"It cannot be," said Castelnau, "that you advise me for no reason whatever to abandon, and cause my brethren to abandon likewise, a project which seems to progress so favorably?" "No, there is a reason; you are quite right, but I cannot explain to you. Can you not, will you not, believe my word? I have already gone further in this matter than I should have done. Do me the honor to trust my word, dear friend." "Consider," rejoined Castelnau, very seriously, "that if I take upon myself this extraordinary course of turning back at the last moment, I shall have to answer for it to La Renaudie and the other leaders. May I refer them to you?" "Yes," replied Gabriel. "Will you tell them," continued Castelnau, "the motives which dictate your advice?" "Alas! I have not the right to do it." "How can you expect me to yield to your representations, then? Should I not be bitterly reproached for having thus, for a single word, destroyed our hopes, which were almost certainty? Howsoever vast and well-deserved is the confidence we all have in you, Monsieur de Montgommery, still a man is but a man, and may be deceived, no matter how good his intentions. If no one is allowed to consider and pass judgment upon your reasons, we shall certainly be obliged to neglect your counsel." "Then beware!" rejoined Gabriel, harshly; "on your head alone be the responsibility for all the calamities that may ensue!" Castelnau was struck with the accent with which the count uttered these words. "Monsieur de Montgommery," said he, "light has suddenly come to me, and I think I can descry the true state of affairs. You have either been intrusted with or have surmised some secret which you are not permitted to disclose. You have some important information as to the probable result of our enterprise,--that we have been betrayed, for instance. Am I not right?" "I did not say that!" cried Gabriel, eagerly. "Or else," continued Castelnau, "you saw your friend, the Duc de Guise, on your way here, and he, in ignorance of your fellowship with us, has given you an insight into the real state of things." "Nothing I have said can have given rise to any such supposition!" cried Gabriel. "Or again," Castelnau went on, "you have, as you passed through Amboise, noticed preparations being made, overheard conversations, or induced confidences,--in short, our plot is discovered!" "Do you mean to say," said Gabriel, horror-stricken, "that I have given you any reason to believe anything of the sort?" "No, Monsieur le Comte; no, indeed, for you were bound to secrecy, I can see. Therefore I do not even ask you for a positive assurance that I am right, not even a word, if you prefer not. But if I am mistaken, a gesture, a glance of the eye, or your silence, even, will be sufficient to enlighten me." Gabriel, meanwhile, sorely perplexed, was recalling the last part of the obligation he had given the Duc de Guise.