on the first floor, just over
me. Suddenly I heard him exclaim, and then he called: 'Perronnette!
Perronnette!' It was my nurse whom he called."

"Yes, I know it," said Aramis. "Continue, monseigneur."

"Very likely she was in the garden; for my preceptor came hastily
downstairs. I rose, anxious at seeing him anxious. He opened the
garden-door, still crying out, 'Perronnette! Perronnette!' The windows
of the hall looked into the court; the shutters were closed; but through
a chink in them I saw my tutor draw near a large well, which was almost
directly under the windows of his study. He stooped over the brim,
looked into the well, and again cried out, and made wild and affrighted
gestures. Where I was, I could not only see, but hear--and see and hear
I did."

"Go on, I pray you," said Aramis.

"Dame Perronnette came running up, hearing the governor's cries. He went
to meet her, took her by the arm, and drew her quickly towards the edge;
after which, as they both bent over it together, 'Look, look,' cried he,
'what a misfortune!'

"'Calm yourself, calm yourself,' said Perronnette; 'what is the matter?'

"'The letter!' he exclaimed; 'do you see that letter?' pointing to the
bottom of the well.

"'What letter?' she cried.

"'The letter you see down there; the last letter from the queen.'

"At this word I trembled. My tutor--he who passed for my father, he who
was continually recommending me modesty and humility--in correspondence
with the queen!

"'The queen's last letter!' cried Perronnette, without showing more
astonishment than at seeing this letter at the bottom of the well; 'but
how came it there?'

"'A chance, Dame Perronnette--a singular chance. I was entering my room,
and on opening the door, the window, too, being open, a puff of air came
suddenly and carried off this paper--this letter of her majesty's; I
darted after it, and gained the window just in time to see it flutter a
moment in the breeze and disappear down the well.'

"'Well,' said Dame Perronnette; 'and if the letter has fallen into the
well, 'tis all the same as if it was burnt; and as the queen burns all
her letters every time she comes--'

"And so you see this lady who came every month was the queen," said the
prisoner.

"'Doubtless, doubtless,' continued the old gentleman; 'but this letter
contained instructions--how can I follow them?'

"'Write immediately to her; give her a plain account of the accident,
and the queen will no