lf only.
I have been warned tonight that my share in the last affair has been
discovered, that inquiries have been made at St. Germain, and that the
various innkeepers have declared that no party of officers dined there
that morning, and that it was therefore concluded that our presence
behind your carriage was not accidental. They no doubt guessed that
it was I who discovered the plot, in consequence of which so many were
arrested and exiled. I have been distinctly warned that the air of Paris
is unwholesome for me."

"Who warned you?" the cardinal said abruptly.

"It would not be fair of me to mention the name, but it is at any rate
one who is of Beaufort's party."

"Ah!" the cardinal said sharply, "I noticed you sitting for a few
minutes by Madame de Chevreuse. Never mind, I will respect your
confidence. I can well understand, after what you have said, that there
is great danger here, and it is a danger from which it is well nigh
impossible to protect you, unless you take up your residence here and
never stir abroad. Nor do I know that you would be safer with the army;
an assassin's knife can reach a man as easily in a camp as in a city,
and with perhaps less risk of detection. Neither Beaufort nor Vendome
are men to forget or forgive an injury, and they have scores of
fellows who would for a few crowns murder anyone they indicated, and of
gentlemen of higher rank who, although not assassins, would willingly
engage you in a duel, especially those who suffered in the plot that you
discovered. Frankly, what do you think yourself?"

"I might retire to la Villar, cardinal. I should be safe there in my own
castle."

"So long as you did not leave it; but a man with a musket in ambush
behind a hedge might cut your career short. It is probable enough that
you are watched, and in that case I should doubt whether you would ever
get to la Villar, nor do I think that if you left for the Rhine you
would get halfway. Now you see, Monsieur Campbell, that your cause is
mine, and that your safety touches me as if it were my own, for it was
in my service that you incurred the danger. I must think the matter
over. In the meantime I beg of you to sleep here tonight. I will send
word to your servant that you will not return. I could of course send
a guard with you to your hotel, but some of the servants there may
have been bribed to murder you as you slept. I can look after myself; I
seldom leave the house except to go to the Louvr