The importance of arriving at the truth before Epernon and the greater conspirators should take the alarm was so vividly present to the minds of the king and myself, that we did not hesitate to examine the prisoners in their house, rather than hazard the delay and observation which their removal to a more fit place must occasion.  Accordingly, taking the precaution to post Coquet in the street outside, and to plant a burly Swiss in the doorway, the king and I entered.  I removed my mask as I did so, being aware of the necessity of gaining the prisoners’ confidence, but I begged the king to retain his.  As I had expected, the man immediately recognized me and fell on his knees, a nearer view confirming the notion I had previously entertained that his features were familiar to me, though I could not remember his name.  I thought this a good starting-point for my examination, and bidding Maignan withdraw, I assumed an air of mildness and asked the fellow his name.

“Martin, only, please your lordship,” he answered; adding, “once I sold you two dogs, sir, for the chase, and to your lady a lapdog called Ninette no larger than her hand.”

I remembered the knave, then, as a fashionable dog dealer, who had been much about the court in the reign of Henry the Third and later; and I saw at once how convenient a tool he might be made, since he could be seen in converse with people of all ranks without arousing suspicion.  The man’s face as he spoke expressed so much fear and surprise that I determined to try what I had often found successful in the case of greater criminals, to squeeze him for a confession while still excited by his arrest, and before he should have had time to consider what his chances of support at the hands of his confederates might be.  I charged him therefore solemnly to tell the whole truth as he hoped for the king’s mercy.  He heard me, gazing at me piteously; but his only answer, to my surprise, was that he had nothing to confess.

“Come, come,” I replied sternly, “this will avail you nothing; if you do not speak quickly, rogue, and to the point, we shall find means to compel you.  Who counseled you to attempt his majesty’s life?”

On this he stared so stupidly at me, and exclaimed with so real an appearance of horror:  “How?  I attempt the king’s life?  God forbid!” that I doubted that we had before us a more dangerous rascal than I had thought, and I hastened to bring him to the point.

“What, then,” I cried, frowning, “of the stuff Master la Riviere is to give you to take the king’s life to-morrow night?  Oh, we know something, I assure you; bethink you quickly, and find your tongue if you would have an easy death.”

I expected to see his self-control break down at this proof of our knowledge of his design, but he only stared at me with the same look of bewilderment.  I was about to bid them bring in the informer that I might see the two front to front, when the female prisoner, who had hitherto stood beside her companion in such distress and terror as might be expected in a woman of that class, suddenly stopped her tears and lamentations.  It occurred to me that she might make a better witness.  I turned to her, but when I would have questioned her she broke into a wild scream of hysterical laughter.