Aramis almost imperceptibly smiled.

"'You know, Dame Perronnette, they are both so suspicious in all that
concerns Philippe.'

"Philippe was the name they gave me," said the prisoner.

"'Well, 'tis no use hesitating,' said Dame Perronnette, 'somebody must go
down the well.'

"'Of course; so that the person who goes down may read the paper as he is
coming up.'

"'But let us choose some villager who cannot read, and then you will be
at ease.'

"'Granted; but will not any one who descends guess that a paper must be
important for which we risk a man's life? However, you have given me an
idea, Dame Perronnette; somebody shall go down the well, but that
somebody shall be myself.'

"But at this notion Dame Perronnette lamented and cried in such a manner,
and so implored the old nobleman, with tears in her eyes, that he
promised her to obtain a ladder long enough to reach down, while she went
in search of some stout-hearted youth, whom she was to persuade that a
jewel had fallen into the well, and that this jewel was wrapped in a
paper. 'And as paper,' remarked my preceptor, 'naturally unfolds in
water, the young man would not be surprised at finding nothing, after
all, but the letter wide open.'