hen the newcomer, raising his hand peremptorily, continued, 'No
names, I beg. Yours, I suppose, is known here. Mine is not, nor do I
desire it should be. I want speech of you, that is all.'

'I am greatly honoured,' M. de Rosny replied, gazing at him eagerly.
'Yet, who told you I was here?'

'I saw you pass under a lamp in the street,' the stranger answered. 'I
knew your horse first, and you afterwards, and bade a groom follow you.
Believe me,' he added, with a gesture of the hand, 'you have nothing to
fear from me.'

'I accept the assurance in the spirit in which it is offered,' my
companion answered with a graceful bow, 'and think myself fortunate
in being recognised'--he paused a moment and then continued--'by a
Frenchman and a man of honour.'

The stranger shrugged his shoulders. 'Your pardon, then,' he said, 'if I
seem abrupt. My time is short. I want to do the best with it I can. Will
you favour me?'

I was for withdrawing, but M. de Rosny ordered Maignan to place lights
in the next room, and, apologising to me very graciously, retired
thither with the stranger, leaving me relieved indeed by these peaceful
appearances, but full of wonder and conjectures who this might be, and
what the visit portended. At one moment I was inclined to identify
the stranger with M. de Rosny's brother; at another with the English
ambassador; and then, again, a wild idea that he might be M. de Bruhl
occurred to me. The two remained together about a quarter of an hour and
then came out, the stranger leading the way, and saluting me politely
as he passed through the room. At the door he turned to say, 'At nine
o'clock, then?'

'At nine o'clock,' M. de Rosny replied, holding the door open. 'You will
excuse me if I do not descend, Marquis?'

'Yes, go back, my friend,' the stranger answered. And, lighted by
Maignan, whose face on such occasions could assume the most stolid air
in the world, he disappeared down the stairs, and I heard him go out.

M. de Rosny turned to me, his eyes sparkling with joy, his face and mien
full of animation. 'The King of Navarre is better,' he said. 'He is said
to be out of danger. What do you think of that, my friend?'

'That is the best news I have heard for many a day,' I answered. And I
hastened to add, that France and the Religion had reason to thank God
for His mercy.

'Amen to that,' my patron replied reverently. 'But that is not all--that
is not all.' And he began to walk up and down the room