ng respectfully preceded by Dame
Fournichon, who carried a flambeau in her hand.

"Decidedly," said Chicot, crossing his arms on his chest, "I cannot
understand a single thing of the whole affair."

CHAPTER LXXXIII.

SHOWING HOW CHICOT BEGAN TO UNDERSTAND THE PURPORT OF MONSIEUR DE
GUISE'S LETTER.

Chicot fancied that he had already certainly seen, somewhere or another,
the figure of this courteous cavalier; but his memory, having become a
little confused during his journey from Navarre, where he had met with
so many different figures, did not, with its usual facility, furnish him
with the cavalier's name on the present occasion.

While, concealed in the shade, he was interrogating himself, with his
eyes fixed upon the lighted window, as to the object of this lady and
gentleman's tete-a-tete at the "Brave Chevalier," our worthy Gascon,
forgetting Ernanton in the mysterious house, observed the door of the
hostelry open, and in the stream of light which escaped through the
opening, he perceived something resembling the dark outline of a monk's
figure.

The outline in question paused for a moment to look up at the same
window at which Chicot had been gazing.

"Oh! oh!" he murmured; "if I am not mistaken, that is the frock of a
Jacobin friar. Is Maitre Gorenflot so lax, then, in his discipline as to
allow his sheep to go strolling about at such an hour of the night as
this, and at such a distance from the priory?"

Chicot kept his eye upon the Jacobin, who was making his way along the
Rue des Augustins, and something seemed instinctively to assure him that
he should, through this monk, discover the solution of the problem which
he had up to that moment been vainly endeavoring to ascertain.

Moreover, in the same way that Chicot had fancied he had recognized the
figure of the cavalier, he now fancied he could recognize in the monk a
certain movement of the shoulder, and a peculiar military movement of
the hips, which only belong to persons in the habit of frequenting
fencing-rooms and gymnastic establishments.

"May the devil seize me," he murmured, "if that frock yonder does not
cover the body of that little miscreant whom I wished them to give me
for a traveling companion, and who handles his arquebuse and sword so
cleverly."

Hardly had the idea occurred to Chicot, when, to convince himself of its
value, he stretched out his long legs, and in a dozen strides rejoined
the little fellow, who was walkin