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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The man in grey, by Baroness Emmuska

+Orczy

+

+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and

+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions

+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms

+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at

+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you

+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before

+using this eBook.

+

+Title: The man in grey

+       Being episodes of the Chovan conspiracies in Normandy during the

+       First Empire.

+

+Author: Baroness Emmuska Orczy

+

+Release Date: May 25, 2022 [eBook #68172]

+[Last updated: July 3, 2022]

+

+Language: English

+

+Produced by: Al Haines

+

+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN GREY ***

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+  The Man In Grey

+

+

+  Being Episodes of the Chovan Conspiracies in

+  Normandy During the First Empire.

+

+

+  By BARONESS ORCZY

+

+

+  AUTHOR OF

+  "Lord Tony's Wife," "Leatherface"

+  "The Bronze Eagle," etc.

+

+

+

+  A. L. BURT COMPANY

+  Publishers New York

+

+  Published by arrangement with GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

+

+

+

+

+  _Copyright, 1918,

+  By George H. Doran Company_

+

+

+  _Printed in the United States of America_

+

+

+

+

+CONTENTS

+

+

+PROEM

+

+CHAPTER

+

+I Silver-Leg

+

+II The Spaniard

+

+III The Mystery of Marie Vaillant

+

+IV The Emeralds of Mademoiselle Philippa

+

+V The Bourbon Prince

+

+VI The Mystery of a Woman's Heart

+

+VII The League of Knaves

+

+VIII The Arrow Poison

+

+IX The Last Adventure

+

+

+

+

+THE MAN IN GREY

+

+

+PROEM

+

+It has been a difficult task to piece together the fragmentary

+documents which alone throw a light--dim and flickering at the

+best--upon that mysterious personality known to the historians of the

+Napoleonic era as the Man in Grey.  So very little is known about

+him.  Age, appearance, domestic circumstances, everything pertaining

+to him has remained a matter of conjecture--even his name!  In the

+reports sent by the all-powerful Minister to the Emperor he is

+invariably spoken of as "The Man in Grey."  Once only does Fouché

+refer to him as "Fernand."

+

+Strange and mysterious creature!  Nevertheless, he played an

+important part--_the_ most important, perhaps--in bringing to justice

+some of those reckless criminals who, under the cloak of Royalist

+convictions and religious and political aims, spent their time in

+pillage, murder and arson.

+

+Strange and mysterious creatures, too, these men so aptly named

+Chouans--that is, "chats-huants"; screech-owls--since they were a

+terror by night and disappeared within their burrows by day.  A world

+of romance lies buried within the ruins of the châteaux which gave

+them shelter--Tournebut, Bouvesse, Donnai, Plélan.  A world of

+mystery encompasses the names of their leaders and, above all, those

+of the women--ladies of high degree and humble peasants alike--often

+heroic, more often misguided, who supplied the intrigue, the

+persistence, the fanatical hatred which kept the fire of rebellion

+smouldering and spluttering even while it could not burst into actual

+flame.  D'Aché, Cadoudal, Frotté, Armand le Chevallier, Marquise de

+Combray, Mme. Aquet de Férolles--the romance attaching to these names

+pales beside that which clings to the weird anonymity of their

+henchmen--"Dare-Death," "Hare-Lip," "Fear-Nought," "Silver-Leg," and

+so on.  Theirs were the hands that struck whilst their leaders

+planned--they were the screech-owls who for more than twenty years

+terrorised the western provinces of France and, in the name of God

+and their King, committed every crime that could besmirch the Cause

+which they professed to uphold.

+

+Whether they really aimed at the restoration of the Bourbon kings and

+at bolstering up the fortunes of an effete and dispossessed monarchy

+with money wrung from peaceable citizens, or whether they were a mere

+pack of lawless brigands made up of deserters from the army and

+fugitives from conscription, of felons and bankrupt aristocrats, will

+for ever remain a bone of contention between the apologists of the

+old régime and those of the new.

+

+With partisanship in those strangely obscure though comparatively

+recent episodes of history we have nothing to do.  Facts

+alone--undeniable and undenied--must be left to speak for themselves.

+It was but meet that these men--amongst whom were to be found the

+bearers of some of the noblest names in France--should be tracked

+down and brought to justice by one whose personality has continued to

+be as complete an enigma as their own.

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER I

+

+SILVER-LEG

+

+

+I

+

+"Forward now!  And at foot-pace, mind, to the edge of the

+wood--or----"

+

+The ominous click of a pistol completed the peremptory command.

+

+Old Gontran, the driver, shook his wide shoulders beneath his heavy

+caped coat and gathered the reins once more in his quivering hands;

+the door of the coach was closed with a bang; the postilion scrambled

+into the saddle; only the passenger who had so peremptorily been

+ordered down from the box-seat beside the driver had not yet climbed

+back into his place.  Well! old Gontran was not in a mood to fash

+about the passengers.  His horses, worried by the noise, the

+shouting, the click of firearms and the rough handling meted out to

+them by strange hands in the darkness, were very restive.  They would

+have liked to start off at once at a brisk pace so as to leave these

+disturbers of their peace as far behind them as possible, but Gontran

+was holding them in with a firm hand and they had to

+walk--walk!--along this level bit of road, with the noisy enemy still

+present in their rear.

+

+The rickety old coach gave a lurch and started on its way; the

+clanking of loose chains, the grinding of the wheels in the muddy

+roads, the snorting and travail of the horses as they finally settled

+again into their collars, drowned the coachman's muttered

+imprecations.

+

+"A fine state of things, forsooth!" he growled to himself more

+dejectedly than savagely.  "What the Emperor's police are up to no

+one knows.  That such things can happen is past belief.  Not yet six

+o'clock in the afternoon, and Alençon less than five kilomètres in

+front of us."

+

+But the passenger who, on the box-seat beside him, had so patiently

+and silently listened to old Gontran's florid loquacity during the

+early part of the journey, was no longer there to hear these

+well-justified lamentations.  No doubt he had taken refuge with his

+fellow-sufferers down below.

+

+There came no sound from the interior of the coach.  In the darkness,

+the passengers--huddled up against one another, dumb with fright and

+wearied with excitement--had not yet found vent for their outraged

+feelings in whispered words or smothered oaths.  The coach lumbered

+on at foot-pace.  In the affray the head-light had been broken; the

+two lanterns that remained lit up fitfully the tall pine trees on

+either side of the road and gave momentary glimpses of a mysterious,

+fairy-like world beyond, through the curtain of dead branches and the

+veil of tiny bare twigs.

+

+Through the fast gathering gloom the circle of light toyed with the

+haze of damp and steam which rose from the cruppers of the horses,

+and issued from their snorting nostrils.  From far away came the cry

+of a screech-owl and the call of some night beasts on the prowl.

+

+Instinctively, as the road widened out towards the edge of the wood,

+Gontran gave a click with his tongue and the horses broke into a

+leisurely trot.  Immediately from behind, not forty paces to the

+rear, there came the sharp detonation of a pistol shot.  The horses,

+still quivering from past terrors, were ready to plunge once more,

+the wheelers stumbled, the leaders reared, and the team would again

+have been thrown into confusion but for the presence of mind of the

+driver and the coolness of the postilion.

+

+"Oh! those accursed brigands!" muttered Gontran through his set teeth

+as soon as order was restored.  "That's just to remind us that they

+are on the watch.  Keep the leaders well in hand, Hector," he shouted

+to the postilion: "don't let them trot till we are well out of the

+wood."

+

+Though he had sworn copiously and plentifully at first, when one of

+those outlaws held a pistol to his head whilst the others ransacked

+the coach of its contents and terrorised the passengers, he seemed

+inclined to take the matter philosophically now.  After all, he

+himself had lost nothing; he was too wise a man was old Gontran to

+carry his wages in his breeches pocket these days, when those

+accursed Chouans robbed, pillaged and plundered rich and poor alike.

+No!  Gontran flattered himself that the rogues had got nothing out of

+him: he had lost nothing--not even prestige, for it had been a case

+of twenty to one at the least, and the brigands had been armed to the

+teeth.  Who could blame him that in such circumstances the sixty-two

+hundred francs, all in small silver and paper money--which the

+collector of taxes of the Falaise district was sending up to his

+chief at Alençon--had passed from the boot of the coach into the

+hands of that clever band of rascals?

+

+Who could blame him? I say.  Surely, not the Impérial Government up

+in Paris who did not know how to protect its citizens from the

+depredations of such villains, and had not even succeeded in making

+the high road between Caen and Alençon safe for peaceable travellers.

+

+Inside the coach the passengers were at last giving tongue to their

+indignation.  Highway robbery at six o'clock in the afternoon, and

+the evening not a very dark one at that!  It were monstrous,

+outrageous, almost incredible, did not the empty pockets and

+ransacked valises testify to the scandalous fact.  M. Fouché, Duc

+d'Otrante, was drawing a princely salary as Minister of Police, and

+yet allowed a mail-coach to be held up and pillaged--almost by

+daylight and within five kilomètres of the county town!

+

+The last half-hour of the eventful journey flew by like magic: there

+was so much to say that it became impossible to keep count of time.

+Alençon was reached before everyone had had a chance of saying just

+what he or she thought of the whole affair, or of consigning M. le

+Duc d'Otrante and all his myrmidons to that particular chamber in

+Hades which was most suitable for their crimes.

+

+Outside the "Adam et Ève," where Gontran finally drew rein, there was

+a gigantic clatter and din as the passengers tumbled out of the

+coach, and by the dim light of the nearest street lantern tried to

+disentangle their own belongings from the pile of ransacked valises

+which the ostlers had unceremoniously tumbled out in a heap upon the

+cobble stones.  Everyone was talking--no one in especial seemed

+inclined to listen--anecdotes of former outrages committed by the

+Chouans were bandied to and fro.

+

+Gontran, leaning against the entrance of the inn, a large mug of

+steaming wine in his hand, watched with philosophic eye his former

+passengers, struggling with their luggage.  One or two of them were

+going to spend the night at the "Adam et Ève": they had already filed

+past him into the narrow passage beyond, where they were now deep in

+an altercation with Gilles Blaise, the proprietor, on the subject of

+the price and the situation of their rooms; others had homes or

+friends in the city, and with their broken valises and bundles in

+their hands could be seen making their way up the narrow main street,

+still gesticulating excitedly.

+

+"It's a shocking business, friend Gontran," quoth Gilles Blaise as

+soon as he had settled with the last of his customers.  His gruff

+voice held a distinct note of sarcasm, for he was a powerful fellow

+and feared neither footpads nor midnight robbers, nor any other

+species of those _satané_ Chouans.  "I wonder you did not make a

+better fight for it.  You had three or four male passengers

+aboard----"

+

+"What could I do?" retorted Gontran irritably.  "I had my horses to

+attend to, and did it, let me tell you, with the muzzle of a pistol

+pressing against my temple."

+

+"You didn't see anything of those miscreants?"

+

+"Nothing.  That is----"

+

+"What?"

+

+"Just when I was free once more to gather the reins in my hands and

+the order 'Forward' was given by those impudent rascals, he who had

+spoken the order stood for a moment below one of my lanterns."

+

+"And you saw him?"

+

+"As plainly as I see you--except his face, for that was hidden by the

+wide brim of his hat and by a shaggy beard.  But there is one thing I

+should know him by, if the police ever succeeded in laying hands on

+the rogue."

+

+"What is that?"

+

+"He had only one leg, the other was a wooden one."

+

+Gilles Blaise gave a loud guffaw.  He had never heard of a highwayman

+with a wooden leg before.  "The rascal cannot run far if the police

+ever do get after him," was his final comment on the situation.

+

+Thereupon Gontran suddenly bethought himself of the passenger who had

+sat on the box-seat beside him until those abominable footpads had

+ordered the poor man to get out of their way.

+

+"Have you seen anything of him, Hector?" he queried of the postilion.

+

+"Well, now you mention him," replied the young man slowly, "I don't

+remember that I have."

+

+"He was not among the lot that came out of the coach."

+

+"He certainly was not."

+

+"I thought when he did not get back to his seat beside me, he had

+lost his nerve and gone inside."

+

+"So did I."

+

+"Well, then?" concluded Gontran.

+

+But the puzzle thus propounded was beyond Hector's powers of

+solution.  He scratched the back of his head by way of trying to

+extract thence a key to the enigma.

+

+"We must have left him behind," he suggested.

+

+"He would have shouted after us if we had," commented Gontran.

+"Unless----" he added with graphic significance.

+

+Hector shook himself like a dog who has come out of the water.  The

+terror of those footpads and of those pistols clicking in the dark,

+unpleasantly close to his head, was still upon him.

+

+"You don't think----" he murmured through chattering teeth.

+

+Gontran shrugged his shoulders.

+

+"It won't be the first time," he said sententiously, "that those

+miscreants have added murder to their other crimes."

+

+"Lost one of your passengers, Gontran?" queried Gilles Blaise blandly.

+

+"If those rogues have murdered him----" quoth Gontran with an oath.

+

+"Then you'd have to make a special declaration before the chief

+commissary of police, and that within an hour.  Who was your

+passenger, Gontran?"

+

+"I don't know.  A quiet, well-mannered fellow.  Good company he was,

+too, during the first part of the way."

+

+"What was his name?"

+

+"I can't tell.  I picked him up at Argentan.  The box-seat was empty.

+No one wanted it, for it was raining then.  He paid me his fare and

+scrambled up beside me.  That's all I know about him."

+

+"What was he like?  Young or old?"

+

+"I didn't see him very well.  It was already getting dark," rejoined

+Gontran impatiently.  "I couldn't look him under the nose, could I?"

+

+"But _sacrebleu_!  Monsieur le Commissaire de Police will want to

+know something more than that.  Did you at least see how he was

+dressed?"

+

+"Yes," replied Gontran, "as far as I can recollect he was dressed in

+grey."

+

+"Well, then, friend Gontran," concluded Gilles Blaise with a jovial

+laugh, "you can go at once to Monsieur le Commissaire de Police, and

+you can tell him that an industrious Chouan, who has a wooden leg and

+a shaggy beard but whose face you did not see, has to the best of

+your belief murdered an unknown passenger whose name, age and

+appearance you know nothing about, but who, as far as you can

+recollect, was dressed in grey----  And we'll see," he added with a

+touch of grim humour, "what Monsieur le Commissaire will make out of

+this valuable information."

+

+

+II

+

+The men were cowering together in a burrow constructed of dead

+branches and caked mud, with a covering of heath and dried twigs.

+Their heads were close to one another and the dim light of a dark

+lanthorn placed upon the floor threw weird, sharp shadows across

+their eager faces, making them appear grotesque and almost

+ghoulish--the only bright spots in the surrounding gloom.

+

+One man on hands and knees was crouching by the narrow entrance, his

+keen eyes trying to pierce the density of the forest beyond.

+

+The booty was all there, spread out upon the damp earth--small coins

+and bundles of notes all smeared with grease and mud; there were some

+trinkets, too, but of obviously little value: a pair of showy gold

+ear-rings, one or two signets, a heavy watch in a chased silver case.

+But these had been contemptuously swept aside--it was the money that

+mattered.

+

+The man with the wooden leg had counted it all out and was now

+putting coins and notes back into a large leather wallet.

+

+"Six thousand two hundred and forty-seven francs," he said quietly,

+as he drew the thongs of the wallet closely together and tied them

+securely into a knot.  "One of the best hauls we've ever had.  'Tis

+Madame who will be pleased."

+

+"Our share will have to be paid out of that first," commented one of

+his companions.

+

+"Yes, yes!" quoth the other lightly.  "Madame will see to it.  She

+always does.  How many of you are there?" he added carelessly.

+

+"Seven of us all told.  They were a pack of cowards in that coach."

+

+"Well!" concluded the man with the wooden leg, "we must leave Madame

+to settle accounts.  I'd best place the money in safety now."

+

+He struggled up into a standing position--which was no easy matter

+for him with his stump and in the restricted space--and was about to

+hoist the heavy wallet on to his powerful shoulders, when one of his

+mates seized him by the wrist.

+

+"Hold on, Silver-Leg!" he said roughly, "we'll pay ourselves for our

+trouble first.  Eh, friends?" he added, turning to the others.

+

+But before any of them could reply there came a peremptory command

+from the man whom they had called "Silver-Leg."

+

+"Silence!" he whispered hoarsely.  "There's someone moving out there

+among the trees."

+

+At once the others obeyed, every other thought lulled to rest by the

+sense of sudden danger.  For a minute or so every sound was hushed in

+the narrow confines of the lair save the stertorous breathing which

+came from panting throats.  Then the look-out man at the entrance

+whispered under his breath:

+

+"I heard nothing."

+

+"Something moved, I tell you," rejoined Silver-Leg curtly.  "It may

+only have been a beast on the prowl."

+

+But the brief incident had given him the opportunity which he

+required; he had shaken off his companion's hold upon his wrist and

+had slung the wallet over his shoulder.  Now he stumped out of the

+burrow.

+

+"Friend Hare-Lip," he said before he went, in the same commanding

+tone wherewith he had imposed silence awhile ago on his turbulent

+mates, "tell Monseigneur that it will be 'Corinne' this time, and

+you, Mole-Skin, ask Madame to send Red-Poll over on Friday night for

+the key."

+

+The others growled in assent and followed him out of their

+hiding-place.  One of the men had extinguished the lanthorn, and

+another was hastily collecting the trinkets which had so

+contemptuously been swept aside.

+

+"Hold on, Silver-Leg!" shouted the man who had been called Hare-Lip;

+"short reckonings make long friends.  I'll have a couple of hundred

+francs now," he continued roughly.  "It may be days and weeks ere I

+see Madame again, and by that time God knows where the money will be."

+

+But Silver-Leg stumped on in the gloom, paying no heed to the

+peremptory calls of his mates.  It was marvellous how fast he

+contrived to hobble along, winding his way in and out in the

+darkness, among the trees, on the slippery carpet of pine needles and

+carrying that heavy wallet--six thousand two hundred francs, most of

+it in small coin--upon his back.  The others, however, were swift and

+determined, too.  Within the next minute or two they had overtaken

+him, and he could no longer evade them; they held him tightly,

+surrounding him on every side and clamouring for their share of the

+spoils.

+

+"We'll settle here and now, friend Silver-Leg," said Hare-Lip, who

+appeared to be the acknowledged spokesman of the malcontents.  "Two

+hundred francs for me out of that wallet, if you please, ere you move

+another step, and two hundred for each one of us here, or----"

+

+The man with the wooden leg had come to a halt, but somehow it seemed

+that he had not done so because the others held and compelled him,

+but because he himself had a desire to stand still.  Now when

+Hare-Lip paused, a world of menace in every line of his gaunt,

+quivering body, Silver-Leg laughed with gentle irony, as a man would

+laugh at the impotent vapourings of a child.

+

+"Or what, my good Hare-Lip?" he queried slowly.

+

+Then as the other instinctively lowered his gaze and mumbled

+something between his teeth, Silver-Leg shrugged his shoulders and

+said with kind indulgence, still as if he were speaking to a child:

+

+"Madame will settle, my friend.  Do not worry.  It is bad to worry.

+You remember Fear-Nought: he took to worrying--just as you are doing

+now--wanted to be paid out of his turn, or more than his share, I

+forget which.  But you remember him?"

+

+"I do," muttered Hare-Lip with a savage oath.  "Fear-Nought was

+tracked down by the police and dragged to Vincennes, or Force, or

+Bicêtre--we never knew."

+

+To the guillotine, my good Hare-Lip," rejoined Silver-Leg blandly,

+"along with some other very brave Chouans like yourselves, who also

+had given their leaders some considerable trouble."

+

+"Betrayed by you," growled Hare-Lip menacingly.

+

+"Punished--that's all," concluded Silver-Leg as he once more turned

+to go.

+

+"Treachery is a game at which more than one can play."

+

+"The stakes are high.  And only one man can win," remarked Silver-Leg

+dryly.

+

+"And one man must lose," shouted Hare-Lip, now beside himself with

+rage, "and that one shall be you this time, my fine Silver-Leg.  À

+moi, my mates!" he called to his companions.

+

+And in a moment the men fell on Silver-Leg with the vigour born of

+terror and greed, and for the first moment or two of their desperate

+tussle it seemed as if the man with the wooden leg must succumb to

+the fury of his assailants.  Darkness encompassed them all round, and

+the deep silence which dwells in the heart of the woods.  And in the

+darkness and the silence these men fought--and fought

+desperately--for the possession of a few hundred francs just filched

+at the muzzle of a pistol from a few peaceable travellers.

+

+Pistols of course could not be used; the police patrols might not be

+far away, and so they fought on in silence, grim and determined, one

+man against half a dozen, and that one halt, and weighted with the

+spoils.  But he had the strength of a giant, and with his back

+against a stately fir tree he used the heavy wallet as a flail,

+keeping his assailants at arm's length with the menace of

+death-dealing blows.

+

+Then, suddenly, from far away, even through the dull thuds of this

+weird and grim struggle, there came the sound of men approaching--the

+click of sabres, the tramp and snorting of horses, the sense of men

+moving rapidly even if cautiously through the gloom.  Silver-Leg was

+the first to hear it.

+

+"Hush!" he cried suddenly, and as loudly as he dared, "the police!"

+

+Again, with that blind instinct born of terror and ever-present

+danger, the others obeyed.  The common peril had as swiftly

+extinguished the quarrel as greed of gain had fanned it into flame.

+

+The cavalcade was manifestly drawing nearer.

+

+"Disperse!" commanded Silver-Leg under his breath.  "Clear out of the

+wood, but avoid the tracks which lead out of it, lest it is

+surrounded.  Remember 'Corinne' for Monseigneur, and that Red-Poll

+can have the key for Madame on Friday."

+

+Once again he had made use of his opportunity.  Before the others had

+recovered from their sudden fright, he had quietly stumped away, and

+in less than five seconds was lost in the gloom among the trees.  For

+a moment or two longer an ear, attuned by terror or the constant

+sense of danger, might have perceived the dull, uneven thud of his

+wooden leg against the soft carpet of pine needles, but even this

+soon died away in the distance, and over the kingdom of darkness

+which held sway within the forest there fell once more the pall of

+deathlike silence.  The posse of police in search of human quarry had

+come and gone, the stealthy footsteps of tracked criminals had ceased

+to resound from tree to tree; all that could be heard was the

+occasional call of a night-bird, or the furtive movement of tiny

+creatures of the wild.

+

+Silence hung over the forest for close upon an hour.  Then from

+behind a noble fir a dark figure detached itself and more stealthily,

+more furtively than any tiny beast it stole along the track which

+leads to the main road.  The figure, wrapped in a dark mantle, glided

+determinedly along despite the difficulties of the narrow track,

+complicated now by absolute darkness.  Hours went by ere it reached

+the main road, on the very spot where some few hours ago the

+mail-coach had been held up and robbed by a pack of impudent thieves.

+Here the figure halted for awhile, and just then the heavy rain

+clouds, which had hung over the sky the whole evening, slowly parted

+and revealed the pale waning moon.  A soft light gradually suffused

+the sky and vanquished the impenetrable darkness.

+

+Not a living soul was in sight save that solitary figure by the

+roadside--a man, to all appearances, wearing a broad-brimmed hat

+casting a deep shadow over his face; the waning moon threw a cold

+light upon the grey mantle which he wore.  On ahead the exquisite

+tower of the church of Notre Dame appeared vague and fairylike

+against the deep sapphire of the horizon far away.  Then the solitary

+figure started to walk briskly in the direction of the city.

+

+

+III

+

+M. le Procureur Impérial, sitting in his comfortable armchair in the

+well-furnished apartment which he occupied in the Rue St. Blaise at

+Alençon, was surveying his visitor with a quizzical and questioning

+gaze.

+

+On the desk before him lay the letter which that same visitor had

+presented to him the previous evening--a letter penned by no less a

+hand than that of M. le Duc d'Otrante himself, Minister of Police,

+and recommending the bearer of this august autograph to the good will

+of M. de Saint-Tropèze, Procureur Impérial at the tribunal of

+Alençon.  Nay, more!  M. le Ministre in that same autograph letter

+gave orders, in no grudging terms, that the bearer was to be trusted

+implicitly, and that every facility was to be given him in the

+execution of his duty: said duty consisting in the tracking down and

+helping to bring to justice of as many as possible of those saucy

+Chouans who, not content with terrorising the countryside, were up in

+arms against the government of His Impérial Majesty.

+

+A direct encroachment this on the rights and duties of M. le

+Procureur Impérial; no wonder he surveyed the quiet,

+insignificant-looking individual before him, with a not altogether

+benevolent air.

+

+M. le préfet sitting on the opposite side of the high mantelpiece was

+discreetly silent until his chief chose to speak.

+

+After a brief while the Procureur Impérial addressed his visitor.

+

+"Monsieur le Duc d'Otrante," he said in that dry, supercilious tone

+which he was wont to affect when addressing his subordinates, "speaks

+very highly of you, Monsieur--Monsieur--  By the way, the Minister, I

+perceive, does not mention your name.  What is your name, Monsieur?"

+

+"Fernand, Monsieur le Procureur," replied the man.

+

+"Fernand?  Fernand what?"

+

+"Nothing, Monsieur le Procureur.  Only Fernand."

+

+The little Man in Grey spoke very quietly in a dull, colourless tone

+which harmonised with the neutral tone of his whole appearance.  For

+a moment it seemed as if a peremptory or sarcastic retort hovered on

+M. le Procureur's lips.  The man's quietude appeared like an

+impertinence.

+

+M. de Saint-Tropèze belonged to the old _Noblesse_.  He had emigrated

+at the time of the Revolution and spent a certain number of years in

+England, during which time a faithful and obscure steward

+administered his property and saved it from confiscation.

+

+The blandishments of the newly-crowned Emperor had lured M. de

+Saint-Tropèze back to France.  Common sense and ambition had

+seemingly got the better of his antiquated ideals, whilst Napoleon

+was only too ready to surround himself with as many scions of the

+ancient nobility as were willing to swear allegiance to him.  He

+welcomed Henri de Saint-Tropèze and showered dignities upon him with

+a lavish hand; but the latter never forgot that the Government he now

+served was an upstart one, and he never departed from that air of

+condescension and high breeding which kept him aloof from his more

+plebeian subordinates and which gave him an authority and an

+influence in the province which they themselves could never hope to

+attain.

+

+M. le préfet had coughed discreetly.  The warning was well-timed.  He

+knew every word of the Minister's letter by heart, and one phrase in

+it might, he feared, have escaped M. le Procureur's notice.  It

+ordered that the bearer of the Ministerial credentials was to be

+taken entirely on trust--no questions were to be asked of him save

+those to which he desired to make reply.  To disregard even the

+vaguest hint given by the all-powerful Minister of Police was, to say

+the least, hazardous.  Fortunately M. de Saint-Tropèze understood the

+warning.  He pressed his thin lips tightly together and did not

+pursue the subject of his visitor's name any farther.

+

+"You propose setting to work immediately, Monsieur--er--Fernand?" he

+asked with frigid hauteur.

+

+"With your permission, Monsieur le Procureur," replied the Man in

+Grey.

+

+"In the matter of the highway robbery the other night, for instance?"

+

+"In that and other matters, Monsieur le Procureur."

+

+"You were on the coach which was attacked by those damnable Chouans,

+I believe?"

+

+"Yes, Monsieur le Procureur.  I picked up the coach at Argentan and

+sat next to the driver until the vehicle was ordered to halt."

+

+"Then what happened?"

+

+"A man scrambled up on the box-seat beside me, and holding a pistol

+to my head commanded me to descend."

+

+"And you descended?"

+

+"Yes," replied the man quietly.  He paused a moment and then added by

+way of an explanation: "I hurt my knee coming down; the pain caused

+me to lose some measure of consciousness.  When I returned to my

+senses, I found myself on the roadside--all alone--there was no sign

+either of the coach or of the footpads."

+

+"An unfortunate beginning," said M. de Saint-Tropèze with a distinct

+note of sarcasm in his voice, "for a secret agent of His Majesty's

+Police sent down to track some of the most astute rascals known in

+the history of crime."

+

+"I hope to do better in the future, Monsieur le Procureur," rejoined

+the Man in Grey simply.

+

+M. de Saint-Tropèze made no further remark, and for a moment or two

+there was silence in the room.  The massive Louis XIV clock ticked

+monotonously; M. de Saint-Tropèze seemed to be dissociating his

+well-bred person from the sordid and tortuous affairs of the Police.

+The Man in Grey appeared to be waiting until he was spoken to again,

+and M. le préfet had a vague feeling that the silence was becoming

+oppressive, as if some unspoken enmity lurked between the plebeian

+and obscure police agent and the highly connected and influential

+Procurator of His Majesty the Emperor.  He threw himself blandly into

+the breach.

