arged with endless
treasonable matter, I set out four days later for Paris, arriving here
yesterday.

"I little knew that I had been followed by St. Auban. His suspicions
must have been awakened, I know not how, and clearly they were confirmed
when I stopped before the Coadjutor's house last night. I was about to
mount the steps, when of a sudden I was seized from behind by half a
dozen hands and dragged into a side street. I got free for a moment and
attempted to defend myself, but besides St. Auban there were two others.
They broke my sword and attempted to break my skull, in which they went
perilously near succeeding, as you see. Albeit half-swooning, I had
yet sufficient consciousness left to realise that my pockets were being
emptied, and that at last they had torn open my doublet and withdrawn
the treasonable letter from the breast of it.

"I was left bleeding in the kennel, and there I lay for nigh upon an
hour until a passer-by succoured me and carried out my request to be
brought hither and put to bed."

He ceased, and for some moments there was silence, broken only by the
wounded man's laboured breathing, which argued that his narrative had
left him fatigued. At last I sprang up.

"The Chevalier de Canaples must be warned," I exclaimed.

"'T is an ugly business," muttered Montresor. "I'll wager a hundred that
Mazarin will hang the Chevalier if he catches him just now."

"He would not dare!" cried Malpertuis.

"Not dare?" echoed the lieutenant. "The man who imprisoned the Princes
of Conde and Conti, and the Duke of Beaufort, not dare hang a provincial
knight with never a friend at Court! Pah, Monsieur, you do not know
Cardinal Mazarin."

I realised to the full how likely Montresor's prophecy was to be
fulfilled, and before I left Malpertuis I assured him that he had not
poured his story into the ears of an indifferent listener, and that I
would straightway find means of communicating with Canaples.

CHAPTER XXI. OF THE BARGAIN THAT ST. AUBAN DROVE WITH MY LORD CARDINAL

From the wounded man's bedside I wended my steps back to the Rue St.
Antoine, resolved to start for Blois that very night; and beside me
walked Montresor, with bent head, like a man deep in thought.

At my door I paused to take my leave of the lieutenant, for I was
in haste to have my preparations made, and to be gone. But Montresor
appeared not minded to be dismissed thus easily.

"What plan have you formed?" he asked.