"And where are your fellows, since you are here to put an end to my career?" he asked.
"Monsieur asks too many questions. I have not exactly come here to assassinate you, but to tell you the time, the place, and the manner in which it is to be done. As to my fellows—my master left the carrying out of the plot to me; and I thought it best to tell you first, before preparing them for the——"
"Slaughter! I see, good Etienne!" and La Pommeraye burst into a hearty laugh at the way De Roberval's servant had outwitted him.
"Monsieur has an interview with the Sieur de Roberval to-morrow morning?" questioned the man.
"Yes, most worthy Etienne."
"In the east tower, in my master's room. I am to admit you to that room; and, having done it, I am to lead three other murderers, like myself," said Etienne, with a grin at his own wit, "by a secret passage similar to the one by which I entered your room just now. We are to await a signal from my master—the raising of his sword—and then we are to fall upon you and make sure of our work. He warned me that if we made a botch of it you would probably send us all to Heaven, and if we let aught be known about it, we should all be hanged; and so, methinks, I had better go be hanged."
Charles could not restrain his amusement at the doleful sincerity with which the last words were uttered. On other lips the closing remark would have sounded like dry humour; but Etienne's voice showed that he expected no better fate.
"So, your master pays me the compliment of hiring no less than four men to kill me," said Charles. "And what do you propose to do, now that you have warned me?"
"I know not, Monsieur. It took me an hour walking up and down outside the gate to get thus far. Another hour's thinking may help me to find some way of escape from the Sieur de Roberval's wrath."