+

+"Of course, of course," he said genially.  "You,

+Monsieur--er--Fernand, are lucky to have escaped with your life.

+Those rascals stick at nothing nowadays.  The driver of the coach

+fully believed that you had been murdered.  I suppose you saw nothing

+of the rogue?"

+

+But this was evidently not one of the questions which the Man in Grey

+had any desire to answer, and M. Vimars did not insist.  He turned

+obsequiously to M. le Procureur.

+

+"The driver," he said, "spoke of one having a wooden leg.  But the

+worthy Gontran was very vague in all his statements.  I imagine that

+he and all the male passengers must have behaved like cowards or the

+rascals would never have got so clean away."

+

+"The night was very dark, Monsieur le Préfet," observed the Man in

+Grey dryly, "and the Chouans were well armed."

+

+"Quite so," here broke in M. le Procureur impatiently, "and no object

+can be served now in recriminations.  See to it, my good Vimars," he

+continued in a tone that was still slightly sarcastic but entirely

+peremptory, "that the Minister's orders are obeyed to the last

+letter.  Place yourself and all your personnel and the whole of the

+local police at Monsieur--er--Fernand's disposal, and do not let me

+hear any more complaints of inefficiency or want of good will on your

+part until those scoundrels have been laid by the "heel."

+

+

+IV

+

+M. de Saint-Tropèze paused after his peroration.  With an almost

+imperceptible nod of his handsome head he indicated both to his

+visitor and to his subordinate that the audience was at an end.  But

+M. le préfet, though he knew himself to be dismissed, appeared

+reluctant to go.  There was something which M. le Procureur had

+forgotten, and the worthy préfet was trying to gather up courage to

+jog his memory.  He had a mightily wholesome respect for his chief,

+had M. Vimars, for the Procureur was not only a man of vast erudition

+and of the bluest blood, but one who was held in high consideration

+by His Majesty's government in Paris, ay, and, so 'twas said, by His

+Majesty himself.

+

+So M. Vimars hummed and hawed and gave one or two discreet little

+coughs, whilst M. le Procureur with obvious impatience was drumming

+his well-manicured nails against the arm of his chair.  At last he

+said testily:

+

+"You have something you wish to say to me, my good Monsieur Vimars?"

+

+"Yes, Monsieur le Procureur," hazarded the préfet in reply, "that

+is--there is the matter of the burglary--and--and the murder last

+night--that is----"

+

+M. le Procureur frowned: "Those are local matters," he said loftily,

+"which concern the commissary of police, my good Vimars, and are

+beneath the notice of Monsieur le Ministre's secret agent."

+

+The préfet, conscious of a reprimand, blushed to the very roots of

+his scanty hair.  He rose with some haste and the obvious desire to

+conceal his discomfiture in a precipitate retreat, when the Man in

+Grey interposed in his quiet, even monotone:

+

+"Nothing is beneath the notice of a secret agent, Monsieur le

+Procureur," he said; "and everything which is within the province of

+the commissary of police concerns the representative of the Minister."

+

+M. Vimars literally gasped at this presumption.  How anyone dared

+thus to run counter to M. le Procureur's orders simply passed his

+comprehension.  He looked with positive horror on the meagre,

+insignificant personage who even now was meeting M. le Procureur's

+haughty, supercilious glance without any sign of contrition or of

+shame.

+

+M. de Saint-Tropèze had raised his aristocratic eyebrows, and tried

+to wither the audacious malapert with his scornful glance, but the

+little Man in Grey appeared quite unconscious of the enormity of his

+offence; he stood by--as was his wont--quietly and silently, his eyes

+fixed inquiringly on the préfet, who was indeed hoping that the floor

+would open conveniently and swallow him up ere he was called upon to

+decide whether he should obey the orders of his official chief, or

+pay heed to the commands of the accredited agent of M. the Minister

+of Police.

+

+But M. le Procureur decided the question himself and in the only way

+possible.  The Minister's letter with its peremptory commands lay

+there before him--the secret agent of His Majesty's Police was to be

+aided and obeyed implicitly in all matters relating to his work;

+there was nothing to be done save to comply with those orders as

+graciously as he could, and without further loss of dignity.

+

+"You have heard the wishes of Monsieur le Ministre's agent, my good

+Vimars," he said coldly; "so I pray you speak to him of the matter

+which exercises your mind, for of a truth I am not well acquainted

+with all the details."

+

+Whereupon he fell to contemplating the exquisite polish on his

+almond-shaped nails.  Though the over-bearing little upstart in the

+grey coat could command the obsequiousness of such men as that fool

+Vimars, he must be shown at the outset that his insolence would find

+no weak spot in the armour of M. de Saint-Tropèze's lofty

+self-respect.

+

+"Oh! it is very obvious," quoth the préfet, whose only desire was to

+conciliate both parties, "that the matter is not one which affects

+the graver question of those _satané_ Chouans.  At the same time both

+the affairs of last night are certainly mysterious and present some

+unusual features which have greatly puzzled our exceedingly able

+commissary of police.  It seems that in the early hours of this

+morning the library of Monseigneur the Constitutional Bishop of

+Alençon was broken into by thieves.  Fortunately nothing of any value

+was stolen, and this part of the affair appeared simple enough, until

+an hour or two later a couple of peasants, who were walking from

+Lonrai towards the city, came across the body of a man lying face

+upwards by the roadside.  The man was quite dead--had been dead some

+time apparently.  The two louts hurried at once to the commissariat

+of police and made their depositions.  Monsieur Lefèvre, our chief

+commissary, proceeded to the scene of the crime; he has now the

+affair in hand."

+

+The préfet had perforce to pause in his narrative for lack of breath.

+He had been talking volubly and uninterruptedly, and indeed he had no

+cause to complain of lack of attention on the part of his hearer.  M.

+le Ministre's secret agent sat absolutely still, his deep-set eyes

+fixed intently upon the narrator.  Alone M. le Procureur Impérial

+maintained his attitude of calm disdain.  He still appeared deeply

+absorbed in the contemplation of his finger-nails.

+

+"At first," resumed the préfet after his dramatic pause, "these two

+crimes, the greater and the less, seemed in no way connected, and

+personally I am not sure even now that they are.  A certain air of

+similarity and mystery, however, clings to them both, for in both

+cases the crimes appear at the outset so very purposeless.  In the

+case of the burglary in Monseigneur's palace the thieves were

+obviously scared before they could lay hands on any valuables, but

+even so there were some small pieces of silver lying about which they

+might have snatched up, even if they were in a vast hurry to get

+away; whilst in the case of the murder, though the victim's silver

+watch was stolen and his pockets ransacked, the man was obviously

+poor and not worth knocking down."

+

+"And is the identity of the victim known to the police?" here asked

+the Man in Grey in his dull, colourless voice.

+

+"Indeed it is," replied the préfet; "the man was well known

+throughout the neighbourhood.  He was valet to Madame la Marquise de

+Plélan."

+

+M. le Procureur looked up suddenly from his engrossing occupation.

+

+"Ah!" he said, "I did not know that.  Lefèvre did not tell me that he

+had established the identity of the victim."

+

+He sighed and once more gazed meditatively upon his finger-nails.

+

+"Poor Maxence!  I have often seen him at Plélan.  There never was a

+more inoffensive creature.  What motive could the brute have for such

+a villainous murder?"

+

+The préfet shrugged his shoulders.

+

+"Some private quarrel, I imagine," he said.

+

+"A love affair?" queried the Man in Grey.

+

+"Oh no, Monsieur.  Maxence was the wrong side of fifty."

+

+"A smart man?"

+

+"Anything but smart--a curious, shock-headed, slouchy-looking person

+with hair as red as a fox's."

+

+Just for the space of one second the colourless eyes of the Man in

+Grey lit up with a quick and intense light; it seemed for the moment

+as if an exclamation difficult to suppress would escape his thin,

+bloodless lips, and his whole insignificant figure appeared to be

+quivering with a sudden, uncontrollable eagerness.  But this

+departure from his usual quietude was so momentary that M. le préfet

+failed to notice it, whilst M. le Procureur remained as usual

+uninterested and detached.

+

+"Poor Maxence!" resumed M. Vimars after awhile.  "He had, as far as

+is known, not a single enemy in the world.  He was devoted to Madame

+la Marquise and enjoyed her complete confidence; he was not possessed

+of any savings, nor was he of a quarrelsome disposition.  He can't

+have had more than a few francs about his person when he was so

+foully waylaid and murdered.  Indeed, it is because the crime is

+ostensibly so wanton that the police at once dismissed the idea that

+those abominable Chouans had anything to do with it."

+

+"Is the road where the body was found very lonely of nights?" asked

+the Man in Grey.

+

+"It is a lonely road," replied the préfet, "and never considered very

+safe, as it is a favourite haunt of the Chouans--but it is the direct

+road between Alençon and Mayenne, through Lonrai and Plélan."

+

+"Is it known what business took the confidential valet of Madame la

+Marquise de Plélan on that lonely road in the middle of the night?"

+

+"It has not been definitely established," here broke in M. le

+Procureur curtly, "that the murder was committed in the middle of the

+night."

+

+"I thought----"

+

+"The body was found in the early morning," continued M. de

+Saint-Tropèze with an air of cold condescension; "the man had been

+dead some hours--the leech has not pronounced how many.  Maxence had

+no doubt many friends or relations in Alençon: it is presumed that he

+spent the afternoon in the city and was on his way back to Plélan in

+the evening when he was waylaid and murdered."

+

+"That presumption is wrong," said the Man in Grey quietly.

+

+"Wrong?" retorted M. le Procureur frigidly.  "What do you mean?"

+

+"I was walking home from Plélan towards Alençon in the small hours of

+the morning.  There was no dead body lying in the road then."

+

+"The body lay by the roadside, half in the ditch," said M. le

+Procureur dryly, "you may have missed seeing it."

+

+"Possibly," rejoined the Man in Grey equally dryly, "but unlikely."

+

+"Were you looking out for it then?" riposted the Procureur.  But no

+sooner were the words out of his mouth than he realised his mistake.

+The Man in Grey made no reply; he literally appeared to withdraw

+himself into an invisible shell, to efface himself yet further within

+a colourless atmosphere, out of which it was obviously unwise to try

+to drag him.  M. le Procureur pressed his thin lips together,

+impatient with himself at an unnecessary loss of dignity.  As usual

+M. le préfet was ready to throw himself into the breach.

+

+"I am sure," he said with his usual volubility, "that we are wasting

+Monsieur le Procureur's valuable time now.  I can assure you,

+Monsieur--er--Fernand, that our chief commissary of police can give

+you all the details of the crime--if, indeed, they interest you.

+Shall we go now?--that is," he added, with that same feeling of

+hesitation which overcame him every time he encountered the secret

+agent's calm, inquiring look, "that is--er--unless there's anything

+else you wish to ask of Monsieur le Procureur."

+

+"I wish to know with regard to the murder, what was the cause of

+death," said the Man in Grey quietly.

+

+"A pistol shot, sir," replied M. de Saint-Tropèze coldly, "right

+between the shoulder blades, delivered at short range apparently,

+seeing that the man's coat was charred and blackened with powder.

+The leech avers that he must have fallen instantly."

+

+"Shot between the shoulders, and yet found lying on his back,"

+murmured the Man in Grey.  "And was nothing at all found upon the

+body that would give a clue to the motive of the crime?"

+

+"Nothing, my dear sir," broke in the préfet glibly, "nothing at all.

+In his breeches' pocket there was a greasy and crumpled sheet of

+letter-paper, which on examination was found to be covered with a row

+of numerals all at random--like a child's exercise-book."

+

+"Could I see the paper?"

+

+"It is at the commissariat of police," explained the Procureur curtly.

+

+"Where I can easily find it, of course," concluded the Man in Grey

+with calm decision.  "In the meanwhile perhaps Monsieur le préfet

+will be kind enough to tell me something more about the burglary at

+the Archbishop's Palace."

+

+"There's very little to tell, my good Monsieur Fernand," said M.

+Vimars, who, far more conscious than was the stranger of the

+Procureur's growing impatience, would have given a month's salary for

+the privilege of making himself scarce.

+

+"With what booty did the burglars make off?"

+

+"With nothing of any value; and what they did get they dropped in

+their flight.  The police found a small silver candlestick, and a

+brass paper weight in the street close to the gate of Monseigneur's

+Palace, also one or two books which no doubt the burglars had seized

+in the hope that they were valuable editions."

+

+"Nothing, then, has actually been stolen?"

+

+"Nothing.  I believe that Monseigneur told the chief commissary that

+one or two of his books are still missing, but none of any value.  So

+you see, my good Monsieur--er--Fernand," concluded M. Vimars blandly,

+"that the whole matter is quite beneath your consideration.  It is a

+case of a vulgar murder with only a private grudge by way of

+motive--and an equally vulgar attempt at burglary, fortunately with

+no evil results.  Our local police--though none too efficient, alas!

+in these strenuous days, when His Majesty's army claims the flower of

+our manhood--is well able to cope with these simple matters, which,

+of course, must occur in every district from time to time.  You may

+take it from me--and I have plenty of experience, remember--that the

+matter has no concern whatever with the Chouans and with your mission

+here.  You can, quite conscientiously, devote the whole of your time

+to the case of the highway robbery the other night, and the recovery

+of the sixty-two hundred francs which were stolen from the coach, as

+well as the tracking of that daring rascal with the wooden leg."

+

+Satisfied with his peroration, M. Vimars at last felt justified in

+moving towards the door.

+

+"I don't think," he concluded with suave obsequiousness, "that we

+need take up any more of Monsieur le Procureur's valuable time, and

+with his gracious permission----"

+

+To his intense relief, M. Vimars perceived that the Man in Grey was

+at last prepared to take his leave.

+

+M. de Saint-Tropèze, plainly at the end of his patience, delighted to

+be rid of his tiresome visitors, at once became pleasantly

+condescending.  To the secret agent of His Majesty's Police he gave a

+quite gracious nod, and made the worthy préfet proud and happy by

+whispering in his ear:

+

+"Do not allow that little busybody to interfere with you too much, my

+dear Monsieur Vimars.  I am prepared to back your skill and

+experience in such matters against any young shrimp from Paris."

+

+The nod of understanding which accompanied this affable speech sent

+M. Vimars into an empyrean of delight.  After which M. le Procureur

+finally bowed his visitors out of the room.

+

+The little Man in Grey walked in silence beside M. Vimars along the

+narrow network of streets which lead to the Hôtel de Ville.  The

+préfet had a suite of apartments assigned to him in the building, and

+once he was installed in his own well-furnished library, untrammelled

+by the presence of his chief, and with the accredited agent of His

+Majesty's Minister sitting opposite to him, he gave full rein to his

+own desire for perfect amity with so important a personage.

+

+He began by a lengthy disquisition on the merits of M. le Procureur

+Impérial.  Never had there been a man of such consideration and of

+such high culture in the city.  M. de Saint-Tropèze was respected

+alike by the municipal officials, by the townspeople and by the

+landed aristocracy of the neighbourhood--and he was a veritable

+terror to the light-fingered gentry, as well as to the gangs of

+Chouans that infested the district.

+

+The Man in Grey listened to the fulsome panegyric with his accustomed

+deep attention.  He asked a few questions as to M. de Saint-Tropèze's

+domestic circumstances.  "Was he married?" "Was he wealthy?" "Did he

+keep up a luxurious mode of life?"

+

+To all these questions M. Vimars was only too ready to give reply.

+No, Monsieur le Procureur was not married.  He was presumably

+wealthy, for he kept up a very elegant bachelor establishment in the

+Rue St. Blaise with just a few old and confidential servants.  The

+sources of his income were not known, as Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze

+was very proud and reserved, and would not condescend to speak of his

+affairs with anyone.

+

+Next the worthy préfet harked back, with wonted volubility, to the

+double outrage of the previous night, and rehearsed at copious length

+every circumstance connected with it.  Strangely enough, the secret

+agent, who had been sent by the Minister all the way from Paris in

+order to track down that particular band of Chouans, appeared far

+more interested in the murder of Mme. de Plélan's valet and the theft

+of a few books out of Monseigneur the Bishop's library than he was in

+the daring robbery of the mail-coach.

+

+"You knew the unfortunate Maxence, did you not, Monsieur le Préfet?"

+he asked.

+

+"Why, yes," replied M. Vimars, "for I have often paid my respects to

+Madame la Marquise de Plélan."

+

+"What was he like?"

+

+"You can go over to the commissariat of police and see what's left of

+the poor man," rejoined the préfet, with a feeble attempt at grim

+humour.  "The most remarkable feature about him was his red hair--an

+unusual colour among our Normandy peasantry."

+

+Later M. Vimars put the finishing touch to his amiability by placing

+his services unreservedly at the disposal of M. le Ministre's agent.

+

+"Is there anything that I can do for you, my good Monsieur Fernand?"

+he asked urbanely.

+

+"Not for the moment, I thank you," replied Fernand.  "I will send to

+you if I require any assistance from the police.  But in the

+meanwhile," he added, "I see that you are something of a scholar.  I

+should be greatly obliged if you could lend me a book to while away

+some of my idle hours."

+

+"A book?  With pleasure!" quoth M. Vimars, not a little puzzled.

+"But how did you know?"

+

+"That you were a scholar?" rejoined the other with a vague smile.

+"It was a fairly simple guess, seeing your well-stocked cases of

+books around me, and that a well-fingered volume protrudes even now

+from your coat-pocket."

+

+"Ah!  Ah!" retorted the préfet ingenuously, "I see that truly you are

+a great deal sharper, Monsieur Fernand, than you appear to be.  But

+in any case," he added, "I shall be charmed to be of service to you

+in the matter of my small library.  I flatter myself that it is both

+comprehensive and select--so if there is anything you especially

+desire to read----"

+

+"I thank you, Sir," said the Man in Grey; "as a matter of fact I have

+never had the opportunity of reading Madame de Staël's latest work,

+_Corinne_, and if you happen to possess a copy----"

+

+"With the greatest of pleasure, my dear sir," exclaimed the préfet.

+He went at once to one of his well-filled bookcases, and after a

+brief search found the volume and handed it with a smile to his

+visitor.

+

+"It seems a grave pity," he added, "that no new edition of this

+remarkable work has ever been printed.  But Madame de Staël is not in

+favour with His Majesty, which no doubt accounts for the publisher's

+lack of enterprise."

+

+A few more words of polite farewell: after which M. Vimars took final

+leave of the Minister's agent.  The little Man in Grey glided out of

+the stately apartment like a ghost, even his footsteps failing to

+resound along the polished floor.

+

+

+V

+

+Buried in a capacious armchair, beside a cheerfully blazing fire, M.

+le Procureur Impérial had allowed the copy of the _Moniteur_ which he

+had been reading to drop from his shapely hands on to the floor.  He

+had closed his eyes and half an hour had gone by in peaceful

+somnolence, even while M. Lefèvre, chief commissary of police, was

+cooling his heels in the antechamber, preparatory to being received

+in audience on most urgent business.

+

+M. le Procureur Impérial never did anything in a hurry, and, on

+principle, always kept a subordinate waiting until any officiousness

+or impertinence which might have been lurking in the latter's mind

+had been duly squelched by weariness and sore feet.

+

+So it was only after he had indulged in a short and refreshing nap

+that M. de Saint-Tropèze rang for his servant, and ordered him to

+introduce M. Lefèvre, chief commissary of police.  The latter, a

+choleric, apoplectic, loud-voiced official, entered the audience

+chamber in a distinctly chastened spirit.  He had been shown the

+original letter of credentials sent to M. le Procureur by the

+Minister, and yesterday he had caught sight of the small grey-clad

+figure as it flitted noiselessly along the narrow streets of the

+city.  And inwardly the brave commissary of police had then and there

+perpetrated an act of high treason, for he had sworn at the

+ineptitude of the grand Ministries in Paris, which sent a pack of

+incompetent agents to interfere with those who were capable of

+dealing with their own local affairs.

+

+Monsieur le Procureur Impérial, who no doubt sympathised with the

+worthy man's grievances, was inclined to be gracious.

+

+"Well?  And what is it now, my good Monsieur Lefèvre?" he asked as

+soon as the commissary was seated.

+

+"In one moment, Monsieur le Procureur," growled Lefèvre.  "First of

+all, will you tell me what I am to do about that secret agent who has

+come here, I suppose, to poke his ugly nose into my affairs?"

+

+"What you are to do about him?" rejoined M. de Saint-Tropèze with a

+smile.  "I have shown you the Minister's letter: he says that we must

+leave all matters in the hands of his accredited agent."

+

+"By your leave," quoth Lefèvre wrathfully, "that accredited agent

+might as well be polishing the flagstones of the Paris boulevards,

+for all the good that he will do down here."

+

+"You think so?" queried M. le Procureur, and with a detached air, he

+fell into his customary contemplation of his nails.

+

+"And with your permission," continued the commissary, "I will proceed

+with my own investigations of the outrages committed by those

+abominable Chouans, for that bundle of conceit will never get the

+hang of the affair."

+

+"But the Minister says that we must not interfere.  We must render

+all the assistance that we can."

+

+"Bah! we'll render assistance when it is needed," retorted Lefèvre

+captiously.  "But in the meantime I am not going to let that

+wooden-legged scoundrel slip through my fingers, to please any

+grey-coated marmoset who thinks he can lord it over me in my own

+district."

+

+M. de Saint-Tropèze appeared interested.

+

+"You have a clue?" he asked.

+

+"More than that.  I know who killed Maxence."

+

+"Ah!  You have got the man?  Well done, my brave Lefèvre," exclaimed

+M. le Procureur, without, however, a very great show of enthusiasm.

+

+"I haven't got him yet," parried Lefèvre.  "But I have the

+description of the rascal.  A little patience and I can lay my hands

+on him--provided that busybody does not interfere."

+

+"Who is he, then?" queried M. de Saint-Tropèze.

+

+"One of those damned Chouans."

+

+"You are sure?"

+

+"Absolutely.  All day yesterday I was busy interrogating witnesses,

+who I knew must have been along the road between Lonrai and the city

+in the small hours of the morning--workpeople and so on, who go to

+and from their work every morning of their lives.  Well! after a good

+deal of trouble we have been able to establish that the murder was

+actually committed between the hours of five and half-past, because

+although no one appears actually to have heard the pistol shot, the

+people who were on the road before five saw nothing suspicious,

+whilst the two louts who subsequently discovered the body actually

+heard the tower clock of Notre Dame striking the half-hour at the

+very time."

+

+"Well?  And----"

+

+"No fewer than three of the witnesses state that they saw a man with

+a queer-shaped lip, dressed in a ragged coat and breeches, and with

+stockingless feet thrust into sabots, hanging about the road shortly

+before five o'clock.  They gave him a wide berth, for they took him

+to be a Chouan on the prowl."

+

+"Why should a Chouan trouble to kill a wretched man who has not a

+five-franc piece to bless himself with?"

+

+"That's what we've got to find out," rejoined the commissary of

+police, "and we will find it out, too, as soon as we've got the

+ruffian and the rest of the gang.  I know the rogue, mind you--the

+man with the queer lip.  I have had my eye on him for some time.  Oh!

+he belongs to the gang, I'll stake mine oath on it: a youngish man

+who should be in the army and is obviously a deserter--a

+ne'er-do-well who never does a day's honest work and disappears o'

+nights.  What his name is and where he comes from I do not know.  But

+through him we'll get the others, including the chief of the

+gang--the man with the wooden leg."

+

+"God grant you may succeed!" ejaculated M. le Procureur

+sententiously.  "These perpetual outrages in one's district are a

+fearful strain on one's nerves.  By the way," he added, as he passed

+his shapely hand over a number of miscellaneous papers which lay in a

+heap upon his desk, "I don't usually take heed of anonymous letters,

+but one came to me this morning which might be worth your

+consideration."

+

+He selected a tattered, greasy paper from the heap, fingering it

+gingerly, and having carefully unfolded it passed it across the table

+to the chief commissary of police.  Lefèvre smoothed the paper out:

+the writing was almost illegible, and grease and dirt had helped

+further to confuse the characters, but the commissary had had some

+experience of such communications, and contrived slowly to decipher

+the scrawl.

+

+"It is a denunciation, of course," he said.  "The rogues appear to be

+quarrelling amongst themselves.  'If,' says the writer of the

+epistle, 'M. le Procureur will send his police to-night between the

+hours of ten and twelve to the Cache-Renard woods and they follow the

+directions given below, they will come across the money and valuables

+which were taken from the mail-coach last Wednesday, and also those

+who robbed the coach and murdered Mme. de Plélan's valet.  Strike the

+first bridle-path on the right after entering the wood by the main

+road, until you come to a fallen fir tree lying across another narrow

+path; dismount here and follow this track for a further three hundred

+mètres, till you come to a group of five larches in the midst of a

+thicket of birch and oak.  Stand with your back to the larch that is

+farthest from you, and face the thicket; there you will perceive

+another track which runs straight into the depths of the wood, follow

+it until you come to a tiny clearing, at the bottom of which the

+thicket will seem so dense that you would deem it impenetrable.

+Plunge into it boldly to where a nest of broken branches reveals the

+presence of human footsteps, and in front of you you will see a kind

+of hut composed of dead branches and caked mud and covered with a

+rough thatch of heather.  In that hut you will find that for which

+you seek.'

+

+"Do you think it worth while to act upon this anonymous

+denunciation?" queried M. Saint-Tropèze when Lefèvre had finished

+reading.

+

+"I certainly do," replied the commissary.  "In any case it can do no

+harm."

+

+"You must take plenty of men with you."

+

+"Leave that to me, Monsieur le Procureur," rejoined Lefèvre, "and

+I'll see that they are well armed, too."

+

+"What about the secret agent?"

+

+Lefèvre swore.

+

+"That worm?" was his sole but very expressive comment.

+

+"Will you see him about the matter?"

+

+"What do you think?"

+

+"I suppose you must."

+

+"And if he gives me orders?"

+

+"You must obey them, of course.  Have you seen him this morning?"

+

+"Yes.  He had ordered me to come to his lodgings in the Rue de

+France."

+

+"What did he want?"

+

+"The scrap of paper which we had found in the breeches' pocket of

+Maxence."

+

+"You gave it to him?"

+

+"Of course," growled Lefèvre savagely.  "Haven't we all got to obey

+him?"

+

+"You left him in his lodgings, then?"

+

+"Yes."

+

+"Doing what?"

+

+"Reading a book."

+

+"Reading a book?" exclaimed M. de Saint-Tropèze with a harsh laugh.

+"What book?"

+

+"I just noticed the title," replied Lefèvre, "though I'm nothing of a

+scholar and books don't interest me."

+

+"What was the title?"

+

+"_Corinne_," said the commissary of police.

+

+Apparently M. le Procureur Impérial had come to the end of the

+questions which he desired to put to the worthy M. Lefèvre, for he

+said nothing more, but remained leaning back in his chair and gazing

+straight out of the window beside him.  His pale, aristocratic

+profile looked almost like chiselled marble against the purple damask

+of the cushions.  He seemed absorbed in thought, or else supremely

+bored; M. Lefèvre--nothing of a psychologist, despite his

+calling--could not have said which.

+

+The ticking of the massive Louis XIV clock upon the mantelpiece and

+the sizzling of damp wood on the hearth alone broke the silence which

+reigned in the stately apartment.  Through the closed window the

+manifold sounds which emanate from a busy city came discreet and

+subdued.

+

+Instinctively M. Lefèvre's glance followed that of his chief: he,

+too, fell to gazing out of the window where only a few passers-by

+were seen hurrying homewards on this late dreary October afternoon.

+Suddenly he perceived the narrow, shrinking figure of the little Man

+in Grey gliding swiftly down the narrow street.  The commissary of

+police smothered the savage oath which had risen to his lips: he

+turned to his chief, and even his obtuse perceptions were aroused by

+what he saw.  M. le Procureur Impérial was no longer leaning back

+listlessly against the damask cushions: he was leaning forward, his

+fine, white hands clutching the arms of his chair.  He, too, had

+apparently caught sight of the grey-clad figure, for his eyes, wide

+open and resentful, followed it as it glided along, and on his whole

+face there was such an expression of hatred and savagery that the

+worthy commissary felt unaccountably awed and subdued.  Next moment,

+however, he thought he must have been dreaming, for M. de

+Saint-Tropèze had once more turned to him with that frigid urbanity

+which became his aristocratic personality so well.

+

+"Well, my good Lefèvre," he said, "I don't really think that I can

+help you further in any way.  I quite appreciate your mistrust of the

+obtrusive stranger, and personally I cannot avoid a suspicion that he

+will hamper you by interfering at a critical moment to-night during

+your expedition against the Chouans.  He may just be the cause of

+their slipping through your fingers, which would be such a terrible

+pity now that you have gathered the net so skilfully around them."

