A few minutes before seven o'clock I crossed the courtyard of the Palais Royal, ascended the grand staircase, stopped a moment as usual to joke with the Guards; and, traversing the corridor, reached Mazarin's room just as his secretary came out.

"Go straight in, M. de Lalande. His Eminence expects you at seven, and the clock has given warning."

The last stroke had not sounded as I entered the room.

The Cardinal had been at work for hours. He sat at a table covered with doc.u.ments, and, still perusing one of them, exclaimed in his silky, purring voice, "You are punctual, M. de Lalande!"

"Yes, my lord."

"I feared," said he slowly, and rustling the paper, "that last night's festivities might have fatigued you."

He turned and looked at me so as to enjoy my surprise, but, managing with an effort to preserve my composure, I remarked that I left the Luxembourg early.

"Very sensible," he murmured. "And may I ask how you found your charming friend, Madame de Chevreuse?"

"Madame de Chevreuse is no friend of mine," I stammered awkwardly. "I met her for the first time last night, when she mistook me for my cousin."

"That likeness must be very embarra.s.sing. It would be unfortunate if the public executioner should make a similar mistake! But let us not dwell on these things; tell me about the latest plot of Madame Coutance."

I ignored the first part of this speech, though it sounded odd, and laughed at the last, but Mazarin checked me.

"You do not take Madame Coutance seriously?" said he. "You are wrong, she is a very troublesome woman. She is like a child playing with tinder, and may make a blaze at any moment without knowing it. The safety of the State demands that such persons should be deprived of the power to work mischief."

"She did not tell me her plans," I said. "She was aware that I had the honour of serving you."

"Well, these matters are of trifling interest," he replied briskly, "since one has enemies no longer. Really your post is a sinecure. I have no more important business for you than to carry this letter to our old acquaintance, Martin, the astrologer, and to bring back an answer. Perhaps it will be as well to travel on foot; you will attract less attention."

Handing me a sealed note, which I placed in my pocket, he signified that the interview was at an end, and I left the room.

It was fortunate that the Cardinal had given me a simple task, for my brain was in a whirl. The man was a marvel, he seemed aware of everything one did and said, and perhaps everything one thought. His spies were all over the city, and, whether from fear or greed, they served him well.

I thought of Madame Coutance, and the peril in which she stood. Thus far he had spared her, but at any moment a secret order might go forth, and the lady would be spirited away beyond the reach of friends. It was possible, too, that Marie would share her aunt's fate, though I did not believe the girl had much to do with the plots against Mazarin.

Who could have informed him of my visit to the Luxembourg? He had evidently heard all about it, and perhaps suspected me of playing him false. If so, he was at fault. Rightly or wrongly, I believed him to be the only man who could govern France till the king came of age, and, though feeling little love for him, I resolved to do everything in my power to defeat his enemies.

A strong, hearty voice put dreams to flight, and, looking up, I saw Roland Belloc, who was laughing pleasantly.

"Dreaming, my boy, and at this time in the morning?" said he. "Have you breakfasted? If not, come with me."

"Many thanks," I replied, "but I have no time. I am on the Cardinal's business, and----"

"Enough," said my old friend; "when the Cardinal has business on hand, breakfast must wait. Many a time it has been afternoon before I have found leisure for bite or sup. By the way, you are growing in favour, my boy, let me tell you. If you were only a few years older you would obtain a high post. Only your youth is against you, and every day makes that obstacle less."

"It does!" I replied, laughing. "I hope you will enjoy your breakfast; I am going to seek an appet.i.te for mine."

"Don't miss the breakfast when you have found the appet.i.te," said he merrily; "I have known that happen before now," and the jovial, though rugged, old soldier marched off to his quarters.

Making sure that the note was safe, I descended the staircase, crossed the courtyard, pa.s.sed the sentries, who by this time were beginning to recognise me, and started on my journey.

Paris was waking up when I left the Palais Royal, but only a few people were stirring in the streets, and I pursued my way without hindrance, musing over the Cardinal's pleasantries and Roland Belloc's information.

