It wanted full ten minutes to the hour when I rode through the gates of the Hôtel de Belin, and a moment or so after was with my friend. He was standing in the great hall as I entered, in the midst of a small but brilliantly dressed group of cavaliers. On my being announced, however, he came forward to meet me with outstretched arms.
'Pardieu!' he exclaimed, stepping back a half-pace after our greeting, 'so you have dropped the Huguenot? We poor devils will have but a bad time of it if you turn courtier.'
'Is that likely?' I asked, a little bitterly, and then, in a low tone, 'have you made Ravaillac safe?'
'He has made himself safe,' he whispered, 'he is gone.'
'Gone?'
'Yes—vanished. It is, perhaps, best so. We will discuss him later,' and, raising his voice, 'come, let me present you to my friends,' and he led me up to his companions, who, gathered in a little knot near the huge fireplace, stood surveying us with a well-bred curiosity.
'Gentlemen, permit me to introduce my old comrade, the Chevalier d'Auriac—the Duc de Bellegarde, whom we all call M. le Grand, the Vicompte de Vitry, the Seigneur de Valryn, and the Chevalier d'Aubusson, who, like you, d'Auriac, is new to the court.'
'And who is delighted to meet with an old acquaintance, and trusts that M. de Preaulx is in as good a way.'
'As the company from Paradise—eh, chevalier?' I put in.
'Fairly hit,' exclaimed the lieutenant, and then he must needs tell the story of our little adventure, at which there was much laughter, and it was easy to see that the Marshal and Zamet had no friends in the Rue de Bourdonnais.