succeeded in his attempt he would render him the greatest service which
he had ever received.

"As soon as the Cardinal had taken leave of Rochefort, he said to me:
'In the disguise the Count has on, and when he is crouched upon his
dunghill like a miserable cripple, it will be easy for him to look every
one in the face; and I hope he will make some discovery of that which
troubles me.' His Eminence then told me that he wanted my valet, to
place him in disguise in another direction. I therefore called him. He
was a very sharp fellow at everything that was required of him; and the
Cardinal made him put on a shabby cassock, with a false beard of
grizzled hair and eyebrows to match, which were all fastened on with a
certain liquid so firmly to the skin that it was necessary to apply
vinegar in which the ashes of vine-twigs had been steeped, when they
instantly fell off. My Basque was at length dressed in a torn,
threadbare cassock, masked by his false beard, with an old hat upon his
head, a breviary under his arm, and a tolerably thick stick in his hand,
and received an order to post himself near the little gate of the
Luxembourg stables. The Cardinal then desired me not to leave him, as he
had certain orders to give me which he could not entrust to every one on
such an occasion.

"M. de Rochefort took up his station at the corner of the Rue de
Tournon, laid himself down on a heap of manure, and began, with his face
covered with mud and filth, to cry out continually and dolefully as if
he had been in agony and want; and he played his part so naturally that
several charitable folks were touched by his misery and gave him alms.
From his dunghill he saw numbers of carriages pass and repass, and he
began to be afraid that his prey would escape him. He consequently
resolved to approach nearer to the gates of the palace, where his
intolerable groans so harassed the Swiss guards of Monsieur that they
threatened to drive him away, but upon his promise to be more quiet they
permitted him to remain. He continued patiently at his post for three
days and three nights without seeing anything to justify the suspicions
of the Cardinal, and I was careful to visit him at intervals in order to
receive his report; but when I found that so much time had been lost, I
began to think that the Fleming would not, in all probability, enter the
palace by the gate facing the Carmelite Convent, and Rochefort agreeing
with me on this point, he resolve