wide one, and my companion took
advantage of this to ride up abreast of me. 'That is the kind of
adventure our little prince is fond of,' he muttered. 'But for my part,
M. de Marsac, the sweat is running down my forehead. I have played the
trick more than once before, for my brother and I are as like as two
peas. And yet it would have gone ill with us if the fool had been one of
his friends.'

'All's well that ends well,' I answered in a low voice, thinking it an
ill time for compliments. As it was, the remark was unfortunate, for M.
de Rosny was still in the act of reining back when Maignan called out to
us to say we were being followed.

I looked behind, but could see nothing except gloom and rain and
overhanging eaves and a few figures cowering in doorways. The servants,
however, continued to maintain that it was so, and we held, without
actually stopping, a council of war. If detected, we were caught in a
trap, without hope of escape; and for the moment I am sure M. do Rosny
regretted that he had chosen this route by Blois--that he had thrust
himself, in his haste and his desire to take with him the latest news,
into a snare so patent. The castle--huge, dark, and grim--loomed before
us at the end of the street in which we were, and, chilled as I was
myself by the sight, I could imagine how much more appalling it must
appear to him, the chosen counsellor of his master, and the steadfast
opponent of all which it represented.

Our consultation came to nothing, for no better course suggested
itself than to go as we had intended to the lodging commonly used by my
companion. We did so, looking behind us often, and saying more than once
that Maignan must be mistaken. As soon as we had dismounted, however,
and gone in, he showed us from the window a man loitering near; and
this confirmation of our alarm sending us to our expedients again, while
Maignan remained watching in a room without a light, I suggested that I
might pass myself off, though ten years older, for my companion.

'Alas!' he said, drumming with his fingers on the table 'there are too
many here who know me to make that possible. I thank you all the same.'

'Could you escape on foot? Or pass the wall anywhere, or slip through
the gates early?' I suggested.

'They might tell us at the Bleeding Heart,' he answered. But I doubt it.
I was a fool, sir, to put my neck into Mendoza's halter, and that is a
fact. But here is Maignan. What is it, man?' he continu