"Ah! you will see whether we did well to dip the wretch, as you call him, in the river. Why, except for that precaution he would have aroused the whole country. Fancy, when we took him out of the water, although he had been there hardly quarter of an hour, he was dead with rage!" "You plunged him in again, no doubt?" "As you say." "But if the messenger was drowned--" "I didn't say that he was drowned." "Let us not haggle over words; if the messenger is dead--" "Oh! as to that, he's dead enough." "Monsieur de Canolles will not have received the letter, of course, and consequently will not keep the appointment." "Oh! one moment; I make war on powers, not on private individuals. Monsieur de Canolles received a duplicate of the letter making the appointment; but as I considered that the autograph manuscript was of some value, I retained it." "What will he think when he fails to recognize the writing?" "That the person who hungers for a sight of him has employed another hand, as a measure of precaution." The stranger eyed Cauvignac in evident admiration of such unbounded impudence combined with such perfect self-possession. He was determined, if possible, to find some means of frightening the reckless swashbuckler. "What about the government," he said, "and the investigations that may be set on foot? Do you never think of that?" "Investigations?" rejoined the younger man, with a laugh. "Oh! Monsieur d'Épernon has many other things to do besides investigate; and then, did I not tell you that I did what I did for the purpose of obtaining his favor? He would be ungrateful indeed if he didn't bestow it on me." "I don't altogether understand," said the other, satirically, "how it ever occurred to you, who have, by your own admission, taken up the cause of the princes, to do Monsieur d'Épernon a service." "And yet it's the simplest thing in the world: an inspection of the papers found upon the collector convinced me of the purity of the king's intentions; his Majesty is entirely justified in my eyes, and Monsieur le Duc d'Épernon is in the right a thousand times over as against his subordinates. That, therefore, is the just cause, and thereupon I embraced the just cause." "Here's a scoundrel whom I will have hanged if he ever falls into my hands!" growled the old gentleman, pulling savagely at the ends of his bristly moustache. "I beg your pardon?" said Cauvignac, winking under his mask. "I said nothing. Let me ask you a question; what do you propose to do with the signature in blank which you demand?"