“Not against your eminence; it is a matter which concerns myself only.  I have been warned tonight that my share in the last affair has been discovered, that inquiries have been made at St. Germain, and that the various innkeepers have declared that no party of officers dined there that morning, and that it was therefore concluded that our presence behind your carriage was not accidental.  They no doubt guessed that it was I who discovered the plot, in consequence of which so many were arrested and exiled.  I have been distinctly warned that the air of Paris is unwholesome for me.”

“Who warned you?” the cardinal said abruptly.

“It would not be fair of me to mention the name, but it is at any rate one who is of Beaufort’s party.”

“Ah!” the cardinal said sharply, “I noticed you sitting for a few minutes by Madame de Chevreuse.  Never mind, I will respect your confidence.  I can well understand, after what you have said, that there is great danger here, and it is a danger from which it is well nigh impossible to protect you, unless you take up your residence here and never stir abroad.  Nor do I know that you would be safer with the army; an assassin’s knife can reach a man as easily in a camp as in a city, and with perhaps less risk of detection.  Neither Beaufort nor Vendome are men to forget or forgive an injury, and they have scores of fellows who would for a few crowns murder anyone they indicated, and of gentlemen of higher rank who, although not assassins, would willingly engage you in a duel, especially those who suffered in the plot that you discovered.  Frankly, what do you think yourself?”

“I might retire to la Villar, cardinal.  I should be safe there in my own castle.”

“So long as you did not leave it; but a man with a musket in ambush behind a hedge might cut your career short.  It is probable enough that you are watched, and in that case I should doubt whether you would ever get to la Villar, nor do I think that if you left for the Rhine you would get halfway.  Now you see, Monsieur Campbell, that your cause is mine, and that your safety touches me as if it were my own, for it was in my service that you incurred the danger.  I must think the matter over.  In the meantime I beg of you to sleep here tonight.  I will send word to your servant that you will not return.  I could of course send a guard with you to your hotel, but some of the servants there may have been bribed to murder you as you slept.  I can look after myself; I seldom leave the house except to go to the Louvre, and I never go even that short distance without a guard, but it is much more difficult to protect you.”

“I have my own bodyguard, your excellency —­ four stout Scotch soldiers and my lackey, Paolo, who is a good swordsman also; and as it does not seem to me that I should be safer elsewhere than here, I shall at any rate stay for a time.  I should imagine that the warning was a general one.  They have just found out that I had a hand in thwarting their plot against you, and I dare say used threats; but the threats of angry men come very often to nothing; and at any rate, I do not choose that they should obtain the satisfaction of driving me from Paris against my will.”