tile, most earnest in the cause of Holy Church."

"And I," said the Englishman with the gusto of a boy in a game, "am
named Rodriguez de Bobadilla. I knew the man, who is dead, and his
brother owes me ten crowns.... But if we fall in with the Spanish
Ambassador's gentlemen?"

"We will outface them."

"But if they detect the imposture?"

"Why, wring their necks. You are getting as cautious as an apple-wife,
Gawain."

"When I set out on a business I like to weigh it, that I may know how
much is to be charged to my own wits and how much I must leave to God.
To-night it would appear that the Almighty must hold us very tight by
the hand. Well, I am ready when I have I drunk another cup of wine." He
drew his sword and lovingly fingered its edge, whistling all the while.

Gaspard went to the door and looked into the street. The city was still
strangely quiet. No roysterers swaggered home along the pavements, no
tramp of cuirassiers told of the passage of a great man. But again he
had the sense that hot fires were glowing under these cold ashes. The
mist had lifted and the stars were clear, and over the dark mass of the
Louvre a great planet burned. The air was warm and stifling, and with a
gesture of impatience he slammed the door. By now he ought to have been
drinking the cool night on the downs beyond Oise.

The Englishman had called for another bottle, and it was served in the
empty tavern by the landlord himself. As the wine was brought in the two
fell to talking Spanish, at the sound of which the man visibly started.
His furtive sulky face changed to a sly friendliness. "Your excellencies
have come to town for the good work," he said, sidling and bowing.

With a more than Spanish gravity Gaspard inclined his head.

"When does it start?" he asked.

"Ah, that we common folk do not know. But there will be a signal. Father
Antoine has promised us a signal. But messieurs have not badges. Perhaps
they do not need them for their faces will be known. Nevertheless for
better security it might be well...." He stopped with the air of a
huckster crying his wares.

Gaspard spoke a word to Champernoun in Spanish. Then to the landlord:
"We are strangers, so must bow to the custom of your city. Have you a
man to send to the Hotel de Guise?"

"Why trouble the Duke, my lord?" was the answer. "See, I will make you
badges."

He tore up a napkin, and bound two white strips crosswise on their left
arms, and pinned a rag to thei