Philip looked at his folded hands. "Perinat is a bungler," he said. "One who blunders once may blunder twice. This seems to me a foolish tale. I will see M. de Lauvinière." The French Ambassador came in a moment later, unhurriedly, and made his bow. His countenance was a little troubled, but he made no haste to come to his business. Compliments passed, an idle word on some idle matter. At length Philip said: "You have come upon some urgent business, señor. Let me hear it." The Ambassador bowed again. "I have come upon the strange business of the arrest of the Chevalier de Guise, sire," he said, and paused as though he hardly knew how to proceed. Philip waved one hand slightly. "Take your time, señor," he said kindly. "I perceive that you are troubled. You may trust me with your whole mind." This was to set the Ambassador at his ease. De Lauvinière, knowing the King of old, inclined his head with a slightly ironic smile. The irony went unnoticed. "Sire, the Chevalier has sent, as a subject of France, to claim my protection," he said bluntly. "I am indeed troubled. I have to understand that he has been arrested on suspicion of being no less a person than Sir Nicholas Beauvallet, the sea-robber. My first impulse, sire, was to laugh at a charge so absurd." Philip put his finger-tips together, and over them watched the Ambassador. "Continue, señor." "The Chevalier, sire, very naturally denies this. His papers are in order; I cannot find from anything that I hear that there is any other proof to substantiate the charge than Don Maxia de Perinat's word. I have seen Don Maxia, sire, and I must humbly confess that although he speaks as a man altogether convinced, I cannot deem his conviction to be sufficient evidence against the Chevalier. Moreover, sire, it appears that a certain lady who was taken prisoner by this same Beauvallet not so many months ago utterly denies that this man is he." "I had not supposed it possible, señor, that El Beauvallet could be in Spain," said Philip calmly. "You come to request his release." The Ambassador hesitated. "Sire, this is a very strange, a very difficult matter," he said. "It is no part of my desire to act hastily in it." "Rest assured, señor, we shall do nothing without careful consideration," Philip said. "Do you identify the Chevalier?" Again there was a momentary hesitation. "I cannot do that, sire. I am not over-familiar with the members of the house of Guise; I have never, to my knowledge, met this man. But from what I know of the family I did from the first moment of seeing him suspect that this man might not be what he claimed to be. It is in my mind that the Chevalier de Guise should be a younger man than this, nor can I trace any resemblance to the Guises in his countenance." Philip weighed that. "It might thus chance, señor," he said.