"Something?" I said, being inclined at the moment to be merry.
"What? A plot to reduce your perquisites, you rascal?"
"No, my lord," he answered stoutly. "But to tap your
excellency's secrets."
"Indeed," I said pleasantly, not believing a word of it. "And
who is to hang?"
"The Spaniard," he answered in a low voice.
That sobered me, by putting the matter in a new light; and I sat
a moment looking at him and reviewing Diego's story, which
assumed on the instant an aspect so uncommon and almost
incredible that I wondered how I had ever allowed it to pass.
But when I proceeded from this to the substance of Maignan's
charge I found an IMPASSE in this direction also, and I smiled.
"So it is Diego, is it?" I said. "You think that he is a spy?"
Maignan nodded.
"Then, tell me," I asked, "what opportunity has he of learning
more than all the world knows? He has not been in my apartments
since I engaged him. He has seen none of my papers. The
youngest footboy could tell all he has learned."
"True, my lord," Maignan answered slowly; "but--"
"Well?"
"I saw him this evening, talking with a Priest in the Rue Petits
Pois; and he calls himself a Protestant.
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