen
together."

"St. Auban might hear of it."

"Ah! And therefore?"

"You shall learn." We were now under the trees, which albeit leafless
yet screened us partly from the road. He drew rein, and I followed his
example