I had begun to think that Black Michael was over fond of leaving the fighting to his friends; but now I acknowledged that the brains, if not the arms, of the conspiracy were his.
"Does the King know this ?" I asked.
"I and my brother," answered Johann, "put up the pipe, under the orders of my Lord of Hentzau.

He was on guard that day, and the King asked my lord what it meant.

'Faith,' he answered, with his airy laugh, 'it's a new improvement on the ladder of Jacob, whereby, as you have read, sire, men pass from the earth to heaven.

We thought it not meet that your Majesty should go, in case, sire, you must go, by the common route.

So we have made you a pretty private passage where the vulgar cannot stare at you or incommode your passage.