At length he saw that the attempt to escape was vain, and pulling in his horse, he stood still till Estoc rode up to him. "Ah, Monsieur Estoc! is it you?" exclaimed the page with a glad smile, when he saw who was his captor. "You have given me a terrible fright." "More than needful, Philip," replied Estoc, "for we do not want to hurt you. But, get off your horse, my good boy, and come hither apart with me, for I have something to say to you." The page did as he was directed; and Estoc, dismounting also, led him a little on one side, demanding, "Have you got it?" "Got what?" rejoined the page, with a shy look of affected unconsciousness. "Come, come--no more of that, Master Philip!" exclaimed Estoc: "I mean the book, as you know well enough." "Yes, I have got it," answered the boy: "but you must not take it from me indeed, Estoc, for my mistress will be so angry." "Let me look at it," said Estoc: "you shall have it back again, upon my honour! Have you opened it?" "No!" cried the page with a look of surprise; "is there anything in it?" "Yes, prayers, to be sure," replied the old soldier, satisfied by the boy's countenance that he spoke the truth. "Come, let me look at it--you shall have it back, I tell you." The page drew slowly and unwillingly from a pouch under his arm, the book with its velvet cover and silver clasps, and placed it in Estoc's hand, saying, "You promise to give it back, mind." "Ay!" answered the old soldier, "and I always keep promises;" and, as he spoke, he unfastened with some difficulty the stiff clasps, which seemed to be tightened in their hold by something swelling out the bulk of the volume. "Ha, ha! you have done what the old gouvernante could not do," cried the boy. "What, did she try to open it?" asked Estoc, turning over the pages. "Ay, that she did, the nasty old wolf," replied the page; "and she kept me for two hours waiting in the hall, because she did not choose either to get up and fetch it, or let me. Ah! what have you got there?" "What I seek," answered Estoc, giving the boy back the book, and putting a letter, which he had taken from between the leaves, in his pocket. "Now, master Philip," he continued, "take the book on to your mistress, and give it to her, without telling her that you have met with any one, or that any one has looked into it." "She will know that, without any telling," answered the boy in a gloomy tone. "She will find out, in a minute, that the paper has been taken out, and perhaps have me hanged for stealing it, as she did Gabriel Houlot for robbing her of her gold bonbonnière, which was under the pillow of the coach all the time." "Fear not, fear not!" said Estoc; "she does not know that there was anything in it: and it is to prevent her from knowing it, that I take the paper." "But father Walter knows," rejoined the boy; "and he will tell her." "No, no, he will not," replied Estoc. "But, to satisfy you, read that, if you can read."