+

+Lefèvre rose, and with firm, deliberate movements tightened the belt

+around his portly waist, re-adjusted the set of his tunic, and

+generally contrived to give himself an air of determination and

+energy.

+

+"I'll say nothing to the shrimp about our expedition to-night," he

+said with sullen resolution.  "That is, unless you, Monsieur le

+Procureur, give me orders to do so."

+

+"Oh, I?" rejoined M. de Saint-Tropèze carelessly.  "I won't say

+anything one way or the other.  The whole matter is out of my hands

+and you must act as you think best.  Whatever happens," he added

+slowly and emphatically, "you will get no blame from me."

+

+Which was such an extraordinary thing for M. le Procureur to say--who

+was one of the most pedantic, censorious and autocratic of men--that

+the good Lefèvre spoke of it afterwards to M. le préfet and to one or

+two of his friends.  He could not understand this attitude of

+humility and obedience on the part of his chief: but everyone agreed

+that it was small wonder M. le Procureur Impérial was upset, seeing

+that the presence of that secret police agent in Alençon was a direct

+snub to all the municipal and departmental authorities throughout the

+district, and M. de Saint-Tropèze was sure to resent it more than

+anyone else, for he was very proud, and acknowledged to be one of the

+most capable of highly-placed officials in the whole of France.

+

+

+VI

+

+The night that followed was unusually dark.  Out in the Cache-Renard

+woods the patter of the rain on the tall crests of the pines and the

+soughing of the wind through the branches of the trees drowned every

+other sound.  In the burrow built of dead branches, caked mud and

+dried heather, five men sat waiting, their ears strained to the

+crackling of every tiny twig, to the fall of every drop of moisture

+from the over-laden twigs.  Among them the dark lantern threw a dim,

+flickering light on their sullen, glowering faces.  Despite the cold

+and the damp outside, the atmosphere within was hot to suffocation;

+the men's breath came panting and laboured, and now and again they

+exchanged a few whispered words.

+

+"In any case," declared one of them, "if we feel that he is playing

+us false we shall have to do for him to-night, eh, mates?"

+

+A kind of muffled assent went round the circle, and one man murmured:

+

+"Do you really mistrust him, Hare-Lip?"

+

+"I should," replied Hare-Lip curtly, "if I thought he knew about

+Red-Poll."

+

+"You don't think that he suspects?" queried another.

+

+"I don't see how he can.  He can't have shown his face, or rather his

+wooden leg inside Alençon since the mail-coach episode.  The police

+are keen after him.  But if he did hear rumours of the death of

+Red-Poll he will also have heard that the murder was only an ordinary

+case of robbery--watch and money stolen--and that a sheet of

+letter-paper covered with random numerals was found in the breeches'

+pocket of the murdered man."

+

+One of the men swore lustily in the dark.

+

+"The paper covered with numerals!" he muttered savagely under his

+breath.  "You clumsy fool to have left that behind!"

+

+"What was the use----" began another.

+

+But Hare-Lip laughed, and broke in quietly:

+

+"Do ye take me for a fool, mates?  I was not going to take away that

+original sheet of paper and proclaim it to our chiefs that it was one

+of us who killed Red-Poll.  No!  I took the sheet of letter-paper

+with me when I went to meet Red-Poll.  After he fell--I shot him

+between the shoulders--I turned him over on his back and ransacked

+his pockets; that was a blind.  Then I found the paper with the

+figures and copied them out carefully--that was another blind--in

+case Silver-Leg heard of the affair and suspected us."

+

+One or two of the others gave a growl of dissent.

+

+"You might have been caught while you were playing that silly game,"

+said one of the men, "which would not deceive a child."

+

+"Silver-Leg is no gaby," murmured another.

+

+"Well, he'll be here anon," concluded Hare-Lip lightly.  "If you

+think he means to play a dirty trick, he can go and join Red-Poll,

+that's all."

+

+"He may not come, after all."

+

+"He must come.  I had his message to meet him here to-night without

+fail.  The chiefs have planned another attack: on the Orleans coach

+this time.  Silver-Leg wants us to be of the party."

+

+"We ought to have got hold of the last booty before now!"

+

+"Impossible!  Mole-Skin and I have not figured out all the directions

+from the book and the numerals yet.  It is not an easy task, I tell

+you, but it shall be done soon, and we can take you straight to the

+spot as soon as we have the directions before us."

+

+"Unless Silver-Leg and Madame remove the booty in the meanwhile,"

+grunted one of the party caustically.

+

+"I sometimes wonder----" said another.  But he got no further.  A

+peremptory "Hush!" from Hare-Lip suddenly silenced them all.

+

+With a swift movement one of them extinguished the lanthorn, and now

+they cowered in absolute darkness within their burrow like so many

+wild beasts tracked to earth by the hunters.  The heat was

+suffocating: the men vainly tried to subdue the sound of their breath

+as it came panting from their parched throats.

+

+"The police!" Hare-Lip muttered hoarsely.

+

+But they did not need to be told.  Just like tracked beasts they knew

+every sound which portended danger, and already from afar off, even

+from the very edge of the wood, more than a kilomètre away, their

+ears, attuned to every sound, had perceived the measured tramp of

+horses upon the soft, muddy road.  They cowered there, rigid and

+silent.  The darkness encompassed them, and they felt safe enough in

+their shelter in the very heart of the woods, in this secret

+hiding-place which was known to no living soul save to them.  The

+police on patrol duty had often passed them by: the nearest track

+practicable on horseback was four hundred mètres away, the nearest

+footpath made a wide detour round the thicket, wherein these skulking

+miscreants had contrived to build their lair.

+

+As a rule, it meant cowering, silent and motionless, inside the

+burrow whilst perhaps one posse of police, more venturesome than

+most, had dismounted at the end of the bridle-path and plunged afoot

+into the narrower track, scouring the thicket on either side for

+human quarry.  It involved only an elementary amount of danger,

+distant and intangible, not worth an accelerated heart-beat, or even

+a gripping of knife or pistol wherewith to sell life and liberty at a

+price.

+

+And so, for the first five minutes, while the tramp of horses' hoofs

+drew nearer, the men waited in placid silence.

+

+"I hope Silver-Leg has found shelter," one of the men murmured under

+his breath.

+

+"He should have been here by now," whispered another.

+

+Then they perceived the usual sound of men dismounting, the rattle of

+chains, the champing of bits, peremptory words of command.  Even then

+they felt that they had nothing to fear: these were all sounds they

+had heard before.  The thicket and the darkness were their allies;

+they crouched in silence, but they felt that they were safe.  Their

+ears and senses, however, were keenly on the alert: they heard the

+crackling of dried twigs under the heavy footsteps of the men, the

+muttered curses that accompanied the struggle against the density of

+the thicket, the clashing of metal tools against dead branches of

+intervening trees.  Still they did not move.  They were not

+afraid--not yet!  But somehow in the obscurity which held them as in

+a pall their attitude had become more tense, their breathing more

+laboured, and one or two strong quivering hands went out

+instinctively to clutch a neighbouring one.

+

+Then suddenly Hare-Lip drew in his breath with a hissing sound like

+that of an angry snake.  He suppressed an imprecation which had

+forced itself to his lips.  Though the almost imperceptible aperture

+of the burrow he had perceived the flicker of lanthorns: and sounds

+of broken twigs, of trampling feet, of moving, advancing humanity

+appeared suddenly to be strangely near.

+

+"By Satan!" he hissed almost inaudibly; "they are in the clearing!"

+

+"They are attacking the thicket," added Mole-Skin in a hoarse whisper.

+

+Never before had the scouring posse of police come so near to the

+stronghold of these brigands.  It was impossible to see how many of

+them there were, but that they were both numerous and determined

+could not for a moment be disputed.  Voices now became more distinct.

+

+"This way!" "No--that!" "Here, Marcel, where's your pick?" "Lend us

+your knife, Jules Marie; the bramble has got into my boots."

+

+Some of the men were joking, others swearing lustily.  But there were

+a great number of them, and they were now desperately near.

+

+"They are on us!" came in a husky murmur from Hare-Lip.  "They know

+their way."

+

+"We are betrayed!" was the stifled response.

+

+"By Silver-Leg!" ejaculated Hare-Lip hoarsely, and with such an

+intensity of vengeful hatred as would have made even the autocratic

+wooden-legged chief of this band of brigands quake.  "The accursed

+informer!  By all the demons in hell he shall pay for his treachery!"

+

+Indeed, there was no longer any doubt that it was not mere chance

+which was guiding the posse of police to this secret spot.  They were

+making their way unhesitatingly by the dim light of the dark lanterns

+which their leaders carried before them.  One of the men suddenly hit

+upon the almost imperceptible track, which led straight to the

+burrow.  There was no mistaking the call which he gave to his

+comrades.

+

+"I have it now, mates!" he shouted.  "Follow me!"

+

+The sharp report of a pistol came by way of a reply from the

+lurking-hole of the Chouans, and the man who had just uttered the

+call to his mates fell forward on his face.

+

+"Attention, my men!" commanded the officer in charge.  "Close the

+lanterns and put a charge of powder into the brigands' den."

+

+Once more the report of a pistol rang out through the night.  But the

+men of the police, though obviously scared by the mysterious foe who

+struck at them out of the darkness, were sufficiently disciplined not

+to give ground: they fought their way into line, and the next moment

+a terrific volley of gunfire rent the echoes of the wood from end to

+end.  In front of the men now there was a wide clearing, where the

+undergrowth had been repeatedly broken and trampled upon.  This they

+had seen, just before the lanthorns were closed, and beyond it the

+burrow with its thatch of heather and its narrow aperture which

+revealed the muzzle of two or three muskets, and through the aperture

+several pairs of glowing eyes and shadowy forms vaguely discernible

+in the gloom.

+

+"Up with the lights and charge!" commanded the officer.

+

+The lanterns were opened, and three sharp reports came in immediate

+answer from the lair.

+

+One or two men of the police fell amidst the bed of brambles; but the

+others, maddened by this resistance and by the fall of their

+comrades, rushed forward in force.

+

+Dividing their line in the centre, they circled round the clearing,

+attacking the stronghold from two sides.  The commissary of police,

+leaving nothing to chance, had sent half a company to do the work.

+In a few seconds the men were all over the burrow, scrambling up the

+thatch, kicking aside the loose walls of dead branches, and within

+two minutes they had trampled every fragment of the construction

+under foot.

+

+But of the gang of Chouans there remained only a few traces, and two

+or three muskets abandoned in their hasty flight: they had succeeded

+in making good their escape under cover of the darkness.  The

+sergeant in command of the squad of police ordered the debris of the

+den to be carefully searched.  Very little of importance was found

+beyond a few proofs that the robbery of the mail-coach the other

+night, the murder of Maxence, and the abortive burglary in

+Monseigneur's Palace were the work of the same gang.  One or two

+watches and pocket-books were subsequently identified by the

+passengers of the coach that had been held up; there was the silver

+watch which had belonged to the murdered valet, and a couple of books

+which bore Monseigneur the Bishop of Alençon's book-plate.

+

+But of the man with the wooden leg and his rascally henchmen, or of

+the sixty-two hundred francs stolen from the coach there was not a

+sign.

+

+The chief commissary of police swore lustily when his men returned to

+the bridle-path where he had been waiting for them, and the sergeant

+reported to him that the rogues had made good their escape.  But even

+his wrath--violent and wordy as it was--was as nothing to the white

+heat of anger wherewith M. le Procureur Impérial received the news of

+the dire failure of the midnight raid in the Cache-Renard woods.

+

+Indeed, he appeared so extraordinarily upset at the time that his

+subsequent illness was directly attributable to this cause.  The

+leech vowed that his august patient was suffering from a severe shock

+to his nerves.  Be that as it may, M. de Saint-Tropèze, who was

+usually in such vigorous health, was confined to his room for some

+days after the raid.  It was a fortnight and more ere he again took

+his walks abroad, as had been his wont in the past, and his friends,

+when they saw him, could not help but remark that something of M. le

+Procureur's elasticity and proud bearing had gone.  He who used to be

+so upright now walked with a decided stoop; his face looked at times

+the colour of ashes; and now and again, when he was out in the

+streets, he would throw a look around him almost as if he were afraid.

+

+On the other hand, the secret agent of His Impérial Majesty's Police

+had received the news of the escape of the Chouans with his habitual

+quietude and equanimity.

+

+He did not make any comment on the commissary's report of the affair,

+nor did he offer the slightest remonstrance to M. le Procureur

+Impérial for having permitted the expedition without direct

+instructions from the official representative of the Minister.

+

+Nothing was seen of the little Man in Grey for the next two or three

+weeks: he appeared absorbed in the books which M. le préfet so

+graciously lent him, and he did not trouble either the latter, or M.

+le Procureur, or the commissary of police with many visits.

+

+The matter of the highway robbery, as well as that of the murdered

+valet Maxence, appeared to be already relegated to the growing list

+of the mysterious crimes perpetrated by those atrocious Chouans, with

+which the police of His Impérial Majesty were unable to cope.  The

+appearance of the enigmatic person in grey had had no deterrent

+effect on the rascals, nor was it likely to have any, if he proved as

+inept as the local officials had been in dealing with such flagrant

+and outrageous felony.

+

+

+VII

+

+And once again the silence of the forest was broken in the night by

+the sound of human creatures on the prowl.  Through the undergrowth

+which lies thickest at the Lonrai end of the woods, to the left of

+the intersecting main road, the measured tread of a footfall could be

+faintly perceived--it was a strange and halting footfall, as of a man

+walking with a stump.

+

+Behind the secular willow, which stands in the centre of the small

+clearing beside the stagnant pool in the very heart of this dense

+portion of the forest, a lonely watcher crouched, waiting.  He had

+lain there and waited night after night, and for hours at a stretch

+the surrounding gloom held him in its close embrace: his ears and

+senses were strained to hear that uneven footfall, whenever its faint

+thud broke the absolute silence.  To no other sound, no other sight,

+did he pay any attention, or no doubt he would have noticed that in

+the thicket behind him another watcher cowered.  The stalker was

+stalked in his turn: the watcher was watched.  Someone else was

+waiting in this dense corner for the man with the wooden leg--a small

+figure rapped in a dark mantle, a silent, furtive creature, more

+motionless, more noiseless than any beast in its lair.

+

+At last, to-night, that faint, uneven thud of a wooden stump against

+the soft carpet of the woods reached the straining ears of the two

+watchers.  Anon the feeble flicker of a dark lanthorn was vaguely

+discernible in the undergrowth.

+

+The man who was crouching behind the willow drew in his breath with a

+faint, hissing sound; his hand grasped more convulsively the pistol

+which it held.  He was lying flat upon his stomach, like a creeping

+reptile watching for its prey; his eyes were fixed upon the tiny

+flickering light as it slowly drew near towards the stagnant pool.

+

+In the thicket behind him the other watcher also lay in wait: his

+hand, too, closed upon a pistol with a firm and determined grip; the

+dark mantle slid noiselessly down from his shoulders.  But he did not

+move, and not a twig that helped to give him cover, quivered at his

+touch.

+

+The next moment a man dressed in a rough blouse and coarse breeches

+and with a woollen cap pulled over his shaggy hair came out into the

+clearing.  He walked deliberately up to the willow tree.  In addition

+to the small dark lantern which he held in one hand, he carried a

+spade upon his shoulder.  Presently he threw down the spade and then

+proceeded so to arrange the lantern that its light fell full upon one

+particular spot, where the dry moss appeared to have been recently

+disturbed.  The man crouching behind the willow watched his every

+movement; the other behind the thicket hardly dared to breathe.

+

+Then the newcomer did a very curious thing.  Sitting down upon the

+soft, sodden earth, he stretched his wooden stump out before him: it

+was fastened with straps to the leg which was bent at the knee, the

+shin and foot beyond appearing like a thick and shapeless mass,

+swathed with bandages.  The supposed maimed man, however, now set to

+work to undo the straps which bound the wooden stump to his leg, then

+he removed the stump, straightened out his knee, unwound the few

+mètres of bandages which concealed the shape of his shin and foot,

+and finally stood up on both legs, as straight and hale as nature had

+originally made him.  The watcher behind the willow had viewed all

+his movements with tense attention.  Now he could scarcely repress a

+gasp of mingled astonishment and rage, or the vengeful curse which

+had risen to his lips.

+

+The newcomer took up his spade and, selecting the spot where the moss

+and the earth bore traces of having been disturbed, he bent to his

+task and started to dig.  The man behind the tree raised his pistol

+and fired: the other staggered backwards with a groan--partly of

+terror and partly of pain--and his left hand went up to his right

+shoulder with a quick, convulsive gesture.  But already the assassin,

+casting his still smoking pistol aside, had fallen upon his victim;

+there was a struggle, brief and grim, a smothered call for help, a

+savage exclamation of rage and satisfied vengeance, and the wounded

+man fell at last with a final cry of horror, as his enemy's grip

+fastened around his throat.

+

+For a second or two the murderer stood quite still contemplating his

+work.  With a couple of vigorous kicks with his boot he turned the

+body callously over.  Then he picked up the lanthorn and allowed the

+light to play on the dead man's face; he gave one cursory glance at

+the straight, marble-like features, and at the full, shaggy beard and

+hair which disfigured the face, and another contemptuous one at the

+wooden stump which still lay on the ground close by.

+

+"So dies an informer!" he ejaculated with a harsh laugh.

+

+He searched for his pistol and having found it he tucked it into his

+belt; then putting his fingers to his lips he gave a cry like that of

+a screech-owl.  The cry was answered by a similar one some little

+distance away; a minute or two later another man appeared through the

+undergrowth.

+

+"Have you done for him?" queried this stranger in a husky whisper.

+

+"He is dead," replied the other curtly.  "Come nearer, Mole-Skin," he

+added, "you will see something that will amaze you."

+

+Mole-Skin did as his mate ordered; he, too, stood aghast when

+Hare-Lip pointed to the wooden stump and to the dead man's legs.

+

+"It was not a bad idea!" said Hare-Lip after a while.  "It put the

+police on a wrong scent all the time: while they searched for a man

+with one leg, he just walked about on two.  Silver-Leg was no fool.

+But," he added savagely, "he was a traitor, and now he'll neither

+bully nor betray us again."

+

+"What about the money?"

+

+"We'd best get that now.  Didn't I tell you that Silver-Leg would

+come here sooner or later?  We lost nothing by lying in wait for him."

+

+Without another word Mole-Skin picked up the spade, and in his turn

+began to dig at the spot where Silver-Leg had toiled when the bullet

+of his betrayed comrade laid him low.  There was only the one spade

+and Hare-Lip kept watch while his comrade dug.  The light from the

+dark lantern revealed the two miscreants at their work.

+

+While Hare-Lip had thus taken the law into his own hands against the

+informer, the watcher in the thicket had not stirred.  But now he,

+also, began to crawl slowly and cautiously out of his hiding-place.

+No snake, or lizard, or crawling, furtive beast could have been more

+noiseless than he was; the moss beneath him dulled the sound of every

+movement, till he, too, had reached the willow tree.

+

+The two Chouans were less than thirty paces away from him.  Intent

+upon their work they had been oblivious of every other sound.  Now

+when the tracker of his human quarry raised his arm to fire, Hare-Lip

+suddenly turned and at once gave a warning call to his mate.  But the

+call broke upon his lips, there came a sharp report, immediately

+followed by another--the two brigands, illumined by the lanthorn, had

+been an easy target, and the hand which wielded the pistol was steady

+and unerring.

+

+And now stillness more absolute than before reigned in the heart of

+the forest.  Summary justice had been meted out to a base informer by

+the vengeful arm of the comrades whom he had betrayed, and to the two

+determined criminals by an equally relentless and retributive hand.

+

+The man who had so inexorably accomplished this last act of

+unfaltering justice waited for a moment or two until the last

+lingering echo of the double pistol shot had ceased to resound

+through the woods.  Then he put two fingers to his lips and gave a

+shrill prolonged whistle; after which he came out from behind the

+willow.  He was small and insignificant-looking, with a pale face and

+colourless eyes.  He was dressed in grey and a grey cap was pulled

+low down over his forehead.  He went up to where the two miscreants

+whom he had shot were lying, and with a practised eye and hand

+assured himself that they were indeed dead.  He turned the light of

+the dark lantern first on the man with the queer-shaped lip and then

+on the latter's companion.  The two Chouans had at any rate paid for

+some of their crimes with their lives; it remained for the Almighty

+Judge to pardon or to punish as they deserved.  The third man lay,

+stark and rigid, where a kick from the other man had roughly cast him

+aside.  His eyes, wide open and inscrutable, had still around them a

+strange look of authority and pride; the features appeared calm and

+marble-like; the mouth under the obviously false beard was tightly

+closed, as if it strove even in death to suppress every sound which

+might betray the secret that had been so jealously guarded throughout

+life.  Near by lay the wooden stump which had thrown such a cloud of

+dust into the eyes of good M. Lefèvre and his local police.

+

+With slow deliberation the Man in Grey picked up the wooden stump,

+and so replaced it against the dead man's leg that in the feeble

+light and dense black shadows it looked as real as it had done in

+life--a support for an amputated limb.  A moment or two later, the

+flickering light of a lantern showed through the thicket, and soon

+the lusty voice of the commissary of police broke in on the watcher's

+loneliness.

+

+"We heard three distinct shots," explained M. Lefèvre, as soon as he

+reached the clearing and caught sight of the secret agent.

+

+"Three acts of justice," replied the Man in Grey quietly, as he

+pointed to the bodies of the three Chouans.

+

+"The man with the wooden leg!" exclaimed the commissary in tones

+wherein astonishment and unmistakable elation struggled with a

+momentary feeling of horror.  "You have got him?"

+

+"Yes," answered the Man in Grey simply.  "Where are your men?"

+

+"I left them at the junction of the bridle-path, as you ordered me to

+do," growled the commissary sullenly, for he still felt sore and

+aggrieved at the peremptory commands which had been given to him by

+the secret agent earlier on that day.

+

+"Then go back and send half a dozen of them here with improvised

+stretchers to remove the bodies."

+

+"Then it was you, who----" murmured Lefèvre, not knowing, indeed,

+what to say or do in the face of this puzzling and grim emergency.

+

+"What else would you have had me do?" rejoined the Man in Grey, as,

+with a steady hand, he removed the false hair and beard which

+disguised the pale, aristocratic face of M. de Saint-Tropèze.

+

+"Monsieur le Procureur Impérial!" ejaculated Lefèvre hoarsely.

+"I--I--don't understand--you--you--have killed him--he--oh, my God!"

+

+"The Chouans whom he betrayed killed him, my good Lefèvre," replied

+the Man in Grey quietly.  "He was their chief and kept the secret of

+his anonymity even from them.  When he was amongst them and led them

+to their many nefarious deeds he was not content to hide his face

+behind a tangle of false and shaggy hair, or to appear in rough

+clothes and with grimy hands.  No!  His artistry in crime went a step

+farther than that; he strapped a wooden leg to his own whole one and

+while you scoured the countryside in search of a Chouan with a wooden

+leg, the latter had resumed his personality as the haughty and

+well-connected M. de Saint-Tropèze, Procureur at the tribunal of

+Alençon to His Majesty the Emperor.  Here is the stump," added the

+Man in Grey, as with the point of his boot he kicked the wooden stump

+aside, "and there," he concluded, pointing to the two dead Chouans,

+"are the men who wreaked their vengeance upon their chief."

+

+"But how----" interjected Lefèvre, who was too bewildered to speak or

+even to think coherently, "how did you find out--how----"

+

+"Later I may tell you," broke in the Man in Grey shortly, "now we

+must see to the removal of the bodies.  But remember," he added

+peremptorily and with solemn earnestness, "that everything you have

+seen and heard to-night must remain for ever a secret within your

+breast.  For the honour of our administration, for the honour of our

+newly-founded Empire, the dual personality and countless crimes of

+such a highly placed official as M. de Saint-Tropèze must never be

+known to the public.  I saved the hangman's work when I killed these

+two men--there is no one living now, save you and I, who can tell the

+tale of M. de Saint-Tropèze's double entity.  Remember that to the

+public who knew him, to his servants, to your men who will carry his

+body in all respect and reverence, he has died here by my side in the

+execution of his duty--disguised in rough clothes in order to help me

+track these infernal Chouans to their lair.  I shall never speak of

+what I know, and as for you----"

+

+The Man in Grey paused and, even through the gloom, the commissary

+felt the strength and menace of those colourless eyes fixed

+steadfastly upon him.

+

+"Your oath, Monsieur le Commissaire de Police," concluded the secret

+agent in firm, commanding tones.

+

+Awed and subdued--not to say terrified--the chief commissary gave the

+required oath of absolute secrecy.

+

+"Now go and fetch your men, my good Lefèvre," enjoined the Man in

+Grey quietly.

+

+Mechanically the commissary turned to go.  He felt as if he were in a

+dream from which he would presently awake.  The man whom he had

+respected and feared, the Procurator of His Majesty the Emperor,

+whose authority the whole countryside acknowledged, was identical

+with that nefarious Chouan with the wooden leg whom the entire

+province loathed and feared.

+

+Indeed, the curious enigma of that dual personality was enough to

+addle even a clearer intellect than that of the worthy commissary of

+police.  Guided by the light of the lanthorn he carried he made his

+way back through the thicket whence he had come.

+

+Alone in the forest, the Man in Grey watched over the dead.  He

+looked down meditatively on the pale, aristocratic face of the man

+who had lied and schemed and planned, robbed and murdered, who had

+risked so much and committed such villainies, for a purpose which

+would henceforth and for ever remain an unfathomable mystery.

+

+Was passionate loyalty for the decadent Royalist cause at the root of

+all the crimes perpetrated by this man of culture and position--or

+was it merely vulgar greed, vulgar and insatiable worship of money,

+that drove him to mean and sordid crimes?  To what uses did he put

+the money wrung from peaceable citizens?  Did it go to swell the

+coffers of a hopeless Cause, or to contribute to M. de

+Saint-Tropèze's own love of luxury?

+

+The Man in Grey pondered these things in the loneliness and silence

+of the night.  All such questions must henceforth be left unanswered.

+For the sake of officialdom, of the government of the new Empire, the

+memory of such a man as M. de Saint-Tropèze must remain for ever

+untarnished.

+

+Anon the posse of police under the command of a sergeant arrived upon

+the scene.  They had improvised three stretchers; one of these was

+reverently covered with a mantle, upon which they laid the body of M.

+le Procureur Impérial, killed in the discharge of his duty whilst

+aiding to track a gang of desperate Chouans.

+

+

+VIII

+

+In the forenoon of the following day the chief commissary of police,

+having seen M. le Préfet on the subject of the arrangements for the

+public funeral of M. de Saint-Tropèze, called at the lodgings of the

+secret agent of His Impérial Majesty's Police.

+

+After the usual polite formalities, Lefèvre plunged boldly into the

+subject of his visit.

+

+"How did you find out?" he asked, trying to carry off the situation

+with his accustomed bluff.  "You owe me an explanation, you know,

+Monsieur--er--Fernand.  I am chief commissary of this district, and

+by your own statement you stand convicted of having killed two men.

+Abominable rogues though they were, the laws of France do not

+allow----"

+

+"I owe you no explanation, my good Lefèvre," interrupted the Man in

+Grey in his quiet monotone, "as you know.  If you would care to take

+the responsibility on yourself of indicting me for the wilful murder

+of those two men, you are of course at liberty to do so.  But----"

+

+The commissaire hastened to assure the secret emissary of His Majesty

+that what he had said had only been meant as a joke.

+

+"Only as a spur," he added affably, "to induce you to tell me how you

+found out the secret of M. de Saint-Tropèze."

+

+"Quite simply," replied the Man in Grey, "by following step by step

+the series of crimes which culminated in your abortive expedition

+against the Chouans.  On the evening of the attack on the coach on

+the 10th of October last, I lay hidden and forgotten by the roadside.

+The coach had driven away; the footpads were making off with their

+booty.  I followed them.  I crawled behind them on my hands and

+knees, till they came to their burrow--the place where you made that

+foolish and ill-considered attack on them the other night.  I heard

+them quarrelling over their loot; I heard enough to guess that sooner

+or later a revolt would break out amongst them and that the man whom

+they called Hare-Lip meant to possess himself of a large share of the

+spoils.  I also heard the man with the wooden leg say something about

+a book named 'Corinne' which was to be mentioned to 'Monseigneur,'

+and a key which would be sent to 'Madame' by the intermediary of

+Red-Poll.

