one and that it was a sort of celebration on my part of our two companies having the honour to be chosen for duty in Paris.  This is a matter upon which much depends; it is, in fact, a matter of state; and you may well imagine that I should not be recalling these events to your mind were it not that a good deal depends upon it, and that I have received strict orders that this little comedy shall be carried out.  I know that I can rely implicitly upon your discretion, and I have indeed answered for you all.  The story will be true in every respect.  Instead of the excursion having come off today it shall come off on the first day I can arrange that we can be all off duty.”

That evening at the palace Hector was, as the cardinal predicted, accosted by one of Beaufort’s officers, to whom he had been previously introduced.  After talking on other subjects for a few minutes, he said: 

“I saw you today, monsieur, riding with a party of your officers along the Rue St. Honore.  You did not notice me?”

“I assure you that I did not, sir, or I should not have been so rude as to pass without saluting you.”  Then he added with a laugh, “We were riding slowly, too, for the cardinal’s coach was in front of us, and it would not have been good manners to have galloped past him, especially as he had the Duke of Orleans with him.”

“Had you been far?” the other asked carelessly.

“No great distance; a little party of pleasure with my officers to eat a dinner together, to celebrate the honour we had received in being brought into Paris.  My officers have worked very hard, and the matter served as a good excuse for giving them a little dinner.”

For the next day or two everything passed off quietly, but four of the officers reported that when dining at a cabaret two or three of the duke’s officers had come in and entered into conversation with them, and had brought up the subject of their riding in after the cardinal.

“You almost looked as if you were serving as a bodyguard to him,” one of them laughed.

“I daresay we did,” was the answer.  “It was rather a nuisance; but it would not have been courteous to have ridden past the carriage.”  And he then repeated the story as had been arranged.

Although the Duke of Beaufort had been told by some of his friends that there were rumours abroad of a plot against Mazarin’s life, and that it would be best for him to leave Paris for a time, he refused to do so, saying that even if it was discovered the cardinal would not dare to lay hands on him.  Moreover, the replies which had been obtained from Hector and his officers convinced him that their riding behind Mazarin’s carriage was an accident.