"From Paris?" I said.
"Yes. I set off thither the very day after you left us, having friends there who are also very good friends of the King, and yet know all the counsels of the Leaguers. I rode thence the day before yesterday, bearing news of a plot to kill the King."
"Another?" I exclaimed.
"I know not what you mean by 'another,' my friend; but there is assuredly one afoot, and I rode apace with the news, and was chased well-nigh all the way from Paris by a fellow that had the very cut of a Leaguer. But I shook him off yesterday evening, just before the storm broke, and came safe into camp, and little enough I had for my pains."
"Why, did the King flout you too?" I asked.
"He laughed, and took it very lightly. 'Another?' says he, just as you did: 'I hear of plots as regularly as I eat my dinner.' And then he went off arm in arm with Rosny and paid no more heed to me."
Whereupon I told him of my own errand, and of what I had seen at the château, and how the King had received me.
"I love our Henry," said Raoul, with a shrug, when I had made an end; "but I sometimes question whether he be not too careless to make a good king for France. However, we have done our part; if any ill befalls him, it will not be for want of warning."
I asked him then who was this Monsieur de Lameray that the King had dispatched to the château, and he said he had never heard the man's name; but encountering Jean Prévost as we sauntered forth from his lodging, we put the question to him, and he told us that the Baron de Lameray had lately come into the camp and offered his sword to the King, with three score gentlemen well mounted and equipped. He had been a Leaguer, but it was no more uncommon then than now for warriors to shift their allegiance, and Henry, who dearly loved a good sword, had welcomed right heartily this notable accession to his party, and smiled upon him so graciously that certain of his well-tried servants were displeased thereat. Whereupon Raoul shrugged again, complaining of the fickleness of kings' favour.
II