"Faith," I muttered to myself, "Mazarin has a strange method of showing his favour."

CHAPTER VI.

Was I Mistaken?

At the corner of the narrow street opposite the astrologer's house I stopped suddenly, and hid in the shelter of a doorway. Two men, wearing cloaks so arranged that their faces could not be seen, stood before the door, waiting for admission. One, a short man, was a stranger to me, but at the other I looked my hardest.

It is not an easy matter to distinguish a person whose features are hidden, but if height, build, and general carriage counted for anything, then the tall man was no other than my cousin Henri.

Presently, after a whispered conversation with some one inside, they entered the house, and the door was shut.

Now, although Mazarin kept his own counsel, I had learned that the house of the good Martin was a kind of spider's web, and that the silly flies entangled in its meshes were for the most part members of the Fronde. The house was visited by persons of both s.e.xes and of all ranks, from the members of the Royal family downwards. They went there for all sorts of purposes. Some required rare medicines, others charms to ward off or drive away disease; one desired to learn the date of his death, another the success or failure of his plans, which the astrologer was supposed to tell by the stars or by means of crystal globes.

And the learned Martin, while plying his strange trade, discovered all their secrets, their hopes and fears, their ambitions, their loves and hates; and in due time the information reached that famous room in the Palais Royal, where the wily Italian sat, spinning the fate of men and nations alike.

It was no rare event therefore for strangers to be observed at the astrologer's house, and in an ordinary way I should have taken no further notice of the incident. But if one of the visitors was really my cousin, there must be something strange happening. He had no faith in the stars, and would certainly not bother his head about the future as depicted in gla.s.s b.a.l.l.s.

Besides--and this made the mystery deeper--he must know that Martin was the Cardinal's friend, or rather dependant; and it seemed strange that so clever a man as my cousin should trust himself in an enemy's power.

My head began to swim again as I tried to reason the matter out. Was it Henri after all? It was possible I had been mistaken, and in any case the note must be delivered, so, crossing the road, I knocked boldly at the door.

After some delay the window above my head was opened, and a man glancing out asked my business.

"To see your master, and that sharply," I replied.

Saying he would admit me immediately, the fellow disappeared, and presently I heard him stumbling along the pa.s.sage. He spent a long time undoing the bolts and bars, but at last the door was opened wide.

"Enter, monsieur," said the fellow, "you will be welcome, though my master is not dressed to receive visitors. He has pa.s.sed the night in reading the heavens, and is fatigued."

"That is strange! I thought he already had callers this morning."

Gazing at me in profound astonishment, the man exclaimed, "Visitors here, monsieur? Impossible! You are the first to call."

"I must have been mistaken, then," said I, with a.s.sumed calmness, but really more perplexed than ever. Unless my eyes had deceived me, the man was not speaking truly--but why? Surely his master was at liberty to receive anyone who chose to visit him!

Then another idea struck me. If Henri was one of the two men who had entered the house, were we likely to meet? and if so, what would happen? I had done his cause much harm, and had besides made him a laughing-stock for the wits of Paris. Martin was no fighting man, and the odds against me would be at least two to one. It seemed as if I had stumbled again by accident into a hornet's nest.

While I brooded over these things the man fumbled with the door, taking so long to replace the bars that I called on him sharply to make more haste.

"I am ready, monsieur; this way," and he led me along the well-known pa.s.sage, up the crazy staircase, and so to the corridor, where on my recent visit a soldier had kept guard.

Opening the door of the room in which I had first met Mazarin, the man requested me to step inside and wait a moment or two whilst his master dressed. The apartment appeared empty, but I kept my hand on my sword, and was careful to peer behind the curtain. Rather, perhaps, to my surprise no one was there; so I returned to the middle of the room and stood by the table. In truth I felt very uneasy, and wished myself safely in the street.

Five anxious minutes pa.s.sed before the astrologer entered. He was attired in dressing-gown, skull-cap, and slippers, and by his face one would judge that he really had been keeping vigil all night.

"I regret to have kept you waiting," he said, with an air of apology, "but your visit is somewhat early."