"Under that name, at any rate, I do not know him; but that argues nothing. A thousand soldiers know the lieutenant whom the lieutenant does not know." "By this token you may know him, that he gave you a name of praise and fear--that of the devil's correspondent for the viscounty of Labourt." "And if it were so?" "Then over and above being yourself sunk from sole to crown in the study of supernature you have traced the gigantic plan of linking yourself together with all else that tread untrodden ways. And I saw that the design was good--for in union there is strength--and if we in the far New World from which I come, are to-day unthreatened by the bigotry of the church, it would nevertheless be short sight indeed if we played the spectator, while among you runs the writ of cord and faggot. To-morrow, mayhap, we shall be persecuted in our turn, and ashes the brethren that could have bettered us. For this, then, am I travelled hither, as I may say at your bidding, since the suggestion proceeded from one who knows you, though him you may not know; that we may survey together the field of your danger, and in consort draft such measure of defiance and defence as shall eat up this persecution at the root. This evening disembarked and understanding from that same Lisaldo, that under cover of the tavern of the Four Cross Roads your pursue your devil's procuracy, I have hustled hither straight to take up my quarters beneath your kindly roof." "Are you then alone or do I rightly see two others that linger in your rear among the shadows?" "The one of them is this Lisaldo that I speak of, to whom I owe your name, and who has attached himself to my personal service; and in this connexion I may mention that I shall require two communicating bedrooms (or be it one with a dressing-room adjacent) to gratify my long, and now invincible, vogue of keeping my servant all night within my call. My other follower is a Creole of the family Ataurresagasti; by trade an honest seaman, but not, I believe, too honest to be of possible use to our cause. Told off to do us service during the long and perilous passage he has been only too anxious to be of comfort to us, and we are indebted to him for countless little offices. Arrived at your wharves we could satisfy him with nothing less than the porterage of half our effects, and since the whole were too heavy for Lisaldo, 'twas but policy to accept his friendly offer, rather than initiate a stranger into our destination. Accommodated with a bed in this same house, he will be under our united ken--should you consider him metal that may be moulded to our purpose he need never return to his ship." "Nor for the matter of that in the contrary case either, since it were unsafe for him to have even touched the skirts of our common secret. 'Tis child's play for such as you and I to rot the thread of life with an oblivious gruel."