"You stand well at court, do you not?" "My friends say so." "You have some influence then?" "My enemies may discover it to their cost." "Very good! Now my dear comte--my dear baron--my dear--" "Vicomte." "Help me to get into the Châtelet." "In what capacity?" "As a prisoner." "As a prisoner? That's a singular ambition, on my word." "As you please, but it's my ambition." "For what purpose do you wish to be committed to the Châtelet?" queried Marmagne, who suspected that this strange desire on the part of the student indicated some new secret which it might be to his advantage to know. "To any other than you I wouldn't tell it, my good friend," replied Jacques; "or I have learned to my cost, or rather to poor Ascanio's, that I must learn to hold my tongue. But with you it's a different matter. You know that I have no secrets from you." "In that case tell me quickly." "Will you have me committed to the Châtelet if I tell you?" "Instantly." "Well, my friend, imagine that I was idiot enough to confide to others than yourself the fact that I had seen a lovely girl in the head of the statue of Mars." "What then?" "The crack-brained fools! would you believe that they spread the story so that it came to the provost's ears; and as the provost had lost his daughter some days before, he suspected that it was she who had selected that hiding place. He notified D'Orbec and the Duchesse d'Etampes: they came to the Hôtel de Nesle to make a domiciliary visit while Benvenuto Cellini was at Fontainebleau. They carried off Colombe and imprisoned Ascanio." "Nonsense!" "It's as I tell you, my dear viscount. And who managed it all? A certain Vicomte de Marmagne." "But," interposed the viscount, not at all pleased to hear his name upon the student's lips, "you don't tell me why you want to be committed to the Châtelet." "You don't understand?" "No." "They arrested Ascanio." "Yes." "And took him to the Châtelet." "Very good." "But what they don't know, and what nobody knows save the Duchesse d'Etampes, Benvenuto, and myself, is that Ascanio possesses a certain letter, a certain secret, which places the duchess in his power. Now do you understand?" "Yes I begin to see light. But do you help me, my dear friend." "You see, viscount," continued Aubry, assuming a more and more aristocratic air, "I want to be admitted to the Châtelet, get to Ascanio's cell, take the letter or learn the secret, leave the prison again, go to Benvenuto and arrange with him some method whereby Colombe's virtue and Ascanio's love may triumph, to the confusion of the Marmagnes and D'Orbecs, the provost, the Duchesse d'Etampes, and the whole clique." "That's a very ingenious plan," said Marmagne. "Thanks for your confidence, my dear student. You shall have no reason to regret it." "Do you promise me your assistance?" "To what end?" "Why, to help me get committed to the Châtelet, as I asked you." "Rely upon me." "Immediately?" "Wait here for me."