doubt write you another letter in place of this.'

"'Oh! the queen would never believe the story,' said the good gentleman,
shaking his head; 'she will imagine that I want to keep this letter
instead of giving it up like the rest, so as to have a hold over her.
She is so distrustful, and M. de Mazarin so--Yon devil of an Italian is
capable of having us poisoned at the first breath of suspicion.'"

Aramis almost imperceptibly smiled.

"'You know, Dame Perronnette, they are both so suspicious in all that
concerns Philippe.'

"Philippe was the name they gave me," said the prisoner.

"'Well, 'tis no use hesitating,' said Dame Perronnette, 'somebody must
go down the well.'

"'Of course; so that the person who goes down may read the paper as he
is coming up.'

"'But let us choose some villager who cannot read, and then you will be
at ease.'

"'Granted; but will not any one who descends guess that a paper must be
important for which we risk a man's life? However, you have given me
an idea, Dame Perronnette; somebody shall go down the well, but that
somebody shall be myself.'

"But at this notion Dame Perronnette lamented and cried in such a
manner, and so implored the old nobleman, with tears in her eyes, that
he promised her to obtain a ladder long enough to reach down, while she
went in search of some stout-hearted youth, whom she was to persuade
that a jewel had fallen into the well, and that this jewel was wrapped
in a paper. 'And as paper,' remarked my preceptor, 'naturally unfolds
in water, the young man would not be surprised at finding nothing, after
all, but the letter wide open.'

"'But perhaps the writing will be already effaced by that time,' said
Dame Perronnette.

"'No consequence, provided we secure the letter. On returning it to
the queen, she will see at once that we have not betrayed her; and
consequently, as we shall not rouse the distrust of Mazarin, we shall
have nothing to fear from him.'

"Having come to this resolution, they parted. I pushed back the shutter,
and, seeing that my tutor was about to re-enter, I threw myself on
my couch, in a confusion of brain caused by all I had just heard. My
governor opened the door a few moments after, and thinking I was asleep
gently closed it again. As soon as ever it was shut, I rose, and,
listening, heard the sound of retiring footsteps. Then I returned to the
shutters, and saw my tutor and Dame Perronnette go out together. I was
alone in the house