"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.

On the 2nd of September the duke presented himself at the Louvre as