.

SACRILEGE!.
M.de Montsoreau, Lieutenant-Governor of Saumur almost rose from his seat in his astonishment.
"What! No letters ?" he cried, a hand on either arm of the chair.
The Magistrates stared, one and all.

"No letters ?" they muttered.
And "No letters ?" the Provost chimed in more faintly.
Count Hannibal looked smiling round the Council table.

He alone was unmoved.
"No," he said.

"I bear none." M.de Montsoreau, who, travel-stained and in his corselet, had the second place of honour at the foot of the table, frowned.
"But, M.le Comte," he said, "my instructions from Monsieur were to proceed to carry out his Majesty's will in co-operation with you, who, I understood, would bring letters _de par le Roi_." "I had letters," Count Hannibal answered negligently.