Then, suddenly, he knew that a door on his left had opened and shut gently; he heard a voice speaking which he had never, so far as he knew, heard before. "If," that voice said, it being a low rasping one, "they set forth to-morrow, the captain should be here almost at once. They sup at eight and should be abed soon after. There is much to talk over since we all separate to-morrow. La Truaumont's band sets out to escort madame to Milan, he to go hot foot to Paris afterwards, and then to Normandy--I to Paris direct and----" "I to Paris and Paradise since De Beaurepaire is there." That enraptured voice told him at once who this speaker was, it being the same he had overheard the night before. It was, he knew, the voice of the woman who occupied those rooms, the woman to whom La Truaumont had said half-sinisterly, half-warningly, "You may yet pay a dear price for your happiness." Almost ere the man could make any reply to that remark, another, a deeper, more profound voice seemed to obliterate all other sounds except those of a second gentle opening and shutting of the door; a voice, the full though mellow tones of which the owner was undoubtedly endeavouring to soften. The voice of La Truaumont. "So," Humphrey heard the captain say, "we meet to decide all. Now, Van den Enden, unfold. Speak, and to the purpose. What is done? What will Spain and Holland do?" "To commence with," Humphrey heard the unknown voice of the Jew say, "I have the money--all of it--in safe keeping." "In safe keeping," murmured La Truaumont. "In safe keeping. Where?" "Some in the hands of the party. Some in mine." "I'll be sworn, and deeply too." "Some for those bold hearts who help us with their hands and heads." "Good! Good!" the voice, which sounded like the soft rumbling of a cathedral organ afar off, murmured. "Some," Van den Enden went on, as though pleased with his own words, "put aside for fair ones who, also, have helped and can help well. For beauty's coaxings and _câlineries_; for love professed; for love false as beauty's oath or vow----" "And as true, too!" Humphrey heard the woman exclaim. "All can play their part and play it well, and earn their guerdon," Van den Enden continued. "And the rest? Where is it? _Hein?_" La Truaumont asked in tones that, though low, did not disguise the cynicism beneath them. "The rest! Why in the hands of _Le Dédaigneux_." "So!" exclaimed La Truaumont. "So! Good. That binds him. He is committed to us." "He needs no binding, no earnest. He is heart and soul with us. And you know it," the listener heard the woman say sharply. "And the sum total?" La Truaumont asked, ignoring her. "A million of livres." "Half of what we asked! Half of what is necessary." "Added to six thousand Spaniards on board the Dutch Fleet; arms for twenty thousand men; weapons and instruments of siege against the fortresses of Quillebeuf and Honfleur."