+

+"Within two days of this I learned that a man who had red hair and

+was valet to Madame la Marquise de Plélan had been murdered, and that

+a sheet of note-paper covered with random numerals was found upon his

+person; at the same time a burglary had been committed in the house

+of Monseigneur the Bishop of Alençon and all that had been stolen

+were some books.  At once I recognised the hand of Hare-Lip and his

+gang.  They had obviously stolen the book from Monseigneur's library

+and then murdered Red-Poll, in order to possess themselves of the

+cipher, which I felt sure would prove to be the indication of the

+secret hiding-place of the stolen booty.  It was easy enough to work

+out the problem of the book and the key.  The numerals on the sheet

+of note-paper referred to pages, lines and words in the book--a

+clumsy enough cipher at best.  It gave me--just as I expected--clear

+indications of the very place, beside the willow tree and the pool.

+Also--just as I anticipated--Silver-Leg, the autocratic chief, had in

+the meanwhile put his threat into execution and punished his

+rebellious followers by betraying them to the police."

+

+"Great God!" exclaimed Lefèvre, recollecting the anonymous letter

+which M. le Procureur had handed to him.

+

+"I dare say you recollect this phase of the episode," continued the

+Man in Grey.  "Your expedition against the Chouans nearly upset all

+my plans.  It had the effect of allowing three of them to escape.

+However, let that pass for the moment.  I could not help but guess,

+when I heard of the attack, that Hare-Lip and his mates would wish to

+be revenged on the informer.  Their burrow was now known to the

+police, but there was still the hiding-place of the booty, to which

+sooner or later I knew that Silver-Leg must return.

+

+"You remember the orders I gave you a full month ago; to be prepared

+to go on any day and at an instant's notice with a dozen of your men

+to a certain point on the main road at the Lonrai end of the wood

+which I had indicated to you, whenever I sent you a peremptory

+message to do so, and there to wait in silence and on the alert until

+a shrill whistle from me brought you to my side.  Well! in this

+matter you did your duty well, and the Minister shall hear of it.

+

+"As for me, I was content to bide my time.  With the faithful

+henchman whom you placed at my disposal I lay in wait for Monsieur de

+Saint-Tropèze in the Rue St. Blaise during all those weary days and

+nights when he was supposed to be too ill to venture out of his

+house.  At last he could refrain no longer; greed or perhaps sheer

+curiosity, or that wild adventurous spirit which made him what he

+was, drove him to lend a deaf ear to the dictates of prudence and to

+don once again the shaggy beard, the rough clothes and wooden stump

+of his lawless and shady life.

+

+"I had so placed your man that from where he was he could not see

+Monsieur le Procureur, whenever the latter came out of his house, nor

+did he know whom or what it was that I was watching; but as soon as I

+saw Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze emerging stealthily from his side gate,

+I dispatched your man to you with the peremptory message to go at

+once to the appointed place, and then I started in the wake of my

+quarry.

+

+"You, my good Lefèvre, have no conception what it means to

+track--unseen and unheard--one of those reckless Chouans who are more

+alert than any wild beast.  But I tracked my man; he came out of his

+house when the night was at its darkest and first made his way to

+that small derelict den which no doubt you know and which stands just

+off the main road, on the fringe of the Cache-Renard wood.  This he

+entered and came out about a quarter of an hour later, dressed in his

+Chouan rig-out.  I must own that for a few seconds he almost deceived

+me, so marvellous was his disguise; the way he contrived that wooden

+leg was positively amazing.

+

+"After that he plunged into the woods.  But I no longer followed him;

+I knew whither he was going and was afraid lest, in the depths and

+silence of the forest, he would hear my footfall and manage to give

+me the slip.  Whilst he worked his way laboriously with his wooden

+stump through the thicket and the undergrowth, I struck boldly along

+the main road, and plunged into the wood at the point which had been

+revealed to me by the cipher.  I had explored the place many a time

+during the past month, and had no difficulty in finding the stagnant

+pool and the willow tree.  Hare-Lip and his mate were as usual on the

+watch.  No sooner had Silver-Leg appeared on the scene than the

+others meted out to him the full measure of their vengeful justice.

+But I could not allow them to be taken alive.  I did not know how

+much they knew or guessed of their leader's secret, or how much they

+might reveal at their first interrogation.  The gallows had already

+claimed them for its own; for me they were a facile prey.  I shot

+them both deliberately and will answer to His Majesty's Minister of

+Police alone for my actions."

+

+The Man in Grey paused.  As he completed his narrative Lefèvre stared

+at him, dumbfounded at the courage, the determination, the dogged

+perseverance which alone could have brought this amazing undertaking

+to its grim and gruesome issue.

+

+"After this, my good Lefèvre," remarked the secret agent more

+lightly, "we shall have to find out something about 'Madame' and

+quite a good deal about 'Monseigneur.'"

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER II

+

+THE SPANIARD

+

+

+I

+

+The man with the wooden leg was still at large, and M. le Procureur

+Impérial had died a hero's death whilst helping to capture a gang of

+desperate Chouans in the Cache-Renard woods.  This was the public

+version of the tragic epilogue to those three mysteries, which had

+puzzled and terrified the countryside during the early days of

+October, 1809--the robbery of the mail-coach, the burglary in the

+Palace of Monseigneur the Constitutional Bishop of Alençon, and the

+murder of Mme. Marquise de Plélan's valet, Maxence.

+

+The intelligent section of the public was loud in its condemnation of

+the ineptitude displayed by the police in the matter of those

+abominable crimes, and chief commissary Lefèvre, bound by oath--not

+to say terror--to hold his tongue as to the real facts of the case,

+grumbled in his beard and muttered curses on the accredited

+representative of the Minister of Police--ay, and on M. le Duc

+d'Otrante himself.

+

+On top of all the public unrest and dissatisfaction came the outrage

+at the house of M. de Kerblay, a noted advocate of the Paris bar and

+member of the Senate, who owned a small property in the neighbourhood

+of Alençon, where he spent a couple of months every year with his

+wife and family, entertaining a few friends during the shooting

+season.

+

+In the morning of November the 6th, the neighbourhood was horrified

+to hear that on the previous night, shortly after ten o'clock, a

+party of those ruffianly Chouans had made a descent on M. de

+Kerblay's house, Les Ormeaux.  They had demanded admittance in the

+name of the law.  All the servants had gone to bed with the exception

+of Hector, M. de Kerblay's valet, and he was so scared that he

+allowed the _scélérats_ to push their way into the house, before he

+had realised who they were.  Ere he could call for help he was set

+upon, gagged, and locked up in his pantry.  The Chouans then

+proceeded noiselessly upstairs.  Mme. de Kerblay was already in bed.

+The Senator was in his dressing-room, half undressed.  They took him

+completely by surprise, held a pistol to his head, and demanded the

+immediate payment of twenty-five thousand francs.  Should the Senator

+summon his servants, the rogues would shoot him and his wife and even

+his children summarily, if they were stopped in their purpose or

+hindered in their escape.

+

+M. de Kerblay was considerably over sixty.  Not too robust in health,

+terrorised and subdued, he yielded, and with the muzzle of a pistol

+held to his head and half a dozen swords gleaming around him, he

+produced the keys of his secretaire and handed over to the Chouans

+not only all the money he had in the house--something over twenty

+thousand francs--but a diamond ring, valued at another twenty

+thousand, which had been given to him by the Emperor in recognition

+of signal services rendered in the matter of the affairs of the

+ex-Empress.

+

+Whereupon the wretches departed as silently as they had come, and by

+the time the hue and cry was raised they had disappeared, leaving no

+clue or trace.

+

+The general consensus of opinion attributed the outrage to the man

+with the wooden leg.  M. Lefèvre, chief commissary of police, who

+knew that that particular scoundrel was reposing in the honoured

+vault of the Saint-Tropèze family, was severely nonplussed.  Since

+the sinister episode of the dual personality of M. de Saint-Tropèze

+he realised more than ever how difficult it was to deal with these

+Chouans.  Here to-day, gone to-morrow, they were veritable masters in

+the art of concealing their identity, and in this quiet corner of

+Normandy it was impossible to shake a man by the hand without

+wondering whether he did not perchance belong to that secret gang of

+malefactors.

+

+M. de Kerblay, more distressed at the loss of his ring than of his

+money, offered a reward of five thousand francs for its recovery; but

+while M. Lefèvre's zeal was greatly stimulated thereby, the Man in

+Grey appeared disinclined to move in the matter, and his quiet,

+impassive attitude grated unpleasantly on the chief commissary's

+feelings.

+

+About a week after the outrage, on a cold, wet morning in November,

+M. Lefèvre made a tempestuous irruption into the apartments in the

+Rue de France occupied by the secret agent of the Minister of Police.

+

+"We hold the ruffians!" he cried, waving his arms excitedly.  "That's

+the best of those scoundrels!  They are always quarrelling among

+themselves!  They lie and they cheat and betray one another into our

+hands!"

+

+The Man in Grey, as was his wont, waited patiently until the flood of

+M. Lefèvre's impassioned eloquence had somewhat subsided, then he

+said quietly:

+

+"You have had the visit of an informer?"

+

+"Yes," replied the commissary, as he sank, panting, into a chair.

+

+"A man you know?"

+

+"By sight.  Oh, one knows those rogues vaguely.  One sees them about

+one day--they disappear the next--they have their lairs in the most

+inaccessible corners of this cursed country.  Yes!  I know the man by

+sight.  He passed through my hands into the army a year ago.  A

+deserter, of course.  Though his appearance does not tally with any

+of the descriptions we have received from the Ministry of War, we

+know that these fellows have a way of altering even their features on

+occasions, and this man has 'deserter' written all over his ugly

+countenance."

+

+"Well!  And what has he told you?"

+

+"That he will deliver to us the leader of the gang who broke into

+Monsieur de Kerblay's house the other night."

+

+"On conditions, of course."

+

+"Of course,"

+

+"Immunity for himself?"

+

+"Yes."

+

+"And a reward?"

+

+"Yes."

+

+"You did not agree to that, I hope," said the Man in Grey sternly.

+

+M. Lefèvre hummed and hawed.

+

+"There must be no question of bribing these men to betray one

+another," resumed the secret agent firmly, "or you'll be falling into

+one baited trap after another."

+

+"But there's Monsieur de Kerblay's offer of a reward for the recovery

+of the ring, and in this case----" protested Lefèvre sullenly.

+

+"In no case," broke in the Man in Grey.

+

+"Then what shall I do with the man?"

+

+"Promise him a free pardon for himself and permission to rejoin his

+regiment if his information proves to be correct.  Keep him in the

+police-cells, and come and report to me directly you have extracted

+from him all he knows, or is willing to tell."

+

+The chief commissary of police was well aware that when the

+Minister's secret agent assumed that quiet air of authority, neither

+argument nor resistance was advisable.  He muttered something between

+his teeth, but receiving no further response from the Man in Grey he

+turned abruptly on his heel and stalked out of the room, murmuring

+inaudible things about "officiousness" and "incompetence."

+

+

+II

+

+The man who had presented himself that morning at the commissariat of

+police offering valuable information as to the whereabouts of the

+leaders of his own gang, appeared as the regular type of the unkempt,

+out-at-elbows, down-at-heels, unwashed Chouan who had of a truth

+become the pest and terror of the countryside.  He wore a long shaggy

+beard, his hair was matted and tousled, his blouse and breeches were

+in rags, and his bare feet were thrust into a pair of heavy leather

+shoes.  During his brief sojourn in the army, or in the course of his

+subsequent lawless life, he had lost one eye, and the terrible gash

+across that part of his face gave his countenance a peculiarly

+sinister expression.

+

+He stood before the commissary of police, twirling a woollen cap

+between his grimy fingers, taciturn, sullen and defiant.

+

+"I'll say nothing," he repeated for the third time, "unless I am paid

+to speak."

+

+"You are amenable to the law, my man," said the chief commissary

+dryly.  "You'll be shot, unless you choose to earn a free pardon for

+yourself by making a frank confession of your misdeeds."

+

+"And what's a free pardon to me," retorted the Chouan roughly, "if I

+am to starve on it?"

+

+"You will be allowed to at once rejoin your regiment."

+

+"Bah!"

+

+The man spat on the ground, by way of expressing his contempt at the

+prospect.

+

+"I'd as lief be shot at once," he declared emphatically.

+

+M. Lefèvre could have torn his scanty hair with rage.  He was furious

+with the Chouan and his obstinacy, and furious with that tiresome man

+in the grey coat who lorded it over every official in the district,

+and assumed an authority which he ought never to have been allowed to

+wield.

+

+The one-eyed Chouan was taken back to the police-cells, and M.

+Lefèvre gave himself over to his gloomy meditations.  Success and a

+goodly amount of credit--not to mention the five thousand francs'

+reward for the recovery of the ring--appeared just within his reach.

+A couple of thousand francs out of the municipal funds to that

+wretched informer, and the chiefs of one of the most desperate gangs

+of Chouans would fall into M. Lefèvre's hands, together with no small

+measure of glory for the brilliant capture.  It was positively

+maddening!

+

+It was not till late in the afternoon that the worthy commissary had

+an inspiration--such a grand one that he smacked his high forehead,

+marvelling it had not come to him before.  What were two thousand

+francs out of his own pocket beside the meed of praise which would

+fall to his share, if he succeeded in laying one or two of those

+Chouan leaders by the heels?  He need not touch the municipal funds.

+He had a couple of thousand francs put by and more; and, surely, that

+sum would be a sound investment for future advancement and the

+recognition of his services on the part of the Minister himself, in

+addition to which there would be his share in M. de Kerblay's reward.

+

+So M. Lefèvre sent for the one-eyed Chouan and once more interrogated

+him, cajoling and threatening alternately, with a view to obtaining

+gratis the information which the man was only prepared to sell.

+

+"I'll say nothing," reiterated the Chouan obstinately, "unless I am

+paid to speak."

+

+"Well!  What will you take?" said the commissary at last.

+

+"Five thousand francs," replied the man glibly.

+

+"I'll give you one," rejoined M. Lefèvre.  "But mind," he added with

+uncompromising severity, "you remain here in the cells as hostage for

+your own good faith.  If you lie to me, you will be shot--summarily

+and without trial."

+

+"Give me three thousand and I'll speak," said the Chouan.

+

+"Two thousand," rejoined the commissary, "and that is my last word."

+

+For a second or two the man appeared to hesitate; with his one eye he

+tried to fathom the strength of M. le Commissaire's determination.

+Then he said abruptly:

+

+"Very well, I'll take two thousand francs.  Give me the money now and

+I'll speak."

+

+Without another superfluous word M. Lefèvre counted out twenty

+one-hundred franc notes, and gave them into the Chouan's grimy hand.

+He thought it best to appear open-handed and to pay cash down; the

+man would be taken straight back to the cells presently, and if he

+played a double game he would anyhow forfeit the money together with

+his life.

+

+"Now," said Lefèvre as soon as the man had thrust the notes into the

+pocket of his breeches, "tell me who is your chief, and where a posse

+of my police can lay hands upon him."

+

+"The chief of my gang," rejoined the Chouan, "is called 'the

+Spaniard' amongst us; his real name is Carrera and he comes from

+Madrid.  We don't often see him, but it was he who led the expedition

+to the house of Monsieur de Kerblay."

+

+"What is he like?"

+

+"A short man with dark, swarthy skin, small features, keen, jet-black

+eyes, no lashes, and very little eyebrow, a shock of coal-black hair

+and a square black beard and moustache; he speaks French with a

+Spanish accent."

+

+"Very good!  Now tell me where we can find him."

+

+"At Chéron's farm on the Chartres road between la Mesle and Montagne.

+You know it?"

+

+"I know the farm.  I don't know Chéron.  Well?"

+

+"The Spaniard has arranged to meet a man there--a German Jew--while

+Chéron himself is away from home.  The idea is to dispose of the

+ring."

+

+"I understand.  When is the meeting to take place?"

+

+"To-night!  It is market day at Chartres and Chéron will be absent

+two days.  It was all arranged yesterday.  The Spaniard and his gang

+will sleep at the farm; the following morning they will leave for

+Paris, en route some of them, so 'tis said, for Spain."

+

+"And the farmer--Chéron?  What has he to do with it all?"

+

+"Nothing," replied the Chouan curtly.  "He is just a fool.  His house

+stands isolated in a lonely part of the country, and his two farm

+hands are stupid louts.  So, whenever the Spaniard wants to meet any

+of his accomplices privately, he selects a day when Chéron is from

+home, and makes use of the farm for his own schemes."

+

+"You owe him a grudge, I suppose," sneered Lefèvre, who had taken

+rapid notes of all the man had told him.

+

+"No," replied the Chouan slowly, "but those of us who helped to work

+the coup at Monsieur de Kerblay's the other night, were each to

+receive twenty francs as our share of the spoils.  It was not enough!"

+

+The commissary of police nodded complacently.  He was vastly

+satisfied with the morning's work.  He had before now heard vague

+hints about this Spaniard, one of those mysterious and redoubtable

+Chouan leaders, who had given the police of the entire province no

+end of trouble and grave cause for uneasiness.  Now by

+his--Lefèvre's--own astuteness he stood not only to lay the villain

+by the heels and earn commendation for his zeal from the Minister

+himself, but, if this one-eyed scoundrel spoke the truth, also to

+capture some of his more prominent accomplices, not to mention the

+ring and M. de Kerblay's generous reward.

+

+Incidentally he also stood to put a spoke in the wheel of that

+over-masterful and interfering man in the grey coat, which would be a

+triumph not by any means to be depreciated.

+

+So the Chouan was taken back to the cells and the chief commissary of

+police was left free to make his arrangements for the night's

+expedition, without referring the matter to the accredited agent of

+His Majesty's Police.

+

+

+III

+

+Lefèvre knew that he was taking a grave risk when, shortly after

+eight o'clock on that same evening, he ordered a squadron of his

+police to follow him to Chéron's farm on the Chartres road.  At the

+last moment he even had a few misgivings as to the wisdom of his

+action.  If the expedition did not meet with the measure of success

+which he anticipated, and the accredited agent of the Minister came

+to hear of it, something exceedingly unpleasant to the over-zealous

+commissary might be the result.  However, after a few very brief

+moments of this unworthy hesitation, M. Lefèvre chid himself for his

+cowardice and started on his way.

+

+Since his interview with the one-eyed Chouan he had been over to the

+farm in order to get a thorough knowledge of the topography of the

+buildings and of their surroundings.  Disguised as a labourer he had

+hung about the neighbourhood, in the wet and cold until he felt quite

+sure that he could find his way anywhere around the place in the dark.

+

+The farm stood a couple of kilomètres or so from the road, on the

+bank of a tiny tributary of the Mayenne, surrounded by weeping

+willows, now stripped of their leaves, and flanked by a couple of

+tumble-down heather-thatched sheds.  It was a square building, devoid

+of any outstanding architectural features, and looking inexpressibly

+lonely and forlorn.  There was not another human habitation in sight,

+and the wooded heights which dominated the valley appeared to shut

+the inhabitants of the little farm away from the rest of mankind.  As

+he looked at the vast and mournful solitude around, Lefèvre easily

+recognised how an astute leader, such as the Spaniard appeared to be,

+would choose it as headquarters for his schemes.  Whenever the house

+itself became unsafe the thicket of willow and chestnut close by, and

+the dense undergrowth on the heights above, would afford perfect

+shelter for fugitive marauders.

+

+It was close on ten o'clock of an exceptionally dark night when the

+posse of police, under the command of the chief commissary,

+dismounted at the "Grand Duc," a small wayside inn on the Chartres

+road, and, having stabled their horses, started on foot across

+country at the heels of their chief.  The earth was sodden with

+recent rains and the little troop moved along in silence, their feet,

+encased in shoes of soft leather, making no sound as they stealthily

+advanced.

+

+The little rivulet wound its sluggish course between flat banks

+bordered by waste land on either side.  Far ahead a tiny light

+gleamed intermittently, like a will-o'-the-wisp, as intervening

+groups of trees alternately screened it and displayed it to view.

+

+After half an hour of heavy walking the commissary called a halt.

+The massive block of the farmhouse stood out like a dense and dark

+mass in the midst of the surrounding gloom.  M. Lefèvre called softly

+to his sergeant.

+

+"Steal along, Hippolyte," he whispered, "under cover of those willow

+trees, and when you hear me give the first command to open, surround

+the house so that the rascals cannot escape either by the door or the

+windows."

+

+Silently and noiselessly these orders were executed; whilst the

+commissary himself stole up to the house.  He came to a halt before

+the front door and paused a moment, peering anxiously round about him

+and listening for any sound which might come from within.  The house

+appeared dark and deserted; only from one of the windows on the

+ground floor a feeble light filtered through the chinks of an

+ill-fitting shutter, and a mingled murmur of voices seemed to travel

+thence intermittently.  But of this the eager watcher could not be

+sure.  The north-westerly wind, soughing through the bare branches of

+the trees behind him, also caused the shutters to creak on their

+hinges and effectually confused every other sound.

+

+The chief commissary then rapped vigorously against the door with the

+hilt of his sword.

+

+"Open!" he called peremptorily, "in the name of the law!"

+

+Already he could hear the sergeant and his men stealing out from

+under the trees; but from the stronghold of the Chouans there came no

+answer to his summons; absolute silence reigned inside the farmhouse;

+the dismal creaking of a half-broken shutter and the murmur of the

+wind in the leafless willows alone roused the dormant echoes of the

+old walls.

+

+Lefèvre rapped once more against the massive panels.

+

+"Open!" he called again, "in the name of the law!"

+

+The men following their sergeant had now reached the open.  In an

+instant, from somewhere in the gloom behind them, there came the

+report of two musket shots in rapid succession.  Someone was hit, for

+there was the sound of a groan and a curse; but in the darkness it

+was impossible to see who it was.

+

+The men halted irresolute.

+

+"Run to the back of the house, some of you!" commanded the

+commissary, "and in Heaven's name do not allow a single ruffian to

+escape."

+

+The men obeyed as quickly as the darkness would allow, and again two

+musket shots rang out from among the trees; this time the sergeant

+fell forward on his face.

+

+"Corporal Crosnier, are you there?" cried Commissary Lefèvre.

+

+"Present, my commandant!" was the quick reply.

+

+"Take Jean Marie and Dominique and two or three others with you, and

+put up the game that is lurking under those willows."

+

+Crosnier obeyed; he called half a dozen men to him and marched them

+up towards the thicket.  The cowering enemy lay low; only from time

+to time shots rang out simultaneously out of the darkness.  Sometimes

+they made a hit, but not often--one or two of the men received a

+stray bullet in their shoulder or their leg--a random shot which came

+from out of the gloom and to which they could not reply, for it was

+impossible to see whence it had come.  Presently even that

+intermittent fire ceased.  It seemed as if the thicket had finally

+swallowed up the lurking quarry.

+

+In the meantime Lefèvre had ordered two or three of his picked men to

+use the butt-end of their muskets against the door.

+

+"Batter it in, my men," he commanded, "and arrest everyone you find

+inside the house."

+

+Strangely enough, considering the usually desperate tactics of these

+Chouan gangs when brought to bay, no resistance was offered from the

+interior of their stronghold.  Whether the rascals were short of

+ammunition and were saving it for a hand-to-hand fight later, or

+whether they were preparing some bold coup, it was impossible to say.

+Certain it is that the vigorous attacks against the front door were

+met by absolute silence--so absolute, indeed, as vaguely to

+disconcert the commissary of police.

+

+Still the men continued to pound away with their muskets against the

+panels of the door; but the latter was extraordinarily massive in

+comparison with the want of solidity of the rest of the house.  It

+resisted every onslaught for some time, until at last it fell in with

+a terrific crash, and Lefèvre, leaving half a dozen men on guard

+outside, took another half-dozen with him and entered.

+

+He had picked his men from among those whom he knew to be most

+intrepid, for he had expected a desperate resistance on the part of

+the Chouans; he was prepared to be greeted with a volley of

+musket-fire as he and his men crossed the threshold; he was prepared

+for a hand-to-hand fight across that battered door.  In fact, M.

+Lefèvre, chief commissary of police, had been prepared for everything

+excepting the death-like stillness which he encountered by way of

+welcome.

+

+Darkness and silence held undisputed sway everywhere.  The men, with

+dark lanterns fixed to their belts and holding loaded muskets in

+their hands, paused for one moment irresolute.  Then they started to

+make a thorough search of the place; first the ground floor, then the

+entrance hall and staircase, then the cellars.  They explored every

+nook and cranny where human quarry might find shelter, but there was

+not a sign, hardly a trace of any Chouans, save in one small room on

+the ground floor which certainly appeared as if it had been recently

+occupied; the chairs had been hastily pushed aside, on the centre

+table were half a dozen mugs and two or three jugs, one of which was

+still half filled with wine, a handful of ashes smouldered in the

+hearth, and the lamp which hung from the ceiling above was alight.

+But for this, Lefèvre might have thought that he must have been

+dreaming when he stood by the front door and saw the narrow stream of

+light through the chink of a shutter.

+

+Indeed, there was something unspeakably dreary and desolate in this

+dark and empty house, in which undoubtedly a gang of malefactors had

+lately held revel; and when the men went upstairs in order to explore

+the floor above, they were, every one of them, conscious of the quick

+sense of unreasoning terror when a weird and intermittent sound

+suddenly reached their ear.

+

+The sound came from over their heads--it was like a wail, and was

+piteous and disconcerting in the extreme.

+

+"Like someone groaning," said one of the men in a hoarse whisper.

+

+Soon their momentary feeling of dread passed away, and two or three

+of the men had already scaled the narrow, ladder-like stairs which

+led to a loft that ran the whole length and breadth of the house

+under the sloping roof.

+

+But here an extraordinary sight met their gaze.  Huddled up against a

+large supporting beam were an old man, a woman and two young girls.

+They had been tied together by ropes to the beam.  Each of the

+unfortunates was in acute distress or bodily pain.  The atmosphere of

+the place was both stuffy and bitterly cold.  Incessant moaning came

+from the woman, sobbing from the girls; the man appeared stunned and

+dazed.  When the light from one of the dark lanterns fell upon him,

+he blinked his eyes and gazed vacantly on the men who were already

+busy with the ropes, freeing him and the woman from their bonds.

+

+They all appeared in the last stage of exhaustion and clung to one

+another for support and warmth, when Lefèvre with kindly authority

+ordered them to move.  Fortunately one of the men recollected the jug

+of wine which had been left in the room on the ground floor.  He ran

+to fetch it, and returned very soon jug and glasses in hand.  In the

+meanwhile Lefèvre had remained staring at the wretched people and

+trying to extract a few words of explanation from them.

+

+So far he had only been able to elicit the information that four

+members of the farmer Chéron's family, his father, his wife and his

+two daughters stood before him in this pitiable plight.  It was only

+after they had drunk a little wine that they were able to speak

+coherently.  In short, jerky sentences and with teeth still

+chattering with cold and terror, the old man tried to reply to the

+commissary's questions.

+

+"How in the world came you to be up here," M. Lefèvre asked, "tied

+like cattle to a beam in your son's house?"

+

+"My son is away at Chartres, Monsieur le Commissaire," replied the

+old man; "he won't return till to-morrow.  We should have perished of

+hunger and cold if you had not come to our rescue."

+

+"But where are those blackguardly Chouans?  And who in the devil's

+name fired on us from under your trees?"

+

+"Those execrable Chouans took possession of my son's house this

+morning, Monsieur le Commissaire, soon after his departure," answered

+the old man dolefully.  "They seized me and my daughter-in-law and my

+two grandchildren, forced us to give up the little bit of money which

+my son had left for our use, stole food from the larder and wine from

+the cellar; and when we protested they dragged us up here--as you

+say--like cattle, tied us to a beam and left us to perish unless my

+son should chance to come home."

+

+Lefèvre would have liked to say that twenty-four hours spent in a

+draughty loft does not necessarily mean starvation, but on the whole

+he refrained from badgering the poor people, who had suffered quite

+enough, with further expostulation.

+

+"But what has happened to the Chouans?" he reiterated with a hearty

+curse.

+

+"Gone, Monsieur le Commissaire," here interposed the woman woefully.

+"Gone!  They caroused all day, and left about a couple of hours ago;

+since then the house has been as silent as the grave."

+

+Lefèvre said nothing very coherent for the moment; he was mentally

+embracing the Chouans, the lying informer and his own folly in one

+comprehensive curse.

+

+"But my men were fired on from behind the trees," he urged feebly

+after a while.

+

+"I heard the firing, too, Monsieur le Commissaire," rejoined the old

+man.  "It terrified us, for the Chouans had threatened to shoot us

+all if they were attacked by the police; and these two young

+girls--think of it, Monsieur le Commissaire--at the mercy of those

+brutes.  I suppose," he added with a shudder, "that while the leaders

+of the gang made good their escape, they left a couple of men behind

+to cover their retreat."

