managing my little affairs myself."

"Where?"

"At Madrid."

"Who told you that I shall take you there?"

"I do not know if you will take me there, but I know that I shall go
there."

"You, to Madrid! What for?"

"To take the regent."

"You are mad."

"Come, come, chevalier, no big words. You ask my conditions; I tell them
you. They do not suit you: good-evening. We are not the worst friends
for that."

And Roquefinette rose, took his hat, and was going toward the door.

"What, are you going?"

"Certainly."

"But you forget, captain."

"Ah! it is true," said Roquefinette, intentionally mistaking
D'Harmental's meaning: "you gave me a hundred louis; I must give you an
account of them."

He took his purse from his pocket.

"A horse, thirty louis; a pair of double-barreled pistols, ten louis; a
saddle, bridle, etc., two louis; total, forty-two louis. There are
fifty-eight louis in this purse; the horse, pistols, saddle, and bridle,
are yours. Count, we are quits."

And he threw the purse on the table.

"But that is not what I have to say to you, captain."

"What is it, then?"

"That it is impossible to confide to you a mission of such importance."

"It must be so, nevertheless, or not at all. I must take the regent to
Madrid, and I alone, or he remains at the Palais Royal."

"And you think yourself worthy to take from the hands of Philippe
d'Orleans the sword which conquered at Lerida La Pucelle, and which
rested by the scepter of Louis XIV., on the velvet cushion with the
golden tassels?"

"I heard in Italy that Francis I., at the battle of Pavia, gave up his
to a butcher."

And the captain pressed his hat on his head, and once more approached
the door.

"Listen, captain," said D'Harmental, in his most conciliating tone; "a
truce to arguments and quotations; let us split the difference. I will
conduct the regent to Spain, and you shall accompany me."

"Yes, so that the poor captain may be lost in the dust which the dashing
chevalier excites, and that the brilliant colonel may throw the old
bandit into the shade! Impossible, chevalier, impossible! I will have
the management of the affair, or I will have nothing to do with it."

"But this is treason!" cried D'Harmental.

"Treason, chevalier! And where have you seen, if you please, that
Captain Roquefinette was a traitor? Where are the agreements which I
have made and not kept? Where are the secrets which I have divulged? I,
a traitor! G