But Zamet again interposed.
'Diavolo! Chevalier, your courage is known. We will settle with these gentlemen another day—you forget. Will you risk all now? 'His companion put back his half-drawn sword with a curse and a snap, and, turning on his heel, went to the other end of the room, followed by Zamet. There they drank their wine and departed, and an hour later I also started. D'Aubusson insisted on accompanying me part of the way with a couple of his saints, and, as we approached the Paris gate, we observed a man riding slowly, a little ahead of us. 'I recognise the grey,' said Jacques, coming to my side. 'Monsieur, that is one of the three servants the two gentlemen who have gone before had with them.'
This small force accounted, as I have said, for the moderation Zamet had shown; but it flashed upon me that the lackey had been left behind for no other purpose than that of observing our route. Even if I was wrong in this surmise it was well to be prudent, and turning to d'Aubusson I said:
'Monsieur, I wish to be frank with you. It is true that I am bearing news to Paris which will be of the greatest service to the King; but my name is not de Preaulx.'
'I know that,' he said quietly, 'I am of the Anjoumois, and there is no such name there.'
'And you did not arrest me?'
'Why the devil should I? The land is at peace, and I have been Monsieur "I-Don't-Know-What" before now myself. Besides, you were in my hands at the Grand Cerf. You are in my hands now. But I wanted to know more, and when I saw that you were an object of M. Zamet's attentions I knew you were on our side.'
'Exactly so, and I owe you much for this. There is another favour I would ask.'
'And it is?'
'That you stop the man riding ahead of us until this evening.'