+

+Nothing more could be got out of these poor people.  They had been

+set upon quite early in the day by the Chouans, and knew little or

+nothing of what had gone on in the house while they were prisoners in

+the loft.  They did not know how many of the ruffians there were--six

+or eight they thought.  The chief was a man with swarthy skin and a

+long black beard, who spoke French with a strange foreign accent.

+

+The commissary of police went nearly mad with rage.  He set his best

+men to search the farm-house through and through, in the hope that

+some of the rascals might still be lurking about the place.  But the

+men ransacked the house in vain.  They found neither trap-door nor

+secret panel, nor slinking quarry, and after a couple of hours' hunt

+were forced to own themselves defeated.

+

+

+IV

+

+M. Lefèvre returned to Alençon with his posse of police in the small

+hours of the morning.  He dismissed the men at the commissariat, and

+sought his own lodgings in the Rue Notre Dame, his mind a prey to the

+bitterest feeling of disappointment--not unmixed with misgivings at

+thought of M. le Ministre's agent, should he get wind of the

+miscarriage.

+

+To his terror and amazement, no sooner had he entered the house than

+the concierge came out of his lodge to tell him that a gentleman was

+upstairs in his rooms, waiting for him.

+

+"Who is it?" he asked sharply.  "You have no right to admit anyone to

+my rooms at this hour of the night."

+

+"I could not help myself," retorted the concierge sullenly.  "He

+exhibited some sort of order from the Ministry of Police, and was so

+high-handed and peremptory that I dared not refuse."

+

+Filled with vague apprehension M. Lefèvre ran quickly up to his

+rooms.  He was greeted in the ante-chamber by the Man in Grey.

+

+"I was unfortunately too late to catch you before you started," said

+the latter as soon as Lefèvre had closed the door.  He spoke in his

+even monotone--his face was calm and expressionless, but there was

+something about his attitude which jarred unpleasantly on the

+commissary's nerves.

+

+"I--that is----" he stammered, despite his stern effort to appear

+confident and at his ease.

+

+"You have disobeyed the Minister's orders," interposed the secret

+agent quietly.  "But there is no time now to discuss your conduct.

+The blunder which you have just committed is mayhap beyond repair; in

+which case----"

+

+He broke off abruptly and M. Lefèvre felt a cold shiver running down

+his spine.

+

+"There was no time to consult you----" he began.

+

+"I said that I would not discuss that," interposed the Man in Grey

+quietly.  "Tell me where you have been."

+

+"To Chéron's farm on the Chartres road," replied the commissary

+sullenly.

+

+"The informer gave you directions?"

+

+"Yes."

+

+"That you would find his leader there?"

+

+"Yes, the man whom they call 'the Spaniard,' and some of his

+accomplices.  The informer----"

+

+"The informer escaped from the cells during your absence this

+evening," said the Man in Grey curtly.

+

+"Malediction!"

+

+"Do not curse, my good man," advised the other dryly.  "The rascal's

+escape may be the means of retrieving your blunder, since it gave me

+the knowledge of the whole affair."

+

+"But how did it happen?"

+

+"Surveillance slackened while you went off on your wild-goose chase.

+Your prisoner used some of the money wherewith you had bribed

+him--against my express command, remember--to bribe his warder in his

+turn.  Your sergeant-in-charge came to me in his distress when he

+found that his bird had flown."

+

+Lefèvre had no longer the strength to argue or even to curse.  He

+hung his head in silent dejection.

+

+"I sent for you," continued the Man in Grey mercilessly.  "When I

+found that you had gone no one knew whither, and that you had taken a

+posse of your men with you, I guessed the whole extent of your

+damnable blunder.  I have waited here for you ever since.

+

+"What can I do now?" murmured Lefèvre gloomily.

+

+"Collect ten or twelve of the men whom you can most confidently

+trust, and then pick me up at my lodgings in the Rue de France.

+We'll go back to Chéron's farm--together."

+

+"But there is no one there," said Lefèvre with a dejected sigh, "only

+Chéron's father, his wife and two daughters."

+

+"I know that well enough, you fool," exclaimed the Man in Grey,

+departing for the first time from his habitual calm, and starting to

+pace up and down the narrow room like a caged and fretting animal;

+"and that every proof against the villains who robbed Monsieur de

+Kerblay has no doubt vanished whilst you were getting the wrong sow

+by the ear.  To bring the crime home to them now will be very

+difficult.  'Tis red-handed we ought to have caught them, with the

+Jew there and the ring and the Spaniard bargaining, whereas now----"

+

+Suddenly he paused and stood quite still; the anger and impatience

+died out of his face, leaving it pale and expressionless as was its

+wont; only to Lefèvre who was watching him with keen anxiety it

+seemed as if for one fraction of a second a curious glitter had lit

+up his colourless eyes.

+

+"In Heaven's name!" he resumed impatiently after a while, "let us get

+to horse, or I may be tempted to tell you what I think of your folly."

+

+The commissary, trounced like a recalcitrant schoolboy and not a

+little terrified at the consequences of his blunder, was only too

+ready to obey.  Within half an hour he was in the saddle.  He had

+Corporal Crosnier with him and half a dozen picked men, and together

+they went to the Rue de France where the Minister's agent was waiting

+for them.

+

+

+V

+

+It was close upon five o'clock of a raw, damp morning when the little

+party drew rein once more at the wayside inn on the Chartres road.

+The men appeared tired out and were grateful for the hot coffee which

+a sleepy ostler hastily prepared for them; but the Man in Grey seemed

+indefatigable.  Wrapped to the chin in a long, dark mantle, he had

+ridden the whole way by the side of the commissary, plying him with

+questions the while.  Bit by bit he had extracted from him the full

+history of the futile expedition, the description of the house, its

+situation and structure, and of the members of the Chéron family.

+Now, whilst sipping his coffee, he made Lefèvre give him final and

+minute directions how to reach the farm-house.

+

+Ten minutes later he started on his way--alone and on foot.

+

+"Follow me in about five minutes," were his last commands to the

+commissary.  "Then lie low under the trees.  When you hear a pistol

+shot from inside the house rush in and seize every man, woman, or

+child whom you find; if you meet with any resistance order your men

+to use their muskets.  Leave the Corporal with a strong guard outside

+the house, both back and front, and bid him shoot on sight anyone who

+attempts to escape."

+

+After he had walked on through the darkness for a couple of mètres or

+so, he threw off his mantle and hat and kicked off his shoes.  The

+commissary of police, had he been near him now, would of a truth have

+been staggered at his appearance.  He wore a pair of ragged breeches

+and a stained and tattered blouse; his hair was unkempt, and his feet

+and legs were bare to the knees.

+

+"Now for a little bit of luck," he murmured as he started to run.

+His bare feet squelched through the wet earth and spattered him with

+mud from head to foot, and as he ran the perspiration streamed down

+his face and mingled with the grime.  Indeed, it seemed as if he took

+a special delight in tiring himself out, in getting breathless and

+hot, and by his active exercise making himself look even dirtier and

+more disreputable than he had been before.

+

+When he reached the river side and the row of willow trees, he

+halted; the house, he knew, must be quite close now on the right, and

+as he peered into the darkness he perceived a tiny streak of light

+glimmering feebly through the gloom some way off.  Throwing himself

+flat upon his stomach, he bent his ear to the ground; it was attuned

+to the slightest sound, like that of the Indian trackers, and he

+heard at a distance of four hundred mètres behind him the measured

+tramp of Lefèvre's men.  Then he rose to his feet and, stealthily as

+a cat, crept up to the house.

+

+The slender streak of light guided him and, as he drew nearer, he

+heard a confused murmur of voices raised in merriment.  The occupants

+of the house were apparently astir; the light came through a

+half-open shutter on the ground floor as did the sound of the voices,

+through which presently there rang a loud and prolonged peal of

+laughter.  The secret agent drew a deep sigh of satisfaction; the

+birds--thank goodness--had not yet flown.  Noiselessly he approached

+the front door, the battered and broken appearance of which bore

+testimony to Lefèvre's zeal.

+

+A bright patch of light striking through an open door on the right

+illumined a portion of the narrow hall beyond, leaving the rest in

+complete darkness.  The Man in Grey stepped furtively over the

+threshold.  Immediately he was challenged: "Who goes there?" and he

+felt rather than saw a gun levelled at his head.

+

+"A friend," he murmured timidly.

+

+At the instant the challenge had resounded through the house the

+light in the inner room on the right was suddenly extinguished;

+deathly silence had succeeded the debauch.

+

+"What's your business?" queried a muffled voice peremptorily.

+

+Before the Man in Grey could reply there was a commotion in the inner

+room as of chairs hastily thrust aside, and presently another

+voice--one both gruff and commanding--called out: "What is it,

+Pierre?"

+

+A dark lantern was flashed about, its light fell full on the

+miserable apparition of the Man in Grey.

+

+"What do you want?" queried the commanding voice out of the partial

+gloom.  "Speak, or I fire!"

+

+"A friend!" reiterated the Man in Grey timidly.

+

+"Your name?"

+

+"Nicaise, sir, from Mauger's farm on the Mayenne road.  I was asleep

+under a haystack, when a stranger comes to me and shakes me roughly

+by the shoulder.  'Run,' he says to me, 'to Chéron's up by the

+Chartres road.  Run as fast as your legs will take you.  Walk in

+boldly; the door is open.  You will find company inside the farm.

+Tell them the police are coming back in force.  Someone will give you

+a silver franc for your pains if you get there in time.'  So I took

+to my heels and ran."

+

+While he spoke another man and a woman had entered.  Their vague

+forms were faintly discernible through the darkness; the light from

+the lantern still struck full on the Man in Grey, who looked the

+picture of woebegone imbecility.

+

+From the group in the doorway there came a murmur: "The police!"

+

+"A stranger, you say?" queried the man with the commanding voice.

+"What was he like?"

+

+"I could not say," replied the secret agent humbly.  "It was very

+dark.  But he said I should get a silver franc for my pains, and I am

+a poor man.  I thought at first it was a hoax, but when I crossed the

+meadow just now I saw a lot of men in hiding under the willow trees."

+

+"Malediction!" muttered the man, as he turned, undecided, towards his

+companions.  "Oh, that I had that one-eyed traitor in my power!" he

+added with a savage oath.

+

+"Did you speak to the men of the police?" asked a woman's voice out

+of the darkness.

+

+"No, madame," replied the secret agent.  "They did not see me.  I was

+crawling on my hands and knees.  But they are all round the house,

+and I heard one man calling to the sergeant and giving him orders to

+watch the doors and windows lest anyone tried to escape."

+

+The group in the doorway was silent; the man who had been on guard

+appeared to have joined them, and they all went back into the room

+and held a hurried consultation.

+

+"There is nothing for it," said one man, "but to resume our former

+roles as members of the Chéron family, and to do it as naturally as

+before."

+

+"They suspect us now," said another, "or they would not be here again

+so soon."

+

+"Even so; but if we play our parts well they can only take us back to

+the commissariat and question us; they must release us in the end;

+they have no proof."

+

+In the meanwhile someone had relighted the lamp.  There appeared to

+be a good deal of scurrying and scrambling inside the room; the Man

+in Grey tiptoed up to the doorway to see what was going on.

+Evidently, disguises which had hastily been put aside had been

+resumed; the group stood before him now just as Lefèvre had

+originally described them: the old man, the woman, the two young

+girls; the latter were striding about the room and holding their

+skirts up clumsily with both hands, as men are wont to do when they

+don women's clothes; the old man, on whom grey locks and

+well-stencilled wrinkles were the only signs of age, was hastily

+putting these to rights before a mirror on the wall.

+

+But it was the woman's doings which compelled the attention of the

+Man in Grey.  She was standing on a chair with her back to him,

+intent on manipulating something up the huge open chimney.

+

+"It will be quite safe there," she said.

+

+She appeared to be closing some heavy iron door which fell in its

+place with a snap.  Then she turned to her companions and slowly

+descended from the chair.  "When the present storm has blown over,"

+she said, "we'll come and fetch it.  Chéron will never guess; at any

+rate, we are sure the police cannot discover this most excellent

+hiding-place."

+

+She was a short, square-built woman, with a dark, almost swarthy

+skin, keen jet-black eyes which appeared peculiarly hard and

+glittering owing to the absence of lashes, a firm, thin-lipped mouth,

+square chin, and low forehead crowned by a shock of thick, black hair

+cut short like a boy's.  The secret agent kept his eyes fixed upon

+her while she spoke to her friends.  He noted the head so full of

+character, and the strength and determination expressed in every line

+of the face; he marvelled why the features--especially those

+glittering jet-black eyes--appeared familiar, as something he had

+known and heard of before.  And, suddenly, it all came to him in a

+flash; he remembered the informer's description of the leader named

+"the Spaniard": a dark, swarthy skin, jet-black hair, keen dark eyes

+with no lashes to soften their glitter, the beard, the man's attire,

+the foreign accent.  Soh! these marauding Chouans slipped in and out

+of their disguises and changed even their sex outwardly as easily as

+men change their coats; whilst the very identity of their leader was

+more often unknown to them than known.

+

+As the secret agent's practised glance took in during these few

+seconds the whole personality of the woman before him, he knew that

+his surmises--based on intuition and on reasoning--were correct.  It

+was the Spaniard who stood before him now, but the Spaniard was a

+woman.  And as he gazed on her, half in pity because of her sex, and

+half in admiration for her intrepidity, she turned, and their glances

+met.  She looked at him across the narrow room, and each knew that

+the other had guessed.

+

+The woman never flinched; she held the agent's glance and did not

+utter either word or cry whilst with a slow, deliberate movement, she

+drew a pistol from beneath her kerchief.  But he, as quick and

+resourceful, had instantly stepped back into the hall.  He seized the

+door, and, with a loud bang, closed it to between himself and the

+Chouans.  Then, with lightning rapidity, he pushed the heavy bolt

+home.

+

+The report of a pistol rang out.  It came from inside the room.  The

+Man in Grey was leaning his full weight against the door, wondering

+whether Lefèvre and his men would come to his assistance before the

+trapped Chouans had time to burst the panels.

+

+He heard Lefèvre's call outside and the heavy tramp of the men.  A

+few seconds of agonising suspense, whilst he literally felt the

+massive door heaving behind him under the furious onslaught of the

+imprisoned Chouans, and the commissary with the men of the police

+burst into the hall.  The door fell in with a terrific crash.

+

+The Chouans, caught like foxes run to earth, offered a desperate

+resistance.  But the odds were too great; after a grim struggle

+across the threshold, which lasted close on ten minutes and left

+several men of the police bleeding or dead upon the floor, the gang

+was captured, securely bound and locked in one of the cellars

+underneath the house, where they were left in charge of half a dozen

+men until such time as they could be conveyed to Alençon and thence

+to Bicêtre to await their trial.

+

+

+VI

+

+It has been impossible, owing to the maze of records, to disentangle

+the subsequent history of three of these Chouans.  The Spaniard,

+however, was, we know, kept in prison for over five years until,

+after the Restoration, her friends succeeded in laying her petition

+of release before the King and she was granted a free pardon and a

+small pension from the privy purse, "in consideration of the services

+she had rendered to His Majesty and the martyrdom she had suffered in

+his cause."  On the official list of pensioners in the year 1816 her

+name appears as "Caroline Mercier, commonly called the Spaniard."

+

+But at Chéron's farm, when all was still, the men of the police gone

+and the prisoners safely under lock and key, the Man in Grey and the

+commissary returned to the little room which had been the scene of

+the Chouans' final stand.  A broken chair was lying by the side of

+the tall, open chimney, wherein the woman with the swarthy skin and

+jet-black eyes had concealed the stolen treasure.  The accredited

+agent had no difficulty in finding the secret hiding-place; about a

+foot up the chimney an iron door was let into the solid wall.  A

+little manipulation of his deft fingers soon released the secret

+spring, and the metal panel glided gently in its grooves.

+

+M. de Kerblay's precious ring and some twenty thousand francs in

+money gladdened the sight of the worthy commissary of police.

+

+"But how did you guess?" he asked of the Man in Grey, when, half an

+hour later, the pair were ambling along the road back towards Alençon.

+

+"While you were getting ready for our second expedition, my dear

+Monsieur Lefèvre," replied the Man in Grey, "I took the simple

+precaution of ascertaining whether the farmer Chéron had a wife, a

+father, and two daughters.  Your own records at the commissariat

+furnished me with this information.  From them I learned that though

+he had a wife, he had no father living, and that he had three

+grown-up sons, long ago started out into the world.  After that,

+everything became very simple."

+

+"I suppose," quoth the commissary ruefully, "that I ought to have

+found out about the man Chéron and his family before I went off on

+that fool's errand."

+

+"You ought, above all, to have consulted me," was the Man in Grey's

+calm reproof.

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER III

+

+THE MYSTERY OF MARIE VAILLANT

+

+

+I

+

+After the capture of the Spaniard at Chéron's farm on that dark

+night, M. Lefèvre realised that when M. le Duc d'Otrante sent down

+that insignificant-looking little man in the grey coat to help in the

+hunt after the astute but infamous Chouans, he had acted--as he

+always did--with foresight and unerring knowledge of human nature and

+human capacity.

+

+Henceforward M. Lefèvre became the faithful panegyrist and henchman

+of the Minister's anonymous agent.  He haunted the latter's

+apartments in the Rue de France, he was significantly silent when the

+Man in Grey was sneered and jeered at in the higher official circles,

+and, what is more, when M. Leblanc, sous-préfet of Bourg-le-Roi, had

+such grave misgivings about his children's governess, it was the

+commissary who advised him to go for counsel and assistance to the

+mysterious personage who enjoyed the special confidence and favour of

+M. le Duc d'Otrante himself.

+

+M. Leblanc, who had an inordinate belief in his own perspicacity,

+fought for some time against the suggestion; but, after a while, the

+mystery which surrounded Mademoiselle Vaillant reached such a

+bewildering stage, whilst remaining outside the scope of police

+interference, that he finally decided to take his friend's advice,

+and, one morning, about the end of November, he presented himself at

+the lodgings in Alençon occupied by the accredited agent of His

+Majesty's Minister of Police.

+

+Of a truth M. Leblanc was singularly agitated.  His usually correct,

+official attitude had given place to a kind of febrile excitement

+which he was at great pains to conceal.  He had just left Madame

+Leblanc in a state of grave anxiety, and he himself, though he would

+not have owned to it for the world, did not know what to make of the

+whole affair.  But he did not intend that his own agitation should

+betray him into a loss of dignity in the presence of the little

+upstart from Paris; so, after the formal greetings, he sat down and

+plunged into a maze of conversational subjects--books, the theatres,

+the war, the victories of the Emperor and the rumoured alliance with

+the Austrian Archduchess--until the Man in Grey's quiet monotone

+broke in on the flow of his eloquence with a perfectly polite query:

+

+"Has Monsieur le Sous-Préfet, then, honoured me with a visit at this

+early hour for the purpose of discussing the politics of the day?"

+

+"Partly, my good Monsieur Fernand, partly," replied the sous-préfet

+airily.  "I desired that we should become more closely

+acquainted--and," he added, as if with an after-thought, "I desired

+to put before you a small domestic matter which has greatly perturbed

+Madame Leblanc, and which, I confess, does appear even to me as

+something of a mystery."

+

+"I am entirely at Monsieur le Sous-Préfet's service," rejoined the

+Man in Grey without the ghost of a smile.

+

+"Oh!  I dare say," continued M. Leblanc in that offhand manner which

+had become the rule among the officials of the district when dealing

+with the secret agent, "I dare say that when I think the matter over

+I shall be quite able to deal with it myself.  At the same time, the

+facts are certainly mysterious, and I doubt not but that they will

+interest you, even if they do not come absolutely within the sphere

+of your province."

+

+This time the Man in Grey offered no remark.  He waited for M. le

+Sous-Préfet to proceed.

+

+"As no doubt you know, Monsieur Fernand," resumed M. Leblanc after a

+slight pause, "I own a small house and property near Bourg-le-Roi,

+some eight kilomètres from this city, where my wife and children live

+all the year round and where I spend as much of my leisure as I can

+spare from my onerous duties here.  The house is called Les

+Colombiers.  It is an old Manor, which belonged to the Comtes de

+Mamers, a Royalist family who emigrated at the outset of the

+Revolution and whose properties were sold for the benefit of the

+State.  The Mamers have remained--as perhaps you know--among the

+irreconcilables.  His Majesty the Emperor's clemency did not succeed

+in luring them away from England, where they have settled; and I, on

+the other hand, have continued in undisputed possession of a charming

+domain.  The old moated house is of great archæological and

+historical interest.  It stands in the midst of a well-timbered park,

+is well secluded from the road by several acres of dense coppice, and

+it is said that, during the religious persecutions instituted by

+Charles IX at the instigation of his abominable mother, Les

+Colombiers was often the refuge of Huguenots, and the rallying-point

+for the followers of the proscribed faith.  As I myself," continued

+M. Leblanc with conscious pride, "belong to an old Huguenot family,

+you will readily understand, my good Monsieur Fernand, that I feel an

+additional interest in Les Colombiers."

+

+Pausing for a moment, the sous-préfet readjusted the set of his

+neckcloth, crossed one shapely leg over the other and added with an

+affable air of condescension:

+

+"I trust that I am not trespassing upon your valuable time, my dear

+friend, by recounting these seemingly irrelevant, but quite necessary

+details."

+

+"On the contrary, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," rejoined the Man in Grey

+quietly, "I am vastly and, I may say, respectfully interested."

+

+Thus encouraged, M. Leblanc boldly continued his narrative.

+

+"My household," he said, "consists, I must tell you, of my wife and

+myself and my two children--a boy and a girl--Adèle, aged fourteen,

+and Ernest, just over twelve.  I keep a couple of men and two maids

+indoors, and three or four men in the garden.  Finally, there is my

+children's governess, Marie Vaillant.  She came to us last summer

+warmly recommended by Monseigneur the Constitutional Bishop of

+Alençon, and it is her conduct which of late has so gravely

+disquieted Madame Leblanc and myself.

+

+"But you shall judge.

+

+"At first my wife and I had every reason to congratulate ourselves on

+having secured such a competent, refined and charming woman to

+preside over the education of our children.  Marie Vaillant was gay,

+pretty and full of spirits.  The children loved her, especially

+Ernest, who set his entire childish affections upon his young and

+attractive governess.  During the summer lessons were done out of

+doors, and long expeditions were undertaken in the woods, whence

+Ernest and Adèle would return, hot, tired and happy.  They had played

+at being explorers in virgin forests, so they told their mother.

+

+"It was only when the evenings waxed longer," continued the

+sous-préfet, in a tone of growing embarrassment, now that he was

+nearing the climax of his story, "that Mademoiselle Vaillant suddenly

+changed.  She developed a curious proclivity for promiscuous

+coquetry."

+

+"Coquetry?" broke in the secret agent with a smile.

+

+"Yes!  Marie began to flirt--shamelessly, openly, with every man she

+came across, visitors, shop-keepers, friends and gardeners.  She

+exercised an almost weird fascination over them; one and all would

+anticipate her slightest wish; in fact, the men about the house and

+grounds of Les Colombiers appeared to be more her servants than ours.

+Moreover, she made an absolute fool of our butler, Lavernay--a

+middle-aged man who ought to have known better.  He has not only

+pursued Mademoiselle Vaillant with his attentions but also with his

+jealousy, until Madame Leblanc felt that her whole household was

+becoming the laughing-stock of the neighbourhood."

+

+"And have you or Madame Leblanc done anything in the matter?" asked

+the Man in Grey, while M. le Sous-Préfet paused to draw breath.

+

+"Oh, yes!  Madame spoke to the girl and I trounced Lavernay.  Marie

+was humble and apologetic and Lavernay very contrite.  Both promised

+to be discreet and sensible in future.  At the same time I confess

+that I was not at all reassured.  Within a fortnight we heard through

+the gossip of a busybody that Marie Vaillant was in the habit of

+stealing out of the house in the evenings, at an hour when

+respectable people should be in bed, and after five minutes' start

+she was usually followed on these peregrinations by the butler.

+There was no doubt about the whole thing: even our sergeant of police

+had witnessed these clandestine meetings and had reported the matter

+to the local commissary.

+

+"There was nothing for it now but to dismiss the flirtatious

+governess as quickly as possible.  I may say that Madame Leblanc, who

+had been genuinely fond of the girl, acquitted herself of the task

+with remarkable tact and gentleness.  Marie Vaillant, indeed, belied

+her name when she received the news of her dismissal.  She begged and

+implored my wife's forgiveness, swore by all she could think of that

+she had only erred from ignorance; she had no thought of doing wrong;

+she was innocent of anything but the merest flirtation.  Fond of

+breathing the midnight air which was so balmy and sweet in the woods,

+she had lately got into the habit of strolling out when she could not

+sleep and sitting for an hour or so dreaming among the trees.  She

+admitted that once or twice she had been followed by Lavernay, had

+been very angry with him, and had seriously rebuked him; but it

+should never, never happen again--she vowed and swore it should

+not--if only Madame would forgive her and not send her away from Les

+Colombiers which was like a home to her, and from Ernest and Adèle

+whom she loved as if they were her brother and sister.

+

+"But Madame Leblanc was inexorable.  Perhaps she felt that quite so

+much ignorance of the ways of the world and the decorum prescribed to

+every well educated woman was not altogether credible; perhaps she

+thought that the lady did protest too much.  Certain it is that

+though she went back on her original pronouncement that the girl must

+leave the house within twenty-four hours, she refused to consider the

+question of allowing her to remain permanently.

+

+"It was finally agreed that Marie Vaillant should leave Les

+Colombiers at the end of the month: but that at the slightest

+transgression or repetition of the old offence she would be dismissed

+with contumely and turned out of the house at an hour's notice.

+

+"This happened exactly a fortnight ago," went on M. Leblanc, who was

+at last drawing to the end of what had proved a lengthy soliloquy;

+"and I may tell you that since then Mademoiselle Vaillant has grown

+the model of all the proprieties.  Sober, demure, well-conducted, she

+has fulfilled her duties with a conscientiousness which is beyond

+praise.  When those heavy rains set in a week ago, outdoor life at

+once became impossible.  Adèle and Ernest took seriously to their

+books and Mademoiselle devoted herself to them in a manner which has

+been absolutely exemplary.  She has literally given up her whole time

+to their welfare, not only--so Madame Leblanc tells me--by helping

+with their clothes, but she has even taken certain menial tasks upon

+herself which are altogether outside her province as a governess.

+She has relieved the servants by attending to the children's bedroom;

+she had been making their beds and even washing their stockings and

+pocket handkerchiefs.  She asked to be allowed to do these things in

+order to distract her mind from the sorrow caused by Madame's

+displeasure.

+

+"Of course, I gave Lavernay a stern scolding; but he swore to me that

+though he had followed Mademoiselle during her evening walks, he had

+done it mostly without her knowledge and always without her consent;

+a fit of his former jealousy had seized him, but she had reprimanded

+him very severely and forbidden him ever to dog her footsteps again.

+After that he, too, appeared to turn over a new leaf.  It.  seemed as

+if his passion for Marie was beginning to burn itself out, and that

+we could look forward once again to the happy and peaceful days of

+the summer."

+

+

+II

+

+M. le Sous-Préfet had talked uninterruptedly for a quarter of an

+hour; his pompous, somewhat laboured diction and his loud voice had

+put a severe strain upon him.  The Man in Grey had been an ideal

+listener.  With his eyes fixed on M. Leblanc, he had sat almost

+motionless, not losing a single word of the prolix recital, and even

+now when the sous-préfet paused--obviously somewhat exhausted--he did

+not show the slightest sign of flagging interest.

+

+"Now, my good Monsieur Fernand," resumed M. Leblanc, with something

+of his habitual, condescending manner, "will you tell me if there is

+anything in what I have just told you--I fear me at great

+length--that is not perfectly simple and even stereotyped?  A young

+and pretty girl coming into a somewhat old-fashioned and dull

+household and finding a not altogether commendable pleasure in

+turning the heads of every susceptible man she meets!  Indiscretions

+follow and the gossips of the neighbourhood are set talking.

+Admonished by her mistress, the girl is almost broken-hearted; she

+begs for forgiveness and at once sets to work to re-establish herself

+in the good graces of her employers.  I dare say you are surprised

+that I should have been at such pains to recount to you a series of

+commonplace occurrences.  But what to an ordinary person would appear

+in the natural order of things, strikes me as not altogether normal.

