in here until I return from the Louvre."

In an hour Mazarin returned. "The duke has been beforehand with us," he
said. "When I told the queen of what had happened, and why this quarrel
had been fastened upon you, she sent at once for the duke, and drew out
an order, which I signed, for him to retire at once to his estates;
but the royal messenger returned with the news that he had half an hour
before ridden away to visit his father at Vendome. A courier will start
at once with the order, but I doubt whether he will be found there. It
is probable that he has gone to one of his own estates, and it may be
some time before we find out where he is. However, it is something that
he has gone."

On his return to the inn Hector told Paolo what had taken place.

"It is a pity that you did not kill them all, master."

"Not at all, Paolo; had I done so every one of their friends would
have been set against me. Both these men are of good families, and will
doubtless report that I had their lives at my mercy and spared them, and
after that no gentleman of reputation would take the matter up. I shall
have to be very careful in future, but now that the duke has gone there
is not likely to be any further trouble just at present."

Paolo shook his head. "Nay, master, I think the danger all the greater.
In the first place, we do not know that he has gone. I think it far
more likely that he is hiding in the house of one of his friends. He
has pretended to leave because he was sure the cardinal would take the
matter up, and in order that, if he is absent from Paris when any harm
befell you, it could not be brought home to him. I do not suppose that
next time he will employ any of his own people. He is most popular among
the mob of Paris, who call him the King of the Markets, and he will have
no difficulty in getting as many daggers as he wishes from the scum of
the faubourgs. It would be difficult in the extreme to prove that he had
aught to do with it, for you may be sure that he would really go down
into the country with all speed the moment the deed was done.

"In future, master, you must not go out without having me close behind
you; as for the others, I would put them in ordinary citizen garb, and
let them follow some twenty yards behind, so as to be in readiness to
run up at once. They could carry swords openly, and have their pistols
hidden under their doublets."

"It might be as well, at any rate for the present. If, as you t