they were gentlemen, not cutthroats. "Messieurs," I said, "I swear by the blessed saints I am what I told you. I am no spy, and no one sent me here. Who you are, or what you do, I know no more than a babe unborn. I belong to no party and am no man's man. As for why you choose to live in this empty house, it is not my concern and I care no whit about it. Let me go, messieurs, and I will swear to keep silence about what I have seen." "I am for letting him go," said Yeux-gris. Gervais looked doubtful, the most encouraging attitude toward me he had yet assumed. He answered: "If he had not said the name—" "Stuff!" interrupted Yeux-gris. "It is a coincidence, no more. If he were what you think, it is the very last name he would have said." This was Greek to me; I had mentioned no names but Maître Jacques's and my own. And he was their friend. "Messieurs," I said, "if it is my name that does not please you, why, I can say for it that if it is not very high-sounding, at least it is an honest one and has ever been held so down where we live." "And that is at St. Quentin," said Yeux-gris. "Yes, monsieur. My father, Anton Broux, is Master of the Forest to the Duke of St. Quentin." He started, and Gervais cried out: "Voilà! who is the fool now?" My nerves, which had grown tranquil since Yeux-gris came to my rescue, quivered anew. The common man started at the very word St. Quentin, and the masters started when I named the duke. Was it he whom they had spoken of as Monsieur? Who and what were they? There was more in this than I had thought at first. It was no longer a mere question of my liberty. I was all eyes and ears for whatever information I could gather. Yeux-gris spoke to me, for the first time gravely: "This is not a time when folks take pleasure-trips to Paris. What brought you?" "I used to be Monsieur's page down at St. Quentin," I answered, deeming the straight truth best. "When we learned that he was in Paris, my father sent me up to him. I reached the city last night, and lay at the Amour de Dieu. This morning I went to the duke's hôtel, but the guard would not let me in.