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recognised the names and thought he could see a ray of light in the tunnels of his mind, a way to extricate himself from the predicament in which he found himself. ‘The gentleman’s referring to Viscount Gaston Lerans and his friend, Nicholas Muss, I believe,’ he said.
    ‘You know them?’ Preslin asked.
    ‘Coincidentally,’ the Doctor tried to sound nonchalant.
    ‘This afternoon, just before I came to see you, my companion and I drank a goblet of wine with them in the Roman Bridge Inn.’
    ‘How fortuitous,’ David replied sarcastically, ‘that you just happened to be in the right place at the right time.’
    ‘Did you speak to them?’ Preslin asked.
    ‘Not exactly, no,’ the Doctor conceded. ‘They were having an altercation with a man named Simon Duval.’
    ‘That pig!’ The words erupted from David’s mouth.
    ‘What was the row about?’ Preslin put the question quietly in an effort to calm down David. The Doctor told him everything that had happened whilst he was at the Inn. David laughed at Lerans’s jibes to Duval.
    ‘Lerans is a bold one, a man after my own heart,’ he exclaimed.
    ‘But lacking in discretion,’ Preslin said.
    ‘Exactly what Nicholas Muss remarked,’ the Doctor added.
    ‘No matter, Lerans has the Admiral’s protection and that’s as good as the Queen Mother’s.’ David was scornful of Preslin’s concern. ‘Only by the law can they catch us out, which is why there are ferrets and weasels,’ he emphasised the word, ‘in our midst.’
    Beyond the taper in front of them was a faint glow of light and the Doctor became aware of the murmur of voices. Then the taper disappeared to the right.
    ‘It sounds as though everyone was warned in time,’
    Preslin remarked as the light became brighter and the voices louder.
    They reached the end of the tunnel and on turning to the right entered a large, well-lit vaulted cave. There were tables laden with bread, cheeses, cold meats and flasks of wine, drawn from the casks which lined one side. There were at least fifty people in the cave – men, women and children – and the air was filled with the babble of voices as the children played, the women prepared food or came from or went into small cubicles which were cut into the walls, and then stood and talked among themselves.
    ‘What have you there, Charles?’ a heavy-set bearded man asked Preslin as they came into the cave. He indicated the Doctor.
    ‘He claims he’s a traveller, passing through, who came to talk to me about my work,’ Preslin replied.
    ‘Not one word of which I believe,’ David’s voice rang out in hatred. ‘He’s a spy, a Catholic spy, a weasel sent among us by Charles de Guise, the Most Illustrious Cardinal of Lorraine.’ One of the listeners, a man of medium height and flaming red hair, rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
    ‘You’re talking rubbish,’ the Doctor retorted angrily.
    ‘What Charles Preslin has said is the truth.’
    ‘The tale you’ve told him’, retaliated David, ‘but I know your face.’
    ‘As I do,’ the red-haired man said as deep laughter began to rumble up from his belly. ‘He’s not a spy, he’s much more than that.’
    ‘Then who is he?’ David cried and the red-haired man beckoned him over and whispered in his ear.
    ‘I knew it!’ David shouted in exultation, looking at the Doctor with undisguised hatred. ‘I’ll despatch him now.’
    ‘No,’ the red-haired man ordered. ‘We can put him to better use.’
    ‘Who is he?’ Preslin asked. Before David could answer the red-haired man hushed him and then beckoned Preslin to his side and whispered in his ear. Preslin looked at the Doctor in disbelief and dismay as one man whispered to the next. Then they all drew their swords and stared at the Doctor.
    ‘Whosoever you think I am, I am not,’ the Doctor said in exasperation. ‘Now kindly allow me to leave as I have an important rendezvous by Notre Dame at Vespers.’
    All the men hooted with laughter ad Preslin