n's den."

"Bah! I have entered many. _Et non intermuit medulla mea!_" exclaimed
Briquet; "but pardon me, perhaps you do not understand Latin?"

"Do you?"--"As you see."

"What a catch?" thought Poulain, "learned, strong, bold, and rich!" Then
he added aloud, "Well! let us enter," and he conducted Briquet to the
door of the hotel. The court was full of guards and men wrapped in
cloaks, and eight horses, saddled and bridled, waited in a corner; but
there was not a light to be seen. Poulain whispered his name to the
porter, and added, "I bring a good companion."--"Pass on."

"Take these to the magazine," said Poulain, handing the cuirasses to a
soldier. "Now I will present you," said he to Briquet.

"No, I am very timid. When I have done some work, I will present
myself."

"As you please. Then wait here for me."--"What are we waiting for?"
asked a voice.

"For the master," replied another.

At this moment, a tall man entered. "Gentlemen," said he, "I come in his
name."

"Ah! it is M. de Mayneville," said Poulain.

"Ah, really!" said Briquet, making a hideous grimace, which quite
altered him.

"Let us go, gentlemen," said M. de Mayneville, and he descended a
staircase leading to a vault. All the others followed, and Briquet
brought up the rear, murmuring: "But the page! where the devil is the
page?"

CHAPTER XI

STILL THE LEAGUE.

At the moment when Robert Briquet was about to enter, he saw Poulain
waiting for him.

"Pardon," said he, "but my friends do not know you, and decline to
admit you to their councils till they know more of you."

"It is just, and I retire, happy to have seen so many brave defenders of
the Holy Union."

"Shall I re-conduct you?"

"No, I thank you, I will not trouble you."

"But perhaps they will not open for you; yet I am wanted."

"Have you not a password?"

"Yes."

"Then give it to me. I am a friend, you know."

"True. It is 'Parma and Lorraine!'"

"And they will open?"

"Yes."

"Thanks; now return to your friends."

Briquet took some steps as if to go out, and then stopped to explore the
locality. The result of his observations was, that the vault ran
parallel to the exterior wall, and terminated in a hall destined for the
mysterious council from which he had been excluded. What confirmed him
in this supposition was that he saw a light at a barred window, pierced
in the wall, and guarded by a sort of wooden pipe, such as they placed
at the windows