+I mistrust the girl.  I do not believe in her contrition, still less

+in her reformation.  Moreover, what worries me, and worries Madame

+Leblanc still more, is the amazing ascendency which Marie Vaillant

+exorcises over our boy Ernest.  She seems to be putting forth her

+fullest powers of fascination--I own that they are great--to

+cementing the child's affection for her.  For the last few weeks the

+boy has become strangely nervy, irritable and jealous.  He follows

+Marie wherever she goes, and hangs upon her lips when she speaks.  So

+much so that my wife and I look forward now with dread to the day of

+parting.  When Marie goes I do verily believe that Ernest, who is a

+very highly-strung child, will fall seriously ill with grief."

+

+Again M. Leblanc paused.  A look of genuine alarm had overspread his

+otherwise vapid face.  Clearly he was a man deeply attached to his

+children and, despite his fatuous officiousness, was not prepared to

+take any risks where their welfare was concerned.  He mopped his face

+with his handkerchief, and for the first time since the beginning of

+the interview he threw a look of almost pathetic appeal on the agent

+of the Minister of Police.

+

+"Otherwise, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," said the latter, meeting that

+look of appeal with a quiet smile, "has nothing occurred to justify

+your mistrust of Mademoiselle Vaillant's good intentions?"

+

+"Nothing at all," replied M. Leblanc with a nervous hesitation which

+belied his emphatic words, "except a vague sense of uneasiness--the

+unnatural quiet which came so quickly in the wake of the storm of a

+fortnight ago; and, as I say, the extraordinary pains which the girl

+has taken to captivate the boy: so much so in fact that, thinking

+perhaps Marie still entertained hopes of our complete forgiveness and

+thought of using the child as an intermediary with us to allow her to

+remain, Madame Leblanc at my suggestion spoke yesterday very firmly

+to the girl, and told her that whatever happened our determination

+was irrevocable.  We felt that we could trust her no longer and go

+she must."

+

+"And how did Mademoiselle Vaillant take this final decision?" asked

+the police agent.

+

+"With extraordinary self-possession.  Beyond a humble 'Very well,

+Madame,' she never spoke a word during the brief interview.  But in

+the evening, long after the children should have been in bed,

+Anne--my wife's confidential maid--happened to be in the passage

+outside Mademoiselle's room, the door of which was ajar.  She

+distinctly heard Marie's voice raised in almost passionate

+supplication: 'Ernest, my darling little Ernest!' she was saying,

+'will you always love me as you do now?'  And the child answered

+fervently: 'I will always love you, my darling Marie.  I would do

+anything for you--I would gladly die for you----' and so on--just the

+sort of _exalté_ nonsense which a highly-strung, irresponsible child

+would talk.  Anne did not hear any more then, but remained on the

+watch in a dark corner of the passage.  Quite half an hour later, if

+not more, she saw Ernest slipping out of the governess's room clad

+only in his little night-gown and slippers and going back to his own

+room.  This incident, which Anne reported faithfully to her mistress

+and to me, has caused my wife such anxiety that I determined to

+consult someone whom I could trust, and see whether the whole affair

+struck an impartial mind with the same ominous significance which it

+bears for me.  My choice fell upon you, my dear Monsieur Fernand,"

+concluded the sous-préfet with a return to his former lofty

+condescension.  "I don't like to introduce gossiping neighbours into

+my private affairs and I know enough about you to be convinced of

+your absolute discretion, as well as of your undoubted merits."

+

+The Man in Grey accepted M. Leblanc's careless affability with the

+same unconcern that he had displayed under the latter's somewhat

+contemptuous patronage.  He said nothing for a moment or two,

+remaining apparently absorbed in his own thoughts.  Then he turned to

+his visitor and in a quiet, professional manner, which nevertheless

+carried with it an unmistakable air of authority, intimated to him,

+by rising from his chair, that the interview was now at an end.

+

+"I thank you, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," he said, "both for the

+confidence which you have reposed in me, and for your clear exposé of

+the present situation in your household.  For the moment I should

+advise you to leave all your work in the city, which is not of

+national importance, and go straight back to Les Colombiers.  Madame

+Leblanc should not be left to face alone any difficulties which may

+arise.  At the same time, should any fresh development occur, I beg

+that you will either send for me or come to me at once.  I place

+myself entirely at your disposal."

+

+He did not hold out his hand, only stood quietly beside his desk; but

+there was no mistaking the attitude, or the almost imperceptible

+inclination of the head.  M. Leblanc was dismissed, and he was not

+accustomed to seeing himself and his affairs set aside so summarily.

+A sharp retort almost escaped him; but a glance from those enigmatic

+eyes checked the haughty words upon his lips.  He became suddenly and

+unaccountably embarrassed, seeking for a phrase which would disguise

+the confusion he felt.

+

+"My good Monsieur Fernand----" he began haltingly.

+

+"My time is valuable, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," interposed the Man in

+Grey; "and at Les Colombiers your son's welfare is perhaps even now

+at stake."

+

+M. Leblanc--awed and subdued despite himself--had no choice but to

+make as dignified an exit as was possible in the circumstances.

+

+

+III

+

+It was barely eight o'clock the next morning when M. Leblanc made an

+excited and noisy irruption into the apartments of the secret agent

+of the Minister of Police.  The Man in Grey had risen betimes; had

+brewed himself a cup of coffee and partaken of breakfast.  The tray

+stood on a table beside him, and he was at the moment engaged in the

+perusal of the newest copy of the _Moniteur_.

+

+At sight of his visitor he quietly folded and put down his paper.  M.

+Leblanc had literally staggered into the room.  He wore riding

+breeches and boots and his clothes were covered with mud; he had

+ridden hard and fast, and though his face was deathly pale it was

+covered with perspiration.  His lips were quivering and his eyes had

+a look of horror and fear which almost resembled madness.

+

+The Man in Grey led him, firmly and gently, to a seat.  Without a

+word he went to a cupboard, took out a flask and a mug and forced a

+few drops of brandy down the sous-préfet's throat.  The latter's

+teeth were chattering and, through his trembling lips, there came a

+few hoarsely whispered words:

+

+"My son--my child--he has gone--Oh, my God!"

+

+After he had drunk the brandy, he became a little more composed.  He

+lay back in his chair, with eyes closed, and for a moment it seemed

+as if he had lost consciousness, for his lips were bloodless and his

+face was the colour of dead ashes.  Presently he opened his eyes and

+rested them on the small grey figure which stood, quietly expectant,

+before him.

+

+"My son," he murmured more distinctly.  "Ernest--he has gone!"

+

+"Try to tell me coherently what has happened," said the Man in Grey

+in a quiet tone, which had the effect of further soothing M.

+Leblanc's overstrung nerves.

+

+After a great effort of will the unfortunate man was able to pull

+himself together.  He was half demented with grief, and it was blind,

+unreasoning instinct that had led him to seek out the one man who

+might help him in his trouble.  With exemplary patience, the police

+agent dragged from the unfortunate man, bit by bit, a more or less

+intelligible account of the extraordinary sequence of events which

+had culminated a few hours ago in such a mysterious and appalling

+tragedy.

+

+Matters, it seemed, had been brought to a climax through the agency

+of feminine gossip, and it was Ma'ame Margot, the wife of one of the

+labourers, who did the washing for the household at Les Colombiers,

+who precipitated the catastrophe.

+

+Ma'ame Margot had brought the washing home on the previous afternoon

+and stopped to have a cup of coffee and a chat in the kitchen of the

+house.  In the course of conversation she drew the attention of Anne,

+Madame Leblanc's maid, to the condition of Monsieur Ernest's

+underclothes.

+

+"I have done my best with it," she said, "but I told Mademoiselle

+Vaillant that I was afraid the stains would never come out.  She had

+tried to wash the things herself before she thought of sending them

+to me.  Whoever heard," added the worthy soul indignantly, "of

+letting a child of Monsieur Ernest's age go running about like that

+in the wet and the mud?  Why, he must have been soaked through to his

+waist to get his things in that state."

+

+Later Anne spoke to Mme. Leblanc of what the laundrywoman had said.

+Madame frowned, greatly puzzled.  She had positively forbidden the

+children to go out while the heavy rains lasted.  She sent for Ma'ame

+Margot, who was bold enough to laugh outright when Madame told her

+that she did not understand about Monsieur Ernest's things being so

+stained with wet and mud, as the children had not been out since the

+heavy rains had started.

+

+"Not been out?" ejaculated Ma'ame Margot, quite as puzzled as her

+lady.  "Why! my man, when he was looking after the sick cow the other

+night, saw Monsieur Ernest out with the governess.  It was past

+midnight then and the rain coming down in torrents, and my man, he

+says to me----"

+

+"Thank you, Ma'ame Margot," broke in Madame Leblanc, "that will do."

+

+She waited quietly until the laundrywoman was out of the house, then

+she sent for Mademoiselle Vaillant.  This time no prayers, no

+protestations would avail.  The girl must leave the house not later

+than the following morning.  What her object could have been in

+dragging her young pupil with her on her nocturnal expeditions Madame

+Leblanc could not of course conjecture; did she take the child with

+her as a chaperon on her meetings with Lavernay, or what?  Well,

+whatever her motive, the girl was not a fit person to be in charge of

+young children and go she must, decided Madame definitely.

+

+This occurred late yesterday afternoon.  Strangely enough, Marie

+Vaillant took her dismissal perfectly calmly.  She offered neither

+explanation nor protest.  Beyond a humble "Very well, Madame!" she

+never said a word during this final interview with her employer, who,

+outraged and offended at the girl's obstinacy and ingratitude,

+ordered her to pack up her things and leave the house early next

+morning, when a carriage would be ready to take her and her effects

+to Alençon.

+

+Early this morning, not two hours ago in fact, Anne had come running

+into Madame Leblanc's room with a scared white face, saying that

+Monsieur Ernest was not in his room and was nowhere to be found.  He

+appeared to have slipped on the clothes which he had worn the

+previous night, as these were missing from their usual place.

+

+Terribly alarmed, M. Leblanc had sent Anne to bring Mademoiselle

+Vaillant to him immediately; but Anne returned within a couple of

+minutes with the news that Mademoiselle had also disappeared.  The

+house was scoured from attic to cellar, the gardens were searched,

+and the outdoor labourers started to drag the moat.  Madame Leblanc,

+beside herself with dread, had collapsed, half fainting, in the hall,

+where Anne was administering restoratives to her.  Monsieur Leblanc

+had ordered his horse, determined at once to inform the police.  He

+was standing at his dressing-room window, putting on his riding

+clothes when he saw Marie Vaillant running as fast as ever she could

+across the garden towards the house.  Her dress clung wet and muddy

+round her legs, her hair was streaming down her back, and she held

+out her arms in front of her as she ran.  Indeed, she looked more mad

+than sane, and there was such a look of fear and horror in her face

+and about her whole appearance, that the servants--stupid and

+scared--stood by gaping like gabies, not attempting to run after her.

+In a moment M. Leblanc--his mind full of horrible foreboding--had

+flung out of his dressing-room, determined to intercept the woman and

+to wring from her an admission of what she had done with the boy.

+

+He ran down the main staircase, as he had seen Marie make straight

+for the chief entrance hall, but, presumably checked in her wild

+career, the girl had suddenly turned off after she had crossed the

+bridge over the moat, and must have dashed into the house by one of

+the side doors, for at the moment that M. Leblanc reached the hall he

+could hear her tearing helter-skelter up the uncarpeted service

+stairs.  No one so far had attempted to stop her.  M. Leblanc now

+called loudly to the servants to arrest this mad woman in her flight;

+there was a general scrimmage, but before anyone could reach the top

+landing, Marie had darted straight into her employers' bedroom and

+had locked and bolted the heavy door.

+

+"You may imagine," concluded the unfortunate sous-préfet, who had

+been at great pains to give his narrative some semblance of

+coherence, "that I was the first to bang against the bedroom door and

+to demand admittance of the wretched creature.  At first there was no

+reply, but through the solid panelling we could hear a distinct and

+steady hammering which seemed to come from the farther end of the

+room.  All the doors in the old house are extraordinarily heavy, but

+the one that gives on my wife's and my bedroom is of unusually

+massive oak with enormous locks and bars of iron and huge iron

+hinges.  I felt that it would be futile to try to break it open, and,

+frankly, I was not a little doubtful as to what the wretched woman

+might do if brought to bay.  The windows of the bedroom as well as

+those of the dressing-room adjoining give directly on the moat, which

+at this point is over three mètres deep.  Placing two of the

+men-servants on guard outside the door, with strict orders not to

+allow the woman to escape, I made my way into the garden and took my

+stand opposite the bedroom windows.  I had the width of the moat

+between me and the house.  The waters lapped the solid grey walls and

+for the first time since I have lived at Les Colombiers the thought

+of the old Manor, with its lurking holes for unfortunate Huguenots,

+struck my heart with a sense of coldness and gloom.  Up above Marie

+Vaillant had already taken the precaution of fastening the shutters;

+it was impossible to imagine what she could be doing, locked up in

+that room, or why she should refuse to come out, unless----"

+

+The stricken father closed his eyes as he hinted at this awful

+possibility; a shiver went through him.

+

+"A ladder----" suggested the Man in Grey.

+

+"Impossible!" replied M. Leblanc.  "The moat on that side is over

+eight mètres wide.  I had thought of that.  I thought of everything;

+I racked my brains.  Think of it, sir!  My boy Ernest gone, and his

+whereabouts probably only known to that mad woman up there!"

+

+"Your butler Lavernay?" queried the Man in Grey.

+

+"It was when I realised my helplessness that I suddenly thought of

+him," replied the sous-préfet; "but no one had seen him.  He too had

+disappeared."

+

+Then suddenly the full force of his misery rushed upon him.  He

+jumped to his feet and seized the police agent by the coat sleeve.

+

+"I entreat you, Monsieur Fernand," he exclaimed in tones of pitiable

+entreaty, "do not let us waste any more time.  We'll call at the

+commissariat of police first and get Lefèvre to follow hard on our

+heels with a posse of police.  I beg of you to come at once!"

+

+Gently the Man in Grey disengaged his arm from the convulsive grasp

+of the other.  "By your leave," he said, "we will not call in a posse

+of police just yet.  Remember your own fears!  Brought to bay, Marie

+Vaillant, if indeed she has some desperate deed to conceal, might

+jump into the moat and take the secret of your boy's whereabouts with

+her to her grave."

+

+"My God, you are right!" moaned the unfortunate man.  "What can I do?

+In Heaven's name tell me what to do."

+

+"For the moment we'll just go quietly to Les Colombiers together.  I

+always keep a horse ready saddled for emergencies at the 'Trois Rois'

+inn close by.  Do you get to horse and accompany me thither."

+

+"But----"

+

+"I pray you, sir, do not argue," broke in the police agent curtly.

+"Every minute has become precious."

+

+And silently M. Leblanc obeyed.  He had all at once grown as

+tractable as a child.  The dominating personality of that little Man

+in Grey had entire possession of him now, of his will and

+understanding.

+

+

+IV

+

+The first part of the cross-country ride was accomplished in silence.

+M. Leblanc was in a desperate hurry to get on; he pushed his horse

+along with the eagerness of intense anxiety.  For awhile the police

+agent kept up with him in silence, then suddenly he called a

+peremptory "Halt!"

+

+"Your horse will give out, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," he said.  "Allow

+him to walk for awhile.  There are two or three questions I must put

+to you, before we arrive at Les Colombiers."

+

+M. Leblanc obeyed and set his horse to a walk.  Of a truth he was

+more worn-out than his steed.

+

+"Firstly, tell me what kind of fireplace you have in your bedroom,"

+said the other abruptly, and with such strange irrelevance that the

+sous-préfet stared at him.

+

+"Why," he replied submissively, "there is a fine old chimney, as

+there is in every room in the house."

+

+"You have had a fire in it lately?"

+

+"Oh, every day.  The weather has been very cold."

+

+"And what sort of bed do you sleep in?"

+

+"An old-fashioned fourpost bedstead," replied M. Leblanc, more and

+more puzzled at these extraordinary questions, "which I believe has

+been in the house for two or three hundred years.  It is the only

+piece of the original furniture left; everything else was sold by

+Monsieur de Mamers' agent before the State confiscated the house.  I

+don't know why the bedstead was allowed to remain; probably because

+it is so uncommonly heavy and is also screwed to the floor."

+

+"Thank you.  That is interesting," rejoined the police agent drily.

+"And now, tell me, what is the nearest house to yours that is of

+similar historical interest?"

+

+"An old sixteenth-century house, you mean?"

+

+"Yes."

+

+"There is none at Bourg-le-Roi.  If you remember, the town itself is

+comparatively modern, and every traveller will tell you that Les

+Colombiers is the only interesting piece of mediæval architecture in

+the neighbourhood.  Of course, there are the ruins at Saut-de-Biche."

+

+"The ruins at Saut-de-Biche?"

+

+"Yes.  In the woods, about half a kilomètre from Les Colombiers.

+They are supposed to be the remains of the old farmhouse belonging to

+the Manor; but only two or three walls are left standing.  A

+devastating fire razed the place to the ground some ten years ago;

+since then the roof has fallen in, and the town council of

+Bourg-le-Roi has been using some of the stone for building the new

+town hall.  The whole thing is just a mass of debris and charred

+wood."

+

+While the two men were talking the time had gone by swiftly enough.

+Alençon was soon left far behind; ahead, close by, lay the coppice

+which sheltered Les Colombiers.  Some twenty minutes later the two

+men drew rein in the fine old courtyard of the ancient Manor.  At a

+call from M. Leblanc one of his men rushed out of the house to hold

+the horses and to aid his master to dismount.  The Man in Grey was

+already on his feet.

+

+"What news?" he asked of the man.

+

+The latter shrugged his shoulders.  There was no change at Les

+Colombiers.  The two labourers were still on sentry guard outside the

+bedroom door, whilst the indoor servant, with the head gardener, had

+remained down below by the side of the moat, staring up at the

+shuttered windows, and revelling in all the horrors which the aspect

+of the dark waters and of the windows above, behind which no doubt

+the mad woman was crouching, helped to conjure up before their

+sluggish minds.

+

+Madame Leblanc was still lying on a couch in the hall, prostrate with

+grief.  No one had caught sight of Marie Vaillant within her

+stronghold, and there was no sign either of M. Ernest or of the

+butler Lavernay.

+

+Without protest or opposition on the part of the master of the house,

+the Man in Grey had taken command of the small army of scared

+domestics.

+

+"Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," he said, "before I can help you in this

+matter, I must make a hurried inspection of your domain.  I shall

+require three of your men to come with me.  They must come armed with

+a stout joist, with pickaxes and a few heavy tools.  You yourself and

+your women servants must remain on guard outside the bedroom door.

+Should Marie Vaillant attempt a sortie, seize her and, above all, see

+she does not do herself an injury.  Your head gardener and indoor man

+must remain by the moat.  I presume they can swim."

+

+"Swim?" queried M. Leblanc vaguely.

+

+"Why, yes!  There is still the possibility of the girl trying to

+drown herself and her secret in the moat."

+

+M. Leblanc promised most earnestly that he would obey the police

+agent's commands to the letter, and the Man in Grey, followed by the

+three labourers who carried their picks, a bag of tools and a stout

+joist, started on his way.  Swiftly crossing the bridge over the

+moat, he strode rapidly across the park and plunged into the coppice.

+Then only did he ask the men to precede him.

+

+"Take me straight to the ruins at Saut-de-Biche," he said.

+

+The men obeyed, not pausing to reflect what could be the object of

+this little man in the grey coat in going to look at a pile of broken

+stone walls, while M. le Sous-Préfet was half demented with anxiety

+and a mad woman might either set fire to the whole house or do

+herself some terrible injury.  They walked on in silence closely

+followed by the accredited representative of His Impérial Majesty's

+Minister of Police.

+

+Within ten minutes the ruined farmhouse came in sight.  It stood in

+the midst of a wide clearing; the woods which stretched all round it

+were so dense that even in mid-winter they screened it from the road.

+There was but little of the original structure left; a piece of wall

+like a tall arm stretching upwards to the skies, another forming an

+angle, some loose pieces of stone lying about in the midst of a

+medley of broken and charred wood, cracked tiles and twisted pieces

+of metal.  The whole place had an aspect of unspeakable desolation.

+All round the ruined walls a forest of brambles, dead gorse and broom

+had sprung up, rendering access to the house very difficult.  For a

+moment or two the Man in Grey paused, surveying the surroundings with

+a keen, experienced eye.  At a slight distance from him on the right,

+the gorse and bramble had apparently been hacked away in order to

+make a passage practicable to human feet.  Without hesitation

+Fernand, ordering the three men to follow him, struck into this

+narrow track which, as he surmised, led straight to the ruins.  He

+skirted the upstanding wall, until an opening in the midst of the big

+masses of stone enabled him to reach what was once the interior of

+the house.  Here progress became very difficult; the debris from the

+fallen roof littered the ground and there was grave danger of a

+hidden chasm below, where the cellars may have been.

+

+The Man in Grey peered round him anxiously.  Presently an exclamation

+of satisfaction rose to his lips.  He called to the men.  A few feet

+away from where he was standing the whole debris seemed to have been

+lately considerably augmented.  Right in the midst of a pile of

+burned wood, tiles and metal, a large stone was embedded.  It had

+evidently been very recently detached from the high upstanding wall,

+and had fallen down amidst a shower of the decayed mortar, wet earth,

+and torn lichen and moss, which littered the place.

+

+In obedience to the commands of the Man in Grey, the labourers took

+up their picks, and set to work to clear the debris around the fallen

+stone, the police agent standing close by, watching them.  They had

+not done more than bury their tools once in the litter of earth and

+mortar, when their picks encountered something soft.

+

+"Drop your tools," commanded the Man in Grey.  "Your hands will

+suffice to unearth what lies below."

+

+It was the body of a man crushed almost past recognition by the

+weight of the fallen masonry.  The labourers extricated it from the

+fragments of wood and metal and dragged it into the open.

+

+"By his clothes," said one of the men, in answer to a peremptory

+query from the Man in Grey, "I guess he must be the butler, Francois

+Lavernay."

+

+The secret agent made no comment.  Not a line of his pale, colourless

+face betrayed the emotion he felt--the emotion of the sleuth-hound

+which knows that it is on the track of its quarry.  He ordered the

+body to be decorously put on one side and took off his own loose

+mantle to throw over it.  Then he bade the men resume their work.

+They picked up their tools again and tried to clear the rubbish all

+round the fallen stone.

+

+"We must move that stone from its place," the man in the grey coat

+had said, and the labourers, impelled by that air of assurance and

+authority which emanated from the insignificant little figure, set to

+with a will.  Having cleared the debris, they put their shoulders to

+the stone, helped by the secret agent whose strength appeared out of

+all proportion to his slender frame.  By and by the stone became

+dislodged and, with another effort, rolled over on its flat side.

+After that it was easy to move it some three or four feet farther on.

+

+"That will do!" commanded the Man in Grey.

+

+Underneath the stone there now appeared a square flat slab of granite

+embedded into the soil with cement and concrete.  One piece of this

+slab had seemingly been cut or chiselled away and then removed,

+displaying a cavity about a foot and a half square.  In the centre of

+the slab was an iron ring to which a rope was attached, the other end

+being lost within the cavity.

+

+The labourers were staring at their find open-mouthed; but the secret

+agent was already busy hauling up the rope.  The end of it was formed

+into a loop not large enough to pass over a man's shoulders.

+

+"Just as I thought," he muttered between his teeth.

+

+Then he lay down on his stomach and with his head just over the small

+cavity he shouted a loud "Hallo!"  From down below there came no

+answer save a dull, resounding echo.  Again and again the Man in Grey

+shouted his loud "Hallo!" into the depths, but, eliciting no reply,

+at last he struggled to his feet.

+

+"Now then, my men," he said, "I am going to leave you here to work

+away at this slab.  It has got to be removed within an hour."

+

+The men examined the cement which held the heavy stone in its place.

+

+"It will take time," one of them said.  "This cement is terribly

+hard; we shall have to chip every bit of it away."

+

+"You must do your best," said the Man in Grey earnestly.  "A human

+life may depend on your toil.  You will have no cause to grumble at

+the reward when your work is done.  For reasons which I cannot

+explain, I may not bring any strangers to help you.  So work away as

+hard as you can.  I will return in about an hour with Monsieur le

+Sous-Préfet."

+

+He waited to see the men swing their picks, then turned on his heel

+and started to walk back the way he came.

+

+It was nearly two hours before the slab of granite was finally

+removed from its place.  M. le Sous-Préfet was standing by with the

+Man in Grey when the stone was hoisted up and turned over.  It

+disclosed a large cavity with, at one end of it, a flight of stone

+steps leading downwards.

+

+"Now then, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," said the police agent quietly,

+"will you follow me?"

+

+M. Leblanc's face was ghastly in its pallor.  The sudden hope held

+out to him by the Man in Grey had completely unnerved him.  "Are you

+sure----" he murmured.

+

+"That we shall find Monsieur Ernest down there?" broke in the other,

+as he pointed to the hollow.  "Well, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet, I wish

+I were equally sure of a fortune!"

+

+He had a lighted lantern in his hand and began to descend the stone

+stairs, closely followed by the sous-préfet.  The labourers above

+were resting after their heavy toil.  They could not understand all

+they had seen, and their slow wits would probably never grasp the

+full significance of their strange adventure.  While in the depths

+below the Man in Grey, holding M. le Sous-Préfet by the arm and

+swinging the lantern in front, was exploring the mediæval

+lurking-holes of the Huguenots, the three labourers were calmly

+munching their bread and cheese.

+

+

+V

+

+The searchers found the boy lying unconscious not very far from the

+stairs.  A dark lantern had fallen from his hand and been

+extinguished.  A large heavy box with metal handles stood close

+behind him; a long trail behind the box showed that the plucky child

+had dragged it along by its handle for a considerable distance.  How

+he had managed to do so remained a marvel.  Love and enthusiasm had

+lent the puny youngster remarkable strength.  The broken-hearted

+father lifted his unconscious child in his arms.  Obviously he had

+only fainted--probably from fright--and together the little

+procession now worked its way back into the open.

+

+"Can you carry your boy home, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," asked the Man

+in Grey, "while we attend to your unfortunate butler?"

+

+But he had no need to ask.  Already M. Leblanc, closely hugging his

+precious burden, was striding bravely and manfully through the

+coppice beyond.

+

+The Man in Grey arrived at Les Colombiers a quarter of an hour after

+the sous-préfet had seen his boy snugly laid in his mother's arms.

+The child was far too weak and too highly strung to give a clear

+account of the events which had landed him alone and unconscious

+inside the disused hiding-place, with his only means of exit cut off.

+But the first words he spoke after he had returned to consciousness

+were: "Tell my darling Marie that I did my best."

+

+Afterwards the Man in Grey graphically recounted to the sous-préfet

+how he came to seek for Ernest beneath the ruins of Saut-de-Biche.

+

+"I followed Marie Vaillant's machinations in my mind," he said, "from

+the moment that she entered your service.  Not a word of your

+narrative escaped me, remember!  Recommended by the Bishop of

+Alençon, I guessed her to be a Royalist who had been placed in your

+house for some purpose connected with the Cause.  What that purpose

+was it became my business to learn.  It was a case of putting the

+proverbial two and two together.  There was, on the one hand, an old

+moated Manor, once the refuge of persecuted Huguenots and therefore

+full of secret corners and hiding-places, and, on the other, an

+émigré Royalist family who had fled the country, no doubt leaving

+hidden treasures which they could not take away in their flight.  Add

+to these facts a young girl recommended by the Bishop of Alençon, one

+of the most inveterate Royalist intriguers in the land, and you have

+as fine a solution of all that has puzzled you, Monsieur, as you

+could wish.  Marie Vaillant had been sent to your house by the

+Royalist faction to secure the treasure hidden by the Comte de Mamers

+in one of the lurking-holes of Les Colombiers.

+

+"With this certainty firmly fixed in my mind, I was soon able to

+explain her every action.  The open-air life in the summer meant that

+she could not gain access to the hiding-place inside the house and

+she must seek an entrance outside.  This manoeuvre suggested to me

+that the secret place was perhaps a subterranean passage which led

+from some distant portion of the domain to the house itself.  There

+are a number of such passages in France, of mediæval structure.

+Often they run under a moat.

+

+"Then came the second phase: Marie Vaillant's coquetry.  She either

+could not find or could not open the hiding-place; she needed a man's

+help.  Lavernay, your butler, appeared susceptible--her choice fell

+on him.  Night after night they stole out together in order to work

+away at the obstacle which blocked the entrance to the secret

+passage.  Then they were discovered.  Marie was threatened with

+dismissal, even before she had found the hidden treasure.  She

+changed her tactics and inveigled your boy into her service.  Why?

