Count Hannibal

"We would have you hinder it spreading."

"You have done the deed and are loth to pay the blood-money. That is it,

is it?

"We prefer to pay it to M. de Biron," Count Hannibal answered civilly.

Again the Grand Master was silent awhile. At length he looked up and

fixed Tavannes with eyes keen as steel.

"What is behind?" he growled. "Say, man, what is it? What is behind?"

"If there be aught behind, I do not know it," Tavannes answered

steadfastly.

M. de Biron relaxed the fixity of his gaze. "But you said that you had

an object?" he returned.

"I had--in being the bearer of the message."

"What was it?"

"My object? To learn two things."

"The first, if it please you?" The Grand Master's chin stuck out a

little, as he spoke.

"Have you in the Arsenal a M. de Tignonville, a gentleman of Poitou?"

"I have not," Biron answered curtly. "The second?"

"Have you here a Huguenot minister?"

"I have not. And if I had I should not give him up," he added firmly.

Tavannes shrugged his shoulders. "I have a use for one," he said

carelessly. "But it need not harm him."

"For what, then, do you need him?"

"To marry me."

The other stared. "But you are a Catholic," he said.

"But she is a Huguenot," Tavannes answered.

The Grand Master did not attempt to hide his astonishment.

"And she sticks on that?" he exclaimed. "To-day?"

"She sticks on that. To-day."

"To-day? Nom de Dieu! To-day! Well," brushing the matter aside after

a pause of bewilderment, "any way, I cannot help her. I have no minister

here. If there be aught else I can do for her--"

"Nothing, I thank you," Tavannes answered. "Then it only remains for me

to take your answer to the King?" And he rose politely, and taking his

mask from the table prepared to assume it.

M. de Biron gazed at him a moment without speaking, as if he pondered on

the answer he should give. At length he nodded, and rang the bell which

stood beside him.

"The mask!" he muttered in a low voice as footsteps sounded without. And,

obedient to the hint, Tavannes disguised himself. A second later the

officer who had introduced him opened the door and entered.

"Peridol," M. de Biron said--he had risen to his feet--"I have received a

message which needs confirmation; and to obtain this I must leave the

Arsenal. I am going to the house--you will remember this--of Marshal

Tavannes, who will be responsible for my person; in the mean time this

gentleman will remain under strict guard in the south chamber upstairs.

You will treat him as a hostage, with all respect, and will allow him to

preserve his incognito. But if I do not return by noon to-morrow, you

will deliver him to the men below, who will know how to deal with him."