"The only plan there is to form--to set out for Canaples at once."

"Hum!" he grunted, and again was silent. Then, suddenly throwing back
his head, "Par la mort Dieu!" he cried, "I care not what comes of it;
I'll tell you what I know. Lead the way to your chamber, M. de Luynes,
and delay your departure until you have heard me."

Surprised as much by his words as by the tone in which he uttered them,
which was that of a man who is angry with himself, I passively did as I
was bidden.

Once within my little ante-chamber, he turned the key with his own
hands, and pointing to the door of my bedroom--"In there, Monsieur,"
quoth he, "we shall be safe from listeners."

Deeper grew my astonishment at all this mystery, as we passed into the
room beyond.

"Now, M. de Luynes," he cried, flinging down his hat, "for no apparent
reason I am about to commit treason; I am about to betray the hand that
pays me."

"If no reason exists, why do so evil a deed?" I inquired calmly. "I have
learnt during our association to wish you well, Montresor; if by telling
me that which your tongue burns to tell, you shall have cause for shame,
the door is yonder. Go before harm is done, and leave me alone to fight
my battle out."

He stood up, and for a moment he seemed to waver, then dismissing his
doubts with an abrupt gesture, he sat down again.

"There is no wrong in what I do. Right is with you, M. de Luynes, and
if I break faith with the might I serve, it is because that might is
an unjust one; I do but betray the false to the true, and there can be
little shame in such an act. Moreover, I have a reason--but let that
be."

He was silent for a moment, then he resumed:

"Most of that which you have learnt from Malpertuis to-night, I myself
could have told you. Yes; St. Auban has carried Canaples's letter to the
Cardinal already. I heard from his lips to-day--for I was present at the
interview--how the document had been wrested from Malpertuis. For your
sake, so that you might learn all he knew, I sought the fellow out, and
having found him in the Rue des Tournelles, I took you thither."

In a very fever of excitement I listened.

"To take up the thread of the story where Malpertuis left off, let me
tell you that St. Auban sought an audience with Mazarin this morning,
and by virtue of a note which he desired an usher to deliver to his
Eminence, he was admitted, the first of all the clients that for hours
had thronged the ante-room. As