+Because she and Lavernay were too weak and clumsy.  They had only

+succeeded in disclosing one small portion of the entrance to the

+secret lair; a portion not large enough to allow of the passage of an

+adult.  So your boy was cajoled, endeared, fascinated.  Highly strung

+and nervous, he was ready to dare all for the sake of the girl whom

+he loved with the ardour of unawakened manhood.  He is dragged

+through the woods and shown the place; he is gradually familiarised

+with the task which lies before him.  Then once more discovery falls

+on Marie Vaillant like a thunderbolt.

+

+"There is only one more night wherein she can effect her purpose.

+Can you see them--she and Lavernay and your boy--stealing out at dead

+of night to the ruins; the boy primed in what he has to do, lowered

+by a cord into the secret passage, dark lantern in hand?  Truly the

+heroism of so young a child passes belief!  Lavernay and Marie

+Vaillant wait above, straining their ears to hear what is going on

+below.  The underground passage, remember, is over half a kilomètre

+in length.  I explored it as far as I could.  It goes under the moat

+and I imagine has its other entrance in your bedroom at Les

+Colombiers.  Ernest had to go some way along it ere he discovered the

+box which contained the treasure.  With truly superhuman strength he

+seizes the metal handle and drags his burden wearily along.  At last

+he has reached the spot where the cord still dangles from above.  He

+gives the preconcerted signal but receives no reply.  Distracted and

+terror-stricken, he calls again and again until the horror of his

+position causes him to lose consciousness.

+

+"Above the tragedy is being consummated.  Loosened by recent heavy

+rains, a large piece of masonry comes crashing down, burying in its

+fall the unfortunate Lavernay and hopelessly blocking the entrance to

+the secret passage.  Picture to yourself Marie Vaillant pitting her

+feeble strength against the relentless stone, half-crazed with the

+thought of the child buried alive beneath her feet.  An oath to her

+party binds her to secrecy!  She dares not call for help.  Almost

+demented, blind instinct drives her to the one spot whence she might

+yet be able to render assistance to the child--your bedroom, where

+I'll wager that either inside the chimney or behind the head of the

+old-fashioned bedstead you will find the panel which masks the other

+entrance to the secret passage."

+

+The Man in Grey suspended his story and, guided by his host, made his

+way upstairs to the landing outside the bedroom door.

+

+"Call to the poor woman, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," he commanded.

+"Tell her that the child is safe and well.  Perhaps she will come out

+of her own accord.  It were a pity to break this magnificent door."

+

+Presently Marie Vaillant, summoned by her employer, who assured her

+repeatedly that Ernest was safe and well, was heard to unlock the

+door and to draw the bolts.  Next moment she stood under the heavy

+oak lintel, her face as white as a shroud, her eyes staring wildly

+before her, her gown stained, her hands bleeding.  She had bruised

+herself sorely in a vain endeavour to move the massive bedstead which

+concealed the secret entrance to the underground passage.

+

+One glance at M. Leblanc's face assured her that all was well with

+her valiant little helpmeet and that the two men before her were

+moved more by pity than by wrath.  She broke down completely, but the

+violent fit of weeping eased her overburdened heart.  Soon she became

+comforted with the kindly assurance that she would be allowed to

+depart in peace.  Even the sous-préfet felt that the wretched girl

+had suffered enough through the tortuous intrigues of her fanatic

+loyalty to the cause of her party, whilst the Man in Grey saw to it

+that in the matter of the death of Lavernay His Majesty's Police were

+fully satisfied.

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER IV

+

+THE EMERALDS OF MADEMOISELLE PHILIPPA

+

+

+I

+

+At first there was a good deal of talk in the neighbourhood when the

+de Romaines returned from England and made their home in the

+tumbledown Lodge just outside St. Lô.  The Lodge, surrounded by a

+small garden, marked the boundary of the beautiful domain of

+Torteron, which had been the property of the de Romaines and their

+ancestors for many generations.  M. le Comte de Romaine had left

+France with his family at the very outset of the Revolution and, in

+accordance with the decree of February, 1792, directed against the

+Emigrants, his estates were confiscated and sold for the benefit of

+the State.  The château of Torteron, being so conveniently situated

+near the town of St. Lô, was converted into a general hospital, and

+the farms and agricultural lands were bought up by various local

+cultivators.  Only the little Lodge at the park gates had remained

+unsold, and when the Emigrés were granted a general amnesty, the de

+Romaines obtained  permission to settle in it.  Although it was

+greatly neglected and dilapidated, it was weatherproof, and by the

+clemency of the Emperor it was declared to be indisputably their own.

+

+M. le Comte de Romaine, worn out by sorrow and the miseries of exile,

+had died in England.  It was Mme. la Comtesse, now a widow, who came

+back to Torteron along with M. le Comte Jacques, her son, who had

+never set foot on his native soil since, as a tiny lad, he had been

+taken by his parents into exile, and Mademoiselle Mariette, her

+daughter, who, born in England, had never been in France at all.

+

+People who had known Madame la Comtesse in the past thought her

+greatly aged, more so in fact than her years warranted.  She had gone

+away in '91 a young and handsome woman well on the right side of

+thirty, fond of society and show; now, nineteen years later, she

+reappeared the wreck of her former self.  Crippled with rheumatism,

+for ever wrapped up in shawls, with weak sight and impaired hearing,

+she at once settled down to a very secluded life at the Lodge, waited

+on only by her daughter, a silent, stately girl, who filled the

+duties of maid of all work, companion and nurse to her mother, and

+her brother.

+

+On the other hand, young M. le Comte de Romaine was a regular

+"gadabout."  Something of a rogue and a ne'er-do-well, he seemed to

+have no defined occupation, and soon not a café or dancing hall in

+St. Lô, but had some story to tell of his escapades and merry living.

+

+M. Moulin, the préfet, had received an order from the accredited

+agent of the Minister of Police to keep an eye on the doings of these

+returned Emigrants, but until now their conduct had been above

+suspicion.  Mme. la Comtesse and Mlle. Mariette went nowhere except

+now and again to the church of Notre Dame; they saw no one; and for

+the nonce the young Comte de Romaine devoted his entire attention to

+Mademoiselle Philippa, the charming dancer who was delighting the

+audiences of St. Lô with her inimitable art, and dazzling their eyes

+with her showy dresses, her magnificent equipage and her diamonds.

+

+The préfet, in his latest report to the secret agent, had jocularly

+added that the lovely dancer did not appear at all averse from the

+idea of being styled Mme. la Comtesse one of these days, or of

+regilding the faded escutcheon of the de Romaines with her plebeian

+gold.

+

+There certainly was no hint of Chouannerie about the doings of any

+member of the family, no communication with any of the well-known

+Chouan leaders, no visits from questionable personages.

+

+Great therefore was the astonishment of M. Moulin when, three days

+later, he received a summons to present himself at No. 15 Rue Notre

+Dame, where the agent of His Majesty's Minister of Police had arrived

+less than an hour ago.

+

+"I am here in strict incognito, my dear Monsieur Moulin," said the

+Man in Grey as soon as he had greeted the préfet, "and I have brought

+three of my men with me whom I know I can trust, as I am not

+satisfied that you are carrying out my orders."

+

+"Your orders, Monsieur--er--Fernand?" queried the préfet blandly.

+

+"Yes!  I said my orders," retorted the other quietly.  "Did I not bid

+you keep a strict eye on the doings of the Romaine family?"

+

+"But, Monsieur Fernand----"

+

+"From now onwards my men and I will watch Jacques de Romaine," broke

+in the secret agent in that even tone of his which admitted of no

+argument.  "But we cannot have our eyes everywhere.  I must leave the

+women to you."

+

+"The old Comtesse only goes to church, and Mademoiselle Mariette goes

+sometimes to market."

+

+"So much the better for you.  Your men will have an easy time."

+

+"But----"

+

+"I pray you do not argue, my good Monsieur Moulin.  Mademoiselle

+Mariette may be out shopping at this very moment."

+

+And when the accredited agent said "I pray you," non-compliance was

+out of the question.

+

+Later in the day the préfet talked the matter over with M. Cognard,

+chief commissary of police, who had had similar orders in the matter

+of the Romaines.  The two cronies had had their tempers sorely

+ruffled--by the dictatorial ways of the secret agent, whom they hated

+with all the venom that indolent natures direct against an energetic

+one.

+

+"The little busybody," vowed M. Moulin, "sees conspirators in every

+harmless citizen and interferes in matters which of a truth have

+nothing whatever to do with him."

+

+

+II

+

+Then in the very midst of the complacency of these two worthies came

+the memorable day which, in their opinion, was the most turbulent one

+they had ever known during their long and otiose careers.

+

+It was the day following the arrival of the secret agent at St. Lô,

+and he had come to the commissariat that morning for the sole

+purpose--so M. Cognard averred--of making matters uncomfortable for

+everybody, when Mademoiselle de Romaine was announced.  Mademoiselle

+had sent in word that she desired to speak with M. le Commissaire

+immediately, and a minute or two later she entered, looking like a

+pale ghost in a worn grey gown, and with a cape round her shoulders

+which was far too thin to keep out the cold on this winter's morning.

+

+M. Cognard, fussy and chivalrous, offered her a chair.  She seemed to

+be in a terrible state of mental agitation and on the verge of tears,

+which, however, with characteristic pride she held resolutely in

+check.

+

+"I have come, Monsieur le Commissaire," she began in a voice hoarse

+with emotion, "because my mother--Madame la Comtesse de Romaine--and

+I are desperately anxious--we don't know--we----"

+

+She was trembling so that she appeared almost unable to speak.  M.

+Cognard, with great kindness and courtesy, poured out a glass of

+water for her.  She drank a little of it, and threw him a grateful

+look, after which she seemed more tranquil.

+

+"I beg you to compose yourself, Mademoiselle," said the commissaire.

+"I am entirely at your service."

+

+"It is about my brother, Monsieur le Commissaire," rejoined

+Mademoiselle more calmly, "Monsieur le Comte Jacques de Romaine.  He

+has disappeared.  For three days we have seen and heard nothing of

+him--and my mother fears--fears----"

+

+Her eyes became dilated with that fear which she dared not put into

+words.  M. Cognard interposed at once, both decisively and

+sympathetically.

+

+"There is no occasion to fear the worst, Mademoiselle," he said

+kindly.  "Young men often leave home for days without letting their

+mother and sisters know where they are."

+

+"Ah, but, Monsieur le Commissaire," resumed Mademoiselle with a

+pathetic break in her voice, "the circumstances in this case are

+exceptional.  My mother is a great invalid, and though my brother

+leads rather a gay life he is devoted to her and he always would come

+home of nights.  Sometimes," she continued, as a slight flush rose to

+her pale cheeks, "Mademoiselle Philippa would drive him home in her

+barouche from the theatre.  This she did on Tuesday night, for I

+heard the carriage draw up at our door.  I saw the lights of the

+lanthorns; I also heard my brother's voice bidding Mademoiselle good

+night and the barouche driving off again.  I was in bed, for it was

+long past midnight, and I remember just before I fell asleep again

+thinking how very quietly my dear brother must have come in, for I

+had not heard the opening and shutting of the front door, nor his

+step upon the stairs or in his room.  Next morning I saw that his bed

+had not been slept in, and that he had not come into the house at

+all--as I had imagined--but had driven off again, no doubt, with

+Mademoiselle Philippa.  But we have not seen him since, and----"

+

+"And--h'm--er--have you communicated with Mademoiselle Philippa?"

+asked the commissary with some hesitation.

+

+"No, Monsieur," replied Mariette de Romaine gravely.  "You are the

+first stranger whom I have consulted.  I thought you would advise me

+what to do."

+

+"Exactly, exactly!" rejoined M. Cognard, highly gratified at this

+tribute to his sagacity.  "You may rely on me, Mademoiselle, to carry

+on investigations with the utmost discretion.  Perhaps you will

+furnish me with a few details regarding this--er--regrettable

+occurrence."

+

+There ensued a lengthy period of questioning and cross-questioning.

+M. Cognard was impressively official.  Mademoiselle de Romaine,

+obviously wearied, told and retold her simple story with exemplary

+patience.  The Man in Grey, ensconced in a dark corner of the room,

+took no part in the proceedings; only once did he interpose with an

+abrupt question:

+

+"Are you quite sure, Mademoiselle," he asked, "that Monsieur le Comte

+did not come into the house at all before you heard the barouche

+drive off again?"

+

+Mariette de Romaine gave a visible start.  Clearly she had had no

+idea until then that anyone else was in the room besides herself and

+the commissary of police, and as the quaint, grey-clad figure emerged

+suddenly from out the dark corner, her pale cheeks assumed an even

+more ashen hue.  Nevertheless, she replied quite steadily:

+

+"I cannot be sure of that, Monsieur," she said; "for I was in bed and

+half asleep, but I am sure my brother did not sleep at home that

+night."

+

+The Man in Grey asked no further questions; he had retired into the

+dark corner of the room, but--after this little episode--whenever

+Mariette de Romaine looked in that direction, she encountered those

+deep-set, colourless eyes of his fixed intently upon her.

+

+After Mademoiselle de Romaine's departure, M. Cognard turned somewhat

+sheepishly to the Man in Grey.

+

+"It does seem," he said, "that there is something queer about those

+Romaines, after all."

+

+"Fortunately," retorted the secret agent, "you have complied with my

+orders, and your men have never once lost sight of Mademoiselle or of

+Madame her mother."

+

+M. Cognard made no reply.  His round face had flushed to the very

+roots of his hair.

+

+"Had you not better send at once for this dancer--Philippa?" added

+the Man in Grey.

+

+"Of course--of course----" stammered the commissary, much relieved.

+

+

+III

+

+Mademoiselle Philippa duly arrived, in the early afternoon, in her

+barouche drawn by two magnificent English horses.  She appeared

+dressed in the latest Paris fashion and was greeted by M. Cognard

+with the gallantry due to her beauty and talent.

+

+"You have sent for me, Monsieur le Commissaire?" she asked somewhat

+tartly, as soon as she had settled herself down in as becoming an

+attitude as the office chair would allow.

+

+"Oh, Mademoiselle," said the commissary deprecatingly, "I did so with

+deep regret at having to trouble you."

+

+"Well?  And what is it?"

+

+"I only desired to ask you, Mademoiselle, if you have seen the Comte

+de Romaine recently."

+

+She laughed and shrugged her pretty shoulders.

+

+"The young scamp!" she said lightly.  "No, I haven't seen him for two

+days.  Why do you ask?"

+

+"Because the young scamp, as you so pertinently call him, has

+disappeared, and neither his mother nor his sister knows what has

+become of him."

+

+"Disappeared?" exclaimed Mademoiselle Philippa.  "With my emeralds!"

+

+Her nonchalance and habitual gaiety suddenly left her.  She sat bolt

+upright, her small hands clutching the arms of her chair, her face

+pale and almost haggard beneath the delicate layer of rouge.

+

+"Your emeralds, Mademoiselle?" queried M. Cognard in dismay.

+

+"My emeralds!" she reiterated with a catch in her voice.  "A

+necklace, tiara and earrings--a gift to me from the Emperor of Russia

+when I danced before him at St. Petersburg.  They are worth the best

+part of a million francs, Monsieur le Commissaire.  Oh!  Monsieur de

+Romaine cannot have disappeared--not like that--and not with my

+emeralds!"

+

+She burst into tears and M. Cognard had much ado to re-assure her.

+Everything would be done, he declared, to trace the young scapegrace.

+He could not dispose of the emeralds, vowed the commissary, without

+being apprehended and his booty being taken from him.

+

+"He can dispose of them abroad," declared Mademoiselle Philippa, who

+would not be consoled.  "He may be on the high seas by now--the

+detestable young rogue."

+

+"But how came Mademoiselle Philippa's priceless emeralds in the hands

+of that detestable young rogue?" here interjected a quiet, even voice.

+

+Mademoiselle turned upon the Man in Grey like a young tiger-cat that

+has been teased.

+

+"What's that to you?" she queried.

+

+He smiled.

+

+"Are we not all trying to throw light on a mysterious occurrence?" he

+asked.

+

+"Monsieur de Romaine wanted to show my emeralds to his mother,"

+rejoined Mademoiselle, somewhat mollified and not a little

+shamefaced.  "I had promised to be his wife--Madame la Comtesse had

+approved--she looked upon me as a daughter--I had been up to her

+house to see her--she expressed a wish to see my emeralds--and so on

+Tuesday I entrusted them to Monsieur de Romaine--and--and----"

+

+Once more her voice broke and she burst into tears.  It was a

+pitiably silly story, of course--that of the clumsy trap set by a

+fascinating rogue--the trap into which hundreds of thousands of women

+have fallen since the world began, and into which as many will fall

+again so long as human nature does not undergo a radical change.

+

+"And when you drove Monsieur de Romaine home on that Tuesday night,"

+continued the Man in Grey; "he had your emeralds in his possession?"

+

+"Yes," replied Mademoiselle through her tears.  "He had them in the

+inside pocket of his coat.  I took leave of him at the Lodge.  He

+waved his hand to me and I drove off.  That is the last I have seen

+of him--the scamp!"

+

+Mademoiselle Philippa was evidently taking it for granted that

+Jacques de Romaine had stolen her emeralds, and she laughed

+derisively when M. Cognard suggested that mayhap the unfortunate

+young man had been waylaid and robbed and afterwards murdered by some

+malefactor who knew that he had the jewels in his possession.

+

+"Well!" commented the dancer with a shrug of her shoulders, "'tis for

+you, my good Commissaire, to find either my emeralds for me or the

+murdered body of Monsieur le Comte de Romaine."

+

+After which parting shot Mademoiselle took her departure, leaving an

+atmosphere of cosmetics and the lingering echo of the frou-frou of

+silken skirts.

+

+

+IV

+

+The commissary accompanied Mademoiselle Philippa to the door.  He was

+not looking forward with unadulterated pleasure to the next

+half-hour, when of a surety that fussy functionary from Paris would

+set the municipal authorities by the ears for the sake of an affair

+which, after all, was not so very uncommon in these days--a handsome

+rogue, a foolish, trusting woman, valuable jewellery.  The whole

+thing was very simple and the capture of the miscreant a certainty.

+"How was he going to dispose of the emeralds," argued M. Cognard to

+himself, "without getting caught?"  As for connecting such a mild

+affair with any of those daring Chouans, the idea was preposterous.

+

+But when M. Cognard returned to his office, these specious arguments

+froze upon his lips.  The Man in Grey was looking unusually stern and

+uncompromising.

+

+"Let me have your last reports about Mademoiselle de Romaine," he

+said peremptorily.  "What did she do all day yesterday?"

+

+The commissary, grumbling in his beard, found the necessary papers.

+

+"She only went to church in the morning," he said in an injured tone

+of voice, "with Madame la Comtesse.  It was the feast of St.

+Andrew----"

+

+"Did either of the women speak to anyone?"

+

+"Not on the way.  But the church was very crowded--both ladies went

+to confession----"

+

+The Man in Grey uttered an impatient exclamation.

+

+"I fear we have lost the emeralds," he said, "but in Heaven's name do

+not let us lose the rogue.  When brought to bay he may give up the

+booty yet."

+

+"But, Monsieur Fernand----" protested the commissary.

+

+The other waved aside these protestations with a quick gesture of his

+slender hand.

+

+"I know, I know," he said.  "You are not at fault.  The rascal has

+been too clever for us, that is all.  But we have not done with him

+yet.  Send over to the Lodge at once," added the secret agent firmly,

+"men whom you can trust, and order them to apprehend Monsieur le

+Comte Jacques de Romaine and convey him hither at once."

+

+"To the Lodge?"

+

+"Yes!  Mariette de Romaine lied when she said that her brother had

+not been in the house since Tuesday.  He is in the house now.  I had

+only been in St. Lô a few hours, but I had taken up my stand outside

+the Lodge that night, when Mademoiselle Philippa's barouche drew up

+there and Jacques de Romaine stepped out of it.  I saw him wave his

+hand and then turn to go into the house.  The next moment the door of

+the Lodge was opened and he disappeared within it.  Since then he has

+not been outside the house.  I was there the whole of that night with

+one of my men, two others have been on the watch ever since--one in

+front, the other at the back.  The sister or the mother may have

+passed the emeralds on to a confederate in church yesterday--we don't

+know.  But this I do know," he concluded emphatically, "that Jacques

+de Romaine is in the Lodge at this moment unless the devil has

+spirited him away up the chimney."

+

+"There's no devil that will get the better of my men," retorted the

+commissary, carried away despite himself by the other's energy and

+sense of power.  "We'll have the rogue here within the hour, Monsieur

+Fernand, I pledge you the honour of the municipality of St. Lô!  And

+the emeralds, too," he added complacently, "if the robbers have not

+yet disposed of them."

+

+"That's brave!" rejoined the Man in Grey in a tone of kindly

+encouragement.  "My own men are still on the spot and will lend you a

+hand.  They have at their fingers' ends all that there is to know on

+the subject of secret burrows and hiding-places.  All that you have

+to remember is that Jacques de Romaine is inside the Lodge and that

+you must bring him here.  Now go and make your arrangements; I will

+be at the Lodge myself within the hour."

+

+

+V

+

+It was quite dark when the Minister's agent arrived at the Lodge.  M.

+Cognard met him outside the small garden gate.  As soon as he caught

+sight of the slender, grey-clad figure he ran to meet it as fast as

+his portliness would allow.

+

+"Nothing!" he said breathlessly.

+

+"How do you mean--nothing?" retorted the secret agent.

+

+"Just what I say," replied the commissaire.  "We have searched this

+tumbledown barrack through and through.  The women are there--in

+charge of my men.  They did not protest; they did not hinder us in

+any way.  But I tell you," added M. Cognard, as he mopped his

+streaming forehead, "there's not a cat or a mouse concealed in that

+place.  We have searched every hole and corner."

+

+"Bah!" said the Man in Grey with a frown.  "Some secret hiding-place

+has escaped you!"

+

+"Ask your own trusted men," retorted the commissaire.  "They have

+worked with ours."

+

+"Have you questioned the women?"

+

+"Yes!  They adhere to Mademoiselle's story in every point."

+

+"Do they know that I--a member of His Majesty's secret police

+force--saw Jacques de Romaine enter this house on Tuesday night, and

+that I swear he did not leave it the whole of that night; whilst my

+own men are equally ready to swear that he has not left it since?"

+

+"They know that."

+

+"And what is their answer?"

+

+"That we must demand an explanation from the man who was lurking

+round here in the dark when Jacques de Romaine had priceless jewels

+in his possession," replied the chief commissary.

+

+The stern features of the Man in Grey relaxed into a smile.

+

+"The rogues are cleverer than I thought," he said simply.

+

+"Rogues?" growled M. Cognard.  "I for one do not believe that they

+are rogues.  If Jacques de Romaine entered this house on Tuesday

+night and has not left it since, where is he now?  Answer me that,

+Monsieur Fernand!"

+

+"Do you think I have murdered him?" retorted the secret agent calmly.

+

+Then he went into the house.

+

+He found Mme. la Comtesse de Romaine entrenched within that barrier

+of lofty incredulity which she had set up the moment that she heard

+of the grave suspicion which rested upon her son.

+

+"A Comte de Romaine, Monsieur," she said in her thin, cracked voice

+in answer to every query put to her by the Man in Grey, "who is also

+Seigneur de Mazaire and a peer of France, does not steal the jewels

+of a dancer.  If, as that wench asserts, my son had her trinkets that

+night about his person, then obviously it is for you who were lurking

+around my house like a thief in the night to give an account of what

+became of him."

+

+"Your son entered this house last Tuesday night, Madame," answered

+Fernand firmly, "and has not been out of it since."

+

+"Then I pray you find him, Sir," was Madame de Romaine's rejoinder.

+

+Mademoiselle Mariette's attitude was equally uncompromising.  She

+bore every question and cross-question unflinchingly.  But when the

+secret agent finally left her in peace to initiate a thorough search

+inside that house which so bafflingly refused to give up its secret,

+she turned to the chief commissary of police.

+

+"Who is that anonymous creature," she queried with passionate

+indignation, "who heaps insults and tortures upon my dear mother and

+me?  Why is he not being questioned?  Whose is the hidden hand that

+shields him when retribution should be marking him for its own?"

+

+Whose indeed?  The commissary of police was at his wits' end.  Even

+the Man in Grey--resolute, systematic and untiring--failed to

+discover anything suspicious in the Lodge.  It had often been said of

+him that no secret hiding-place, no secret panel or lurking-hole

+could escape his eagle eye, and yet, to-day, after three hours'

+persistent search, he was forced to confess he had been baffled.

+

+Either his men had relaxed their vigilance at some time since that

+fateful Tuesday night, and had allowed the rogue to escape, or the

+devil had indeed spirited the young Comte de Romaine up the chimney.

+

+Public opinion at once went dead against the authorities.

+Mademoiselle de Romaine had taken good care that the story of the man

+lurking round the Lodge on the night her brother disappeared should

+be known far and wide.  That that man happened to be a mysterious and

+anonymous member of His Majesty's secret police did not in any way

+allay the popular feeling.  The worthy citizens of St. Lô loudly

+demanded to know why he was not brought to justice.  The préfet, the

+commissary, the procureur, were all bombarded with correspondence.

+Indignation meetings were held in every parish of the neighbourhood.

+Indeed, so tense had the situation become that the chief departmental

+and municipal officials were tendering their resignations wholesale,

+for their position, which already was well-nigh intolerable,

+threatened to become literally dangerous.  Sooner or later the public

+would have to be told that the Man in Grey, on whom so grave a

+suspicion now rested, had mysteriously vanished, no one knew whither,

+and that no one dared to interfere with his movements, on pain of

+having to deal with M. le Duc d'Otrante, His Majesty's Minister of

+Police, himself.

+

+

+VI

+

+Towards the end of December Mme. la Comtesse de Romaine announced her

+intention of going abroad.

+

+"There is no justice in this country," she had declared

+energetically, "or no power on earth would shield my son's murderer

+from the gallows."

+

+Of Jacques de Romaine there had been no news, nor yet of the Man in

+Grey.  The procureur imperial, feeling the sting of Madame's

+indignation, had been over-courteous in the matter of passports, and

+everything was got ready in view of the de Romaines' departure.

+Madame had decided to go with Mademoiselle Mariette to Rome, where

+she had many friends, and the first stage of the long journey had

+been fixed for the 28th, when the two ladies proposed to travel by

+private coach as far as Caen, to sleep there, and thus be ready in

+the early morning for the mail-coach which would take them to Paris.

+

+A start was to be made at midday.  In the morning Mademoiselle de

+Romaine went to High Mass at Notre Dame, it being the feast of the

+Holy Innocents.  The church was very crowded, but Mariette had

+arrived early, and she had placed her _prie-dieu_ behind the shelter

+of one of the pillars, where she sat quite quietly, fingering her

+rosary, while the large congregation filed in.  But all the while her

+thoughts were plainly not at her devotions.  Her dark eyes roamed

+restlessly over every face and form that gathered near her, and there

+was in her drawn face something of the look of a frightened hare,

+when it lies low within its form, fearful lest it should be seen.

+

+It was a bitterly cold morning, and Mariette wore a long, full cape,

+which she kept closely wrapped round her shoulders.  Anon a verger

+came round with foot-warmers which he distributed, in exchange for a

+few coppers, to those who asked for them.  One of these he brought to

+Mariette and placed it under her feet.  As he did so an imperceptible

+look of understanding passed from her to him.  Then the priests

+followed in, the choir intoned the Introit, the smoke of incense rose

+to the exquisitely carved roof, and everyone became absorbed in

+prayer.

+

+Mariette de Romaine, ensconced behind the pillar, sat still, until,

+during the Confiteor, when all heads were buried between clasped

+hands, she stooped and apparently rearranged the position of her

+foot-warmer.  Anyone who had been closely watching her would have

+thought that she had lifted it from the ground and was hugging it

+tightly under her cloak.  No doubt her hands were cold.

+

+Just before the Elevation a man dressed in a rough workman's blouse,

+his bare feet thrust into shabby shoes of soft leather, came and

+knelt beside her.  She tried to edge away from him, but the pillar

+was in the way and she could not retreat any farther.  Then suddenly

+she caught the man's glance, and he--very slowly--put his grimy hand

+up to the collar of his blouse and, just for an instant, turned it

+back: on the reverse side of the collar was sewn a piece of white

+ribbon with a fleur-de-lys roughly embroidered upon it--the device of

+the exiled Bourbon princes.  A look of understanding, immediately

+followed by one of anxious inquiry, spread over Mariette de Romaine's

+face, but the man put a finger to his lips and gave her a scarcely

+perceptible reassuring nod.

+

+After the conclusion of the service and during the usual noise and

+bustle of the departing congregation the man drew a little nearer to

+Mariette and whispered hurriedly:

+

+"Do not go yet--there are police spies outside."

