Péron entered accordingly, and the priest fastened and bolted the door, after having first despatched a half-grown lad to take care of the horse.
CHAPTER XX
PÈRE MATTHIEU
HAVING secured the strong door of the house of the iron cross, the priest lighted Péron through the hall and up the narrow stairs to the second floor, where, in a front room, a table was laid for supper. It was a bare, gloomy place, illumined by only one taper until the priest set the one he carried beside the other on the table. By the window was a young man dressed like a clerk, who rose respectfully as they entered. After setting down his light, the elder man turned and scanned Péron’s face and figure closely; he seemed to be satisfied with his inspection, for his own expression relaxed.
“So you are the cardinal’s messenger?” he said, “a younger man than I looked for; but monsignor makes few mistakes. I am Père Matthieu, and this is my clerk, Paschal Luce. We expected you and have laid a place for you at the table; therefore put aside your cloak and sit down, for I have ever found that a soldier is less ready for business with an empty stomach, and from your looks, monsieur, I take you for a soldier.”
“I have been one of the cardinal’s musketeers ever since I was old enough to bear arms,” Péron replied, “but I have seen less of service in the field than I should have liked.”
“There is time enough for that,” Père Matthieu said grimly; “France is like to need every strong arm she has to defend her, and that, too, more against her secret foes than her open enemies. When a queen of France is willing to plot with Spain to gratify her own malice, it is time that every Frenchman looked to his sword.”
“That charge has been made openly against both queens in Paris,” Péron remarked.
“Ay, and with truth,” retorted the priest, “could we have wrung the evidence from the man Laporte; but Mademoiselle d’Hautefort was too quick for even monsignor. But we have enough here in Brussels; the queen-mother has never resigned herself to obscurity.”
“I saw her but now,” Péron said.
Père Matthieu started and gave him a searching look.