"Belloc?" exclaimed the Cardinal quickly, "what Belloc?"
"Roland Belloc, your Eminence, a stout soldier and your faithful servant. He offered, if I came to Paris, to speak to you on my behalf."
"Go on," said Mazarin, with evident interest.
"Shortly after his return to Paris I had the misfortune to offend Baron Maubranne of Vançey, and then my mother, who had before been unwilling to part from me, agreed to my leaving home. I came to Paris, and inquired for my friend at the Palais Royal. The soldiers declared he was absent, which was unfortunate for me. However, I remembered the name of an inn at which another friend sometimes puts up, and I went there."
"One must go somewhere," said Mazarin.
"Yesterday," I continued, "a man brought me a note. It was intended for some one else, but, not knowing that, I opened it. It was very mysterious, but I gathered there was a conspiracy on foot, and that you were to be the victim."
"That is generally the case," exclaimed Mazarin with a sigh.
"As the conspirators mistook me for some one else——"
"For your cousin!"
"I resolved to play the part, in the hope of being able to put you on your guard."