another occasion for its use arose.

It was this key which was missing. I had been accustomed to carry it
in the portfolio with the other papers; but in a sealed envelope which
I broke and again sealed with my own signet whenever I had occasion to
use the cipher. I had last seen the envelope at Calais, when I handed
the portfolio to Maignan before beginning my journey to Paris; the
portfolio had not since been opened, yet the sealed packet was missing.

More than a little uneasy, I recalled Maignan, who had withdrawn after
delivering up his charge, "You rascal!" I said with some heat. "Has
this been out of your custody?"

"The bag?" he answered, looking at it. Then his face changed. "You
have cut your finger, my lord," he said.

I had cut it slightly in unbuckling the portfolio, and a drop or two of
blood had fallen on the papers. But his reference to it at this
moment, when my mind was full of my loss, angered me, and even awoke my
suspicions. "Silence!" I said, "and answer me. Have you let this bag
out of your possession?" This time he replied straightforwardly that
he had not.

"Nor unlocked it?"

"I have no key, your excellency."

That was true; and as I had at bottom the utmost confidence in his
fidelity, I pursued the inquiry no farther in that direction, but made
a third search among the papers. This also failing to bring the packet
to light, and Ferret being in haste to be gone, I was obliged for the
moment to put up with the loss, and draw what comfort I could from the
reflection that, no despatch in the missing cipher was extant. Whoever
had stolen it, therefore, another could be substituted for it and no
one the worse. Still I was unwilling that the King should hear of the
mischance from a stranger, and be led to think me careless; and I bade
Ferret be silent about it unless Henry missed the packet, which might
not happen before my arrival.

When the secretary, who readily assented, had given me his receipt and
was gone, I questioned Maignan afresh and more closely, but with no
result. He had not seen me place the packet in the portfolio at
Calais, and that I had done so I could vouch only my own memory, which
I knew to be fallible. In the meantime, though the mischance annoyed
me, I attached no great importance to it; but anticipating that a word
of explanation would satisfy the King, and a new cipher dispose of
other difficulties, I dismissed the matter from my mind.

Twenty-four h