evidence you refer to?"

"You have, I take it, discovered no incriminating evidence--no documents
that will tell against the Vicomte?"

"No, monsieur, it is true that I have not--"

He stopped and bit his lip, my smile making him aware of his
indiscretion.

"Very well, then, you must invent some evidence to prove that he was in
no way, associated with the rebellion."

"Monsieur de Bardelys," said he very insolently, "we waste time in idle
words. If you think that I will imperil my neck for the sake of serving
you or the Vicomte, you are most prodigiously at fault."

"I have never thought so. But I have thought that you might be induced
to imperil your neck--as you have it--for its own sake, and to the end
that you might save it."

He moved away. "Monsieur, you talk in vain. You have no royal warrant
to supersede mine. Do what you will when you come to Toulouse," and he
smiled darkly. "Meanwhile, the Vicomte goes with me."

"You have no evidence against him!" I cried, scarce believing that he
would dare to defy me and that I had failed.

"I have the evidence of my word. I am ready to swear to what I
know--that, whilst I was here at Lavedan, some weeks ago, I discovered
his connection with the rebels."

"And what think you, miserable fool, shall your word weigh against
mine?" I cried. "Never fear, Monsieur le Chevalier, I shall be in
Toulouse to give you the lie by showing that your word is a word to
which no man may attach faith, and by exposing to the King your past
conduct. If you think that, after I have spoken, King Louis whom they
name the just will suffer the trial of the Vicomte to go further on your
instigation, or if you think that you will be able to slip your own neck
from the noose I shall have set about it, you are an infinitely greater
fool than I deem you."

He stood and looked at me over his shoulder, his face crimson, and his
brows black as a thundercloud.

"All this may betide when you come to Toulouse, Monsieur de Bardelys,"
said he darkly, "but from here to Toulouse it is a matter of some twenty
leagues."

With that, he turned on his heel and left me, baffled and angry, to
puzzle out the inner meaning of his parting words.

He gave his men the order to mount, and bade Monsieur de Lavedan enter
the coach, whereupon Gilles shot me a glance of inquiry. For a second,
as I stepped slowly after the Chevalier, I was minded to try armed
resistance, and to convert that grey courtyard into a