Vigo looked at him in surprise.
"You said you were innocent, M. le Comte."
M. le Comte stared, without a word to answer. The equery, all unaware of having said anything unexpected, turned to the guardsman Maurice:
"Well, is Lucas trussed? Have you searched him?"
Maurice displayed a poniard and a handful of small coins for sole booty, but Jules made haste to announce: "He has something else, though—a paper sewed up in his doublet. Shall I rip it out, M. Vigo?"
With Lucas's own knife the grinning Jules slashed his doublet from throat to thigh, to extract a folded paper the size of your palm. Vigo pondered the superscription slowly, not much at home with the work of a quill, save those that winged arrows. M. Étienne, coming forward, with a sharp exclamation snatched the packet.
"How came you by my letter?" he demanded of Lucas.
"M. le Comte was pleased to consign it for delivery to Martin."
"What purpose had you with it?"
"Rest assured, dear monsieur, I had a purpose."