Page:Stanley Weyman--Count Hannibal.djvu/129

Rh now and again above the hum. As Tavannes moved that way, Nançay, in the act of passing out, booted and armed for the road, met him and almost jostled him.

“Ah, well met, M. le Comte,” he sneered, with as much hostility as he dared betray. “The King has asked for you twice.”

“I am going to him. And you? Whither in such a hurry, M. Nançay?”

“To Chatillon.”

“On pleasant business?”

“Enough that it is on the King’s!” Nançay replied, with unexpected temper. “I hope that you may find yours as pleasant!” he added with a grin. And he went on.

The gleam of malice in the man’s eye warned Tavannes to pause. He looked round for some one who might be in the secret, saw the Provost of the Merchants, and approached him.

“What’s amiss, M. le Charron?” he asked. “Is not the affair going as it should?”

“’Tis about the Arsenal, M. le Comte,” the Provost answered busily. “M. de Biron is harbouring the vermin there. He has lowered the portcullis and pointed his culverins over the gate and will not yield it or listen to reason. The King would bring him to terms, but no one will venture himself inside with the message. Rats in a trap, you know, bite hard, and care little whom they bite.”

“I begin to understand.”

“Precisely, M. le Comte. His Majesty would have sent M. de Nançay. But he elected to go to Chatillon, to seize the young brood there. The Admiral’s children, you comprehend.”

“Whose teeth are not yet grown! He was wise.”

“To be sure, M. de Tavannes, to be sure. But the King was annoyed, and on top of that came a priest with