t us at the door, snatching the packet from
his son's eager hand.

"Well done, Etienne, my champion! An you brought me the crown of France
I were not so pleased!"

The flush of joy at generous praise of good work kindled on M. Etienne's
cheek; it were hard to say which of the two messieurs beamed the more
delightedly on the other.

"My son, you have brought me back my honour," spoke Monsieur, more
quietly, the exuberance of his delight abating, but leaving him none the
less happy. "If you had sinned against me--which I do not admit, dear
lad--it were more than made up for now."

"Ah, Monsieur, I have often asked myself of late what I was born for.
Now I know it was for this morning."

"For this and many more mornings, Etienne," Monsieur made gay answer,
laying a hand on his son's shoulder. "Courage, comrade. We'll have our
lady yet."

He smiled at him hearteningly and turned away to his writing-table. For
all his sympathy, he was, as was natural, more interested in his papers
than in Mlle. de Montluc.

"I'll get this off my hands at once," he went on, with the effect of
talking to himself rather than to us. "It shall go straight off to
Lemaitre. You'd better go to bed, both of you. My faith, you've made a
night of it!"

"Won't you take me for your messenger, Monsieur? You need a trusty
one."

"A kindly offer, Etienne. But you have earned your rest. And you, true
as you are, are yet not the only staunch servant I have, God be thanked.
Gilles will take this straight from my hand to Lemaitre's."

He had inclosed the packet in a clean wrapper, but now, a thought
striking him, he took it out again.

"I'd best break off the royal seal, lest it be spied among the
president's papers. I'll scratch out my initial, too. The cipher tells
nothing."

"He is not likely to leave it about, Monsieur."

"No, but this time we'll provide for every chance. We'll take all the
precautions ingenuity can devise or patience execute."

He crushed the seal in his fingers, and took the knife-point to scrape
the wax away. It slipped and severed the cords. Of its own accord the
stiff paper of the flap unfolded.

"The cipher seems as determined to show itself to me again as if I were
in danger of forgetting it," Monsieur said idly. "The truth is--"

He stopped in the middle of a word, snatching up the packet, slapping it
wide open, tearing it sheet from sheet. Each was absolutely blank!

XXIV

_The Florentines._

M. E