“Well,” he continued, “she told us a story concerning you which seemed to me well-nigh impossible. What do you think it was, Hérault?” he asked, turning to the latter. “It was that this devil of a fellow, together with Richelieu, not only managed to escape from the Bastille the other night, but after keeping an appointment killed two or three of the regent’s attendants, and then actually forced their way back into their cells, leaving no trace of their passage, before the regent could get to the Bastille. When he reached there they were asleep in their cells, all the gates were barred, and not a sentry had seen them pass. What think you of that?”
“It sounds like a story from the ‘Thousand and One Nights,’” and Hérault looked at me questioningly. “But is it true, monsieur?”
“The facts were very much as M. d’Ancenis says, though I have never told the story,” and I smiled at the astonishment of the two men.
“But how was this miracle accomplished?” asked Hérault.
“Ah, do not ask him that, Hérault,” cried d’Ancenis, gayly. “He may, perchance, have need to work it again some time, and as for me, I hope it will again succeed.”
“If I had known you were a magician of that sort, monsieur,” laughed Hérault, “I should have placed twenty guards in your room instead of six. There might then have been three or four whom you could not have interested in that game of yours.”
He would have said more, but an usher interrupted him.
“The regent awaits the Marquis d’Ancenis and M. Hérault,” he said.
The two hurried after him and disappeared through a door at the farther end of the room. I walked up and down impatiently, for I knew no one else in the antechamber, and as the moments passed I wondered what business of importance it was which kept them so long with the regent. It was fully half an hour before they reappeared, and a glance at their faces told me that something of moment had occurred. They merely nodded to me as they passed, and hurried from the room. As I was reflecting on their singular behavior, a page brought me a message.
“The regent regrets that he cannot see you to-day, monsieur,” he said. “He is very busy with affairs of state.”