+

+Mariette de Romaine was brave, at times even reckless, but at this

+warning her pale cheeks became almost livid.  She hugged the bulky

+thing which she held under her cloak almost convulsively to her

+breast.

+

+"What am I to do?" she whispered in response.

+

+"Wait here quietly," rejoined the man, "till the people have left.  I

+can take you through the belfry and out by a postern gate I know of."

+

+"But," she gasped hoarsely, for her throat felt dry and parched,

+"afterwards?"

+

+"You can come to my lodgings," he replied.  "We'll let Madame

+know--and then we shall have to think what best to do."

+

+"Can you find White-Beak?" she asked.

+

+"What for?"

+

+"I could give him the----"

+

+"Hush!" he broke in quickly.

+

+"I should like Monsieur le Chanoine to keep them again; we shall have

+to make fresh arrangements----"

+

+"Hush!" he reiterated more peremptorily.  "We can do nothing for the

+moment except arrange for your safety."

+

+The man spoke with such calm and authority that instinctively

+Mariette felt reassured.  The bustle round them, people coming and

+going, chairs creaking against the flagstones, had effectually

+drowned the whispered colloquy.  Now the crowd was thinning: the man

+caught hold of Mariette's cloak, and she, obediently, allowed him to

+lead her.  He seemed to know his way about the sacred edifice

+perfectly, and presently, after they had crossed the belfry and gone

+along a flagged corridor, he opened a low door, and she found herself

+in the open in the narrow passage behind the east end of the church.

+Her guide was supporting her by the elbow and she, still hugging her

+precious burden, walked beside him without further question.  He led

+her to a house in a street close by, where he appeared to be at home.

+After climbing three flights of steps, he knocked vigorously at a

+door which was immediately opened by a man also dressed in a rough

+blouse, and ushered Mariette de Romaine into an apartment of the type

+usually inhabited by well-to-do artisans.  After crossing a narrow

+hall she entered a sitting-room wherein the first sight that greeted

+her tired eyes was a bunch of roughly fashioned artificial white

+lilies in the centre of a large round table.  Fully reassured, though

+thoroughly worn out with the excitement of the past few minutes, the

+girl sank into a chair and threw open the fastening of her cloak.

+The bulky parcel, cleverly contrived to look like a foot-warmer, lay

+upon her lap.

+

+"Now we must let Madame la Comtesse know," said the man who had been

+her guide, in a quiet, matter-of-fact tone.  "Oh, it will be quite

+safe," he added, seeing a look of terror had spread over Mariette de

+Romaine's face.  "I have a comrade here, Hare's-Foot--you know him,

+Mademoiselle?"

+

+She shook her head.

+

+"He is well known in St. Lô," continued the man simply.  "Supposed to

+be harmless.  His real name is Pierre Legrand.  The police spies have

+never suspected him--the fools.  But he is one of us--and as intrepid

+as he is cunning.  So if you will write a few words, Mademoiselle,

+Hare's-Foot will take them at once to Madame la Comtesse."

+

+"What shall I say?" asked Mariette, as she took up pen and paper

+which her unknown friend was placing before her.

+

+"Only that you became faint in church," he suggested, "and are at a

+friend's house.  Then request that Madame la Comtesse should come to

+you at once: the bearer of your note will guide her."

+

+Obediently the girl wrote as he advised, the man watching her the

+while.  Had Mariette de Romaine looked up she might have seen a

+strange look in his face--a look that was almost of pity.

+

+The letter was duly signed and sealed and handed over to

+Hare's-Foot--the man who had opened the door of the apartment--and he

+at once went away with it.

+

+After that perfect quietude reigned in the small room.  Mariette

+leaned her head against the back of her chair.  She felt very tired.

+

+"Let me relieve you of this," said her companion quietly, and without

+waiting for her acquiescence he took the bulky parcel from her and

+put it on the table.  Then Mariette de Romaine fell into a light

+sleep.

+

+

+VII

+

+She was aroused by the sound of her mother's voice.  Madame la

+Comtesse de Romaine was in her turn being ushered into the apartment,

+and was already being put in possession of the facts connected with

+her daughter's letter which had summoned her hither.

+

+"I guessed at once that something of the sort had happened," was

+Madame's dry and unperturbed comment.  "Mariette was not likely to

+faint while she had those emeralds in her charge.  You, my men," she

+added, turning to her two interlocutors, "have done well by us.  I

+don't yet know how you came to render us and our King's cause this

+signal service, but you may be sure that it will not go unrewarded.

+His Majesty himself shall hear of it--on the faith of a de Romaine."

+

+"And now, Madame la Comtesse," rejoined the man in the rough blouse

+quietly, "I would suggest that Mademoiselle and yourself don a

+suitable disguise, while Hare's-Foot and I arrange for a safe

+conveyance to take you out of St. Lô at once.  We have most

+effectually given the police spies the slip, and while they are still

+searching the city for you you will be half way on the road to Caen,

+and there is no reason why the original plans for your journey to

+Rome should be in any way modified."

+

+"Perfect!  Perfect!" exclaimed Madame enthusiastically.  "You are a

+jewel, my friend."

+

+There was nothing of the senile invalid about her now.  She had cast

+off her shawl and her bonnet, and with them the lank, white wig which

+concealed her own dark hair.  The man in the rough blouse smiled as

+he looked on her.

+

+"My mate and I have a number of excellent disguises in this wardrobe

+here, Madame la Comtesse," he said, as he pointed to a large piece of

+furniture which stood in a corner of the room, "and all are at your

+service.  I would suggest a peasant's dress for Mademoiselle, and,"

+he added significantly, "a man's attire for Madame, since she is so

+very much at home in it."

+

+"You are right, my man," rejoined Madame lightly.  "I was perfectly

+at home in my son's breeches, and I shall never cease to regret that

+Jacques de Romaine must remain now as he is--vanished or dead--for as

+long as I live."

+

+The two men then took their leave, and the ladies proceeded to select

+suitable disguises.  Silently and methodically they proceeded in

+their task, Mariette de Romaine making herself look as like a

+labourer's wench as she could, whilst Mme. la Comtesse slipped into a

+rough suit of coat and breeches with the ease born of constant habit.

+Her short dark hair she tied into a knot at the nape of her neck and

+placed a shabby three-cornered hat jauntily upon it.  Her broad,

+unfeminine figure, her somewhat hard-marked features and firm mouth

+and chin made her look a handsome and dashing cavalier.

+

+When a few moments later the sound of voices in the hall proclaimed

+the return of the men, Mme. la Comtesse was standing expectant and

+triumphant facing the door, ready for adventure as she had always

+been, a light of daring and of recklessness in her eyes, love of

+intrigue and of tortuous paths, of dark conspiracies and even of

+unavowable crimes glowing in her heart--all for the sake of a King

+whom France with one voice had ejected from her shores, and a régime

+which the whole of France abhorred.

+

+The door was opened: a woman's cry of joy and astonishment rang out.

+

+"Why Jacques, you young scamp!" exclaimed Mademoiselle Philippa who,

+dressed in a brilliant dark green silk, with feathered hat and

+well-rouged cheeks, was standing under the lintel of the narrow door

+like a being from another world.  "Where have you been hiding all

+this while?"

+

+But her cry of mingled pleasure and petulance had already been

+followed by a double cry of terror.  Mme. la Comtesse, white now to

+the lips, had fallen back against the table, to which she clung,

+whilst Mariette de Romaine, wide-eyed like a tracked beast at bay,

+was gazing in horror straight before her, where, behind Philippa's

+flaring skirts, appeared the stern, colourless face of a small man in

+a grey coat.

+

+"It was for the mean spies of that Corsican upstart," she exclaimed

+with passionate indignation, "to have devised such an abominable

+trick."

+

+Already the Man in Grey had entered the room.  Behind him, in the

+dark, narrow hall, could be seen the vague silhouettes of three or

+four men in plain clothes.

+

+"Trick for trick, Mademoiselle, and disguise for disguise," said the

+secret agent quietly.  "I prefer mine to the one which deceived and

+defrauded Mademoiselle Philippa here of close on a million francs'

+worth of jewels."

+

+"A trick?" exclaimed the dancer, who was looking the picture of utter

+confusion and bewilderment.  "My jewels?--I don't understand----"

+

+"Madame la Comtesse de Romaine, otherwise Jacques, your fiancé and

+admirer, Mademoiselle, has time to explain.  The private coach which

+will convey her to Rennes will not be here for half an hour.  In the

+meanwhile," he added, as he took up the parcel of jewels which still

+lay upon the table, "you will find these at the commissariat of

+police whenever you care to call for them.  Monsieur Cognard will

+have the privilege of returning them to you."

+

+But Mademoiselle Philippa was far too much upset to wait for

+explanations.  At the invitation of the Minister's accredited agent,

+she had followed him hither, for he had told her that she would see

+Jacques de Romaine once more.  The disappointment and mingled horror

+and excitement when she realised what an amazing trick had been

+played upon her literally swept her off her nimble feet.  It was a

+month or more before she was well enough to fulfill her outstanding

+engagements.

+

+The de Romaines--mother and daughter--offered no resistance.  Indeed,

+resistance would have been futile, and theirs was not the temperament

+to allow of hysterics or undignified protestations.  Every courtesy

+was shown to them on their way to Rennes, where they were tried and

+condemned to five years' imprisonment.  But twelve months later the

+Impérial clemency was exercised in their favour, and they were

+released; after the Restoration they were handsomely rewarded for

+their zeal in the service of the King.

+

+The Comte Jacques de Romaine who, as a little lad, had been taken

+over to England, never came to France till after Waterloo had been

+fought and won.  At the time that his mother impersonated him so

+daringly and with such sinister results, he was serving in the

+Prussian Army.  Mariette de Romaine subsequently married the Vicomte

+de Saint-Vaast.  She and her husband emigrated with Charles X in

+1830, and their son married an Englishwoman, and died in a house at

+Hampstead in the early 'seventies.

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER V

+

+THE BOURBON PRINCE

+

+

+I

+

+"I don't see how I can be of any assistance to you, my good Monsieur

+Moulin.  I quite agree with you that it would be a real calamity if a

+member of the ex-Royal family were to effect a landing in our

+province, but----"  And Monseigneur the Constitutional Bishop of

+Alençon shrugged his shoulders in token of his inability to deal with

+the matter.

+

+He was sitting in a small room of his splendid private château, which

+was situated near Granville.  Through the tall window on his left,

+the magnificent panorama of the rugged coast of Normandy and of the

+turbulent English Channel beyond was displayed in its limitless

+glory.  The point of Carolles still gleamed beneath the last rays of

+the cold, wintry sun, but the jagged Dog's Tooth rocks were already

+wrapped in twilight gloom.

+

+"And it is for our people themselves to realise," continued

+Monseigneur, with his slow, somewhat pompous delivery, "how much

+happier they would be if they discarded for ever their misguided

+allegiance to those degenerate Bourbons, and became law-abiding

+citizens like the rest of France."

+

+"They'll have no chance to do that," growled the préfet moodily,

+"once we get one of those Bourbons sowing rebellion and discontent

+all over the place.  The landing of the Comte d'Artois must be

+prevented at all costs or we shall have the devil to pay.  Those

+Chouans have been difficult enough to deal with, God knows, but

+hitherto their want of organisation, their lack of responsible

+leadership and of co-ordination have been our salvation.  With the

+Comte d'Artois at their head, and a deal of fictitious enthusiasm

+aroused by him for the exiled Royal family over the water, we shall

+have bloodshed, misery, and civil war rife again in this corner of

+France."

+

+"Monsieur le Ministre," rejoined Monseigneur blandly, "has plenty of

+spies here.  Surely, even if the Comte d'Artois effect a landing, he

+cannot escape capture at the hands of your well-organised police.

+His death inside your circuit, my dear préfet, would be a fine

+feather in your cap."

+

+"Oh, we don't want another martyred Bourbon just yet!" retorted the

+préfet gruffly.  "He'd better die in England, or on the high seas

+rather than in this part of Normandy.  We should be accused of

+murdering him."

+

+M. le préfet was distinctly perturbed and irritable.  A denunciation

+from some anonymous quarter had reached him that morning: a number of

+rough fellows--marauding Chouans--had, it appeared, halted at a

+wayside inn somewhere on the Caen road, and openly boasted that M. le

+Comte d'Artois, own brother to His Majesty the King, was about to

+land on the shores of France, and that a numerous and enthusiastic

+army was already prepared to rally round his flag, and to sweep the

+upstart Emperor from his throne, and all the myrmidons of the

+mushroom Empire from their comfortable seats.

+

+The Bishop had listened to the story of the anonymous denunciation

+and to the préfet's wails of woe most benignly and untiringly for

+close upon an hour.  But he was at last showing signs of growing

+impatience.

+

+"I think, my dear Monsieur Moulin," he said with some acerbity, "you

+must yourself admit that this affair in no way concerns me.

+Granville is not even my official residence.  I came here for a

+much-needed rest and, though my support and advice are always at your

+disposal, I really must leave you and the chief commissary of police

+to deal with these Chouans as best you can, and with any Bourbon

+prince who thinks of paying France an unwelcome visit."

+

+He put up his delicate, beringed hand to his mouth, politely

+smothering a yawn.  He appeared absent and thoughtful all of a

+sudden, bored no doubt by the fussy man's volubility.  He was gazing

+out of the window, seemingly in rapt contemplation of the beautiful

+picture before him--the setting sun over the Channel, the gorgeous

+coast scenery, the glowing splendour of the winter twilight.

+

+The préfet felt that he was dismissed.  Respect for Monseigneur

+warred with his latent irritability.

+

+"I won't intrude any longer," he said ruefully, as he prepared to go.

+

+The Bishop, much relieved, became at once more affable.

+

+"I wish I could be of service to you," he said benignly; "but from

+what I hear you have a very able man at your elbow in the newly

+accredited agent of His Majesty's Minister.  The préfet of Alençon

+has spoken very highly about him to me, and though he was

+unsuccessful in the matter of the burglary in my Palace at Alençon

+last October, I believe he has rendered very able assistance to the

+chief commissary of police in bringing some of those redoubtable

+Chouans to justice."

+

+"He may have done that," quoth the préfet drily, "but I have not much

+faith in the little grey fellow myself.  The problem confronting us

+here is a deeper one than he can tackle."

+

+A few minutes later the préfet had finally bowed himself out of

+Monseigneur's presence.

+

+The Bishop remained seated at his desk, absorbed and almost

+motionless, for some time after his visitor had departed.  He

+appeared to be still wrapped up in the contemplation of the sunset.

+The hurried footsteps of the préfet resounded on the great flagged

+hall below; there had been the usual commotion attendant on the

+departure of a guest: lackeys opening and closing the entrance doors,

+a call for Monsieur le Préfet's horse, the clatter of hoofs upon the

+stone-paved courtyard, then nothing more.

+

+The dignified quietude of a well-ordered, richly appointed household

+again reigned in the sumptuous château.  After a while, as the shades

+of evening drew in, a footman entered with a lighted lamp, which he

+set upon the table.  But still Monseigneur waited, until through the

+tall window by his side there appeared nothing but an impenetrable

+veil of blackness.  Then he rose, carefully re-adjusted the crimson

+shade over the lamp and threw a couple of logs upon the cheerful

+fire.  He went up to the window and opened it and, stepping out on to

+the terrace, peered intently into the night.

+

+The north-westerly wind was soughing through the trees of the park,

+and not half a kilomètre away the breakers were roaring against the

+Dog's Tooth rocks; but, even through these manifold sounds,

+Monseigneur's keen ear had detected a soft and furtive footfall upon

+the terrace steps.  The next moment a man emerged out of the gloom.

+Breathless and panting, he ran rapidly across the intervening

+forecourt and, almost colliding with the Bishop, staggered and fell

+forward into the room.

+

+Monseigneur received him in his arms, and with a swiftly murmured,

+"Thank God!" led him to a chair beside the hearth.  Then he closed

+the window, drew the heavy damask curtains closely together and

+finally came up to the newcomer who, shivering with cold and terror,

+wet to the skin and scant of breath, was stooping to the fire, trying

+to infuse warmth into his numbed fingers.

+

+"Someone is on my track," were the first words which fell from his

+quivering lips.

+

+He was a man verging on middle age, short and stout of build, with a

+white, flabby skin and prominent, weak-looking eyes.  His clothes had

+almost been torn off his back by the frolic of the gale; he was

+hatless, and his hair, matted and dank, clung to his moist forehead.

+

+The Bishop had remained standing before him in an attitude of

+profound respect.  "Will your Highness deign to come up to my room?"

+he said.  "Dry clothes and a warm bath have been prepared."

+

+"I'll go in a moment," replied His Highness.  He had still some

+difficulty in recovering his breath, and spoke irritably like a

+wayward sick child.  "But let me tell you at once that our movements

+have been watched from the moment that we set foot on these shores.

+The crossing was very rough.  The gale is raging furiously.  The

+skipper has put into Avranches.  He put me off at the Goat's Creek

+and left me there with de Verthamont and du Roy.  As soon as we

+started to come hither we realised that there was someone on our

+track.  We consulted together and decided that it would be best to

+separate.  De Verthamont went one way and du Roy another, and I ran

+all the way here."

+

+"Was your Highness shadowed after that?" asked the Bishop.

+

+"I think not.  I heard no one.  But then the wind kept up an

+incessant din."

+

+"And did Sébastien meet your Highness?"

+

+"Yes!  In the Devil's Bowl.  He followed me at a distance as far as

+your gates.  He thought that he, too, had been shadowed all day.

+Early this morning he reconnoitred as far as Coutances, and there he

+heard that a couple of regiments of cavalry and a battery of

+artillery had arrived from St. Lô."

+

+The Bishop made no further comment.  His enthusiasm and excitement of

+a moment ago appeared to have fallen away from him; his finely

+chiselled face had become serene and pale; only in his deep-set eyes

+there seemed to smoulder a dull fire, as if with the prescience of

+impending doom.

+

+A moment or two later he persuaded the Comte d'Artois to come up to

+his own private apartments.  Here a warm bath, dry clothes and a

+well-cooked supper restored to the unfortunate Prince a certain

+measure of courage.

+

+"What's to be done?" he asked with a querulous tone in his hoarse

+voice.

+

+"For the moment," replied the Bishop earnestly, "I would respectfully

+beg of your Highness to remain in these apartments, which have the

+infinite advantage of a secret hiding-place which no police agent

+will ever discover."

+

+"A hiding-place?" muttered the Prince petulantly.  "I loathe the very

+idea of lurking behind dusty panels like a sick fox."

+

+The Bishop did not venture on a reply.  He went up to the fine

+mantelpiece at the opposite end of the room, and his hand wandered

+over the elaborate carving which adorned the high wainscoting.  He

+pressed with one finger on a portion of the carving, and at once some

+of the woodwork moved silently upon unseen hinges, and disclosed a

+cavity large enough for a man to pass through.

+

+"It would only be an hour or so at a time, your Highness," he said

+with respectful apology; "in case a posse of police makes a descent

+upon the house."

+

+He explained to his august visitor the mechanism of the secret panel.

+M. le Comte d'Artois, weary after a long sea journey, fretful and

+irritable, kept up a constant stream of mutterings _sotto voce_:

+

+"You and the party wished me to come.  I never thought that it would

+be safe, and if I have to remain in hiding in this rat hole, I might

+just as well be sitting comfortably in England."

+

+Monseigneur, however, never departed for a moment from his attitude

+of almost reverential deference.  With his own hands he ministered to

+every bodily comfort of the exalted personage who had found refuge

+under his roof and only left him when he saw the prince comfortably

+stretched out upon the bed, and was fully assured that he understood

+the working of the secret panel.

+

+Then after a deep obeisance he finally bowed himself out of the room.

+Slowly he descended the dimly lighted stairs which led to his study

+on the floor below.  The pallor of his face appeared more marked than

+before.  A vague feeling of anxiety, not unmixed with disappointment,

+caused a deep frown to settle between his brows.

+

+The situation, though tense always, had become well-nigh desperate

+now.  With M. le Comte d'Artois under his roof and his movements

+known to a spy of the Impérial police, every hour, every minute, had

+become fraught with deadly danger, not only to him but to every one

+of his adherents.

+

+Hundreds of men and women around the neighbourhood at this hour were

+preparing to meet the Prince--the brother of their uncrowned

+King--for whose sake they were willing to risk their lives.  One

+false move, one act of cowardice or carelessness, and the death of a

+Bourbon prince would once more sully the honour of France, whilst

+countless adherents of the Royal cause would again fall victims to

+their hot-headed loyalty.

+

+And as the Bishop re-entered his study he gave a short bitter sigh,

+for memory had swiftly conjured up the vision of that unheroic figure

+which slept contentedly in the room above, and on whose energy and

+courage depended the lives of those who still believed in him, and

+who saw in him only the ideal of a monarchy, the traditions of old

+France and of the glorious days that were gone.

+

+

+II

+

+Monseigneur, on entering the study, saw a man standing there waiting

+for him.

+

+"Sébastien!" he exclaimed eagerly.

+

+The man had the bearing and appearance of a good-class domestic

+servant--one of those who enjoy many privileges as well as the

+confidence of their employer.  But to a keen psychologist it would

+soon become obvious that the sombre, well-cut clothes and stiff,

+conventional demeanour cloaked a more vigorous and more individual

+personality.  The face appeared rugged even beneath the solid mask,

+and the eyes had a keen, searching, at times furtive expression in

+them.  They were the eyes of a man accustomed to feel danger dogging

+his footsteps, to hold his life in his own hands and to take risks

+which would make the pusillanimous quake.

+

+"How long have you been here?" asked the Bishop quickly.

+

+"Half an hour, Monseigneur.  I did not dare follow His Highness too

+closely.  The town and its neighbourhood are bristling with spies.  I

+have had the greatest difficulty throughout the day in giving at

+least two prowlers the slip and drawing them off His Highness's

+tracks."

+

+Monseigneur uttered an exclamation of horror.

+

+"I thought I had one at my heels a moment ago," continued Sébastien;

+"just inside the gates.  Someone, I felt, was dogging my footsteps.

+I fired a random shot into the night, and as luck would have it, I

+brought down my man."

+

+"Brought down your man?" exclaimed Monseigneur eagerly.  "Then----"

+

+"Unfortunately it was not a police spy whom I shot," said Sébastien

+carelessly, "but Grand-Cerf, one of your keepers."

+

+Monseigneur uttered a cry of horror.

+

+"Grand-Cerf!  I had posted him just inside the gates to watch for

+possible prowlers."

+

+"I didn't know that, and I shot him," repeated Sébastien grimly.

+

+"You killed him?"

+

+Sébastien nodded.  The matter did not appear to him to have any

+importance.

+

+"Now if it had been that accursed spy----" he murmured.  Then he

+added more earnestly: "You will have a posse of police over from

+Granville to-morrow, Monseigneur--they'll search this house.  Somehow

+or other someone has got wind of the affair--I'd stake my life on it."

+

+"Let them come," retorted the Bishop shortly.  "Monsieur le Comte

+d'Artois will be safe behind the secret panel."

+

+Sébastien shrugged his shoulders.

+

+"For half an hour, yes!  But if, as I believe, it is that confounded

+grey chap from Paris who has shadowed us, then no hiding-place or

+secret panel will screen us from his prying eyes.  It is he who

+tracked down the Spaniard last November, who laid Monsieur de

+Saint-Tropèze low, who thwarted Mademoiselle Vaillant.  Oh!" added

+the old Chouan, "if I only had him here between my hands----"

+

+His powerful fingers twitched convulsively.  Monseigneur shrugged his

+shoulders.

+

+"That miserable little Man in Grey," he said drily, "has had the luck

+so far, I own, but it was because his wits were only opposed to brute

+force.  Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze was clumsy, the Spaniard reckless,

+the girl Vaillant hysterical.  Now we have to defend Monsieur le

+Comte d'Artois himself--but not with our lives, my good

+Sébastien--'tis our wits which are going to win the day, right under

+the very nose of the confounded Man in Grey."

+

+

+III

+

+An hour or two later, in a small dingy room in one of the most

+squalid portions of the town, the accredited agent of His Impérial

+Majesty's Minister of Police was hastily demolishing the remnants of

+a meagre, cold supper.  He appeared footsore and cold.  M. Moulin,

+préfet of St. Lô, sat opposite to him at the table.  He seemed

+gravely agitated and anxious.

+

+"We have done all we really could, Monsieur Fernand," he said

+fretfully, "with the material at our command.  Monsieur le Duc

+d'Otrante's spies have been very active, and I don't think that we

+have any cause to complain of the results."

+

+"Well, let's hear the results," said the Man in Grey curtly.

+

+A sharp retort hovered on the préfet's tongue.  He did not like the

+dictatorial ways of this emissary from Paris, and had it not been for

+M. le Duc d'Otrante's express orders, the Minister's secret agent

+would have fared ill at the hands of this hidebound official.

+

+"There has been," he resumed with some bitterness, "great activity

+among the Chouans that are known to us in this neighbourhood.  Our

+spies have discovered that the Comte d'Artois landed on this coast in

+the early dawn this morning.  Unfortunately, they cannot be

+everywhere, and up to half an hour ago we had found no trace of him

+that we can rely on: at the same time we have intercepted a

+letter----"

+

+"Pshaw!" ejaculated the Man in Grey impatiently.  "And did your spies

+inform you by any chance that three strangers were landed by the brig

+_Delphine_ in the Goat's Creek at dawn this morning?"

+

+"Our informant did not say," remarked the préfet drily.

+

+"I dare say not," rejoined the Man in Grey.  "Nor did he tell you,

+perhaps, that the three strangers were met at the Devil's Bowl by

+Sébastien, who is, if I mistake not, confidential valet to the

+Constitutional Bishop of Alençon."

+

+"That is false!" broke in Monsieur le Préfet emphatically.  "The

+loyalty of Monseigneur is beyond question."

+

+"Perhaps," retorted the other with a grim smile.  "At any rate,

+Sébastien guided the three strangers through intricate passes among

+the cliffs as far as the Dog's Tooth.  Here the party separated: one

+man went one way, another the other.  Sébastien and one of the

+strangers waited about the cliffs until dusk, then they made their

+way along as far as the outskirts of Monseigneur's property----"

+

+"I protest!" ejaculated the préfet hotly.

+

+But the Man in Grey put up his slender hand with a commanding gesture.

+

+"One moment, I beg," he said quietly.  "The stranger lurked about on

+the outskirts of the park until it was quite dark, then he slipped in

+through the gates, with Sébastien close at his heels.  The gates were

+at once drawn to and closed.  The stranger disappeared in the night.

+A few minutes later the report of a musket rang out through the

+darkness, then the soughing of the gale drowned every other sound."

+

+"Some thief," exclaimed the préfet gruffly, "lurking round the

+château.  No doubt Sebastian suspected him, dogged his footsteps and

+shot him.  It is all as clear as daylight----"

+

+"So clear, indeed," observed the Man in Grey calmly, "that you,

+Monsieur le Préfet, will at once communicate with the chief

+commissary of police.  I want a squadron of mounted men to surround

+Monseigneur's château and a vigorous search made both inside and

+outside the house."

+

+"What!  Now?" gasped Monsieur Moulin.

+

+"Yes; now!"

+

+"But it is past ten o'clock!" he protested.

+

+"A better hour could not be found."

+

+"But Monseigneur will look upon this as an insult!" exclaimed the

+préfet, who was deadly pale with agitation.

+

+"For which we'll apologise if we have wronged him," retorted the

+secret agent quietly.  "Stay!" he added, after a moment's reflection.

+"I pray you at the same time to tell Monsieur le Commissaire that I

+shall require a closed barouche, with a strong pair of horses and a

+mounted guard of half a dozen men, to be ready for me in the

+stable-yard of Monseigneur's château.  Is that understood?"

+

+It was.  To have even thought of disobedience would have been

+madness.  The very way in which the Man in Grey uttered his "I pray

+you" sent a cold shiver down M. Moulin's spine, and he still had in

+the inner pocket of his coat the letter written in the all-powerful

+Minister's own hand.  In this letter M. le Duc d'Otrante gave orders

+that his agent was to be obeyed--blindly, implicitly,

+unquestioningly--whatever he might command, whomsoever he might bid

+to execute his orders.  One look in that pale, colourless face

+sufficed to show that he knew the power which had been placed in his

+hands and would use it to punish those who strove to defy his might.

+

+

+IV

+

+M. Fantin, commissary of police of Granville, was preparing to

+execute the agent's orders as transmitted by the préfet.  The whole

+matter was unutterably distasteful to him.  Monseigneur the

+Constitutional Bishop of Alençon was a prelate of such high integrity

+and proven loyalty, that to put such an insult upon him was, in the

+opinion of the commissary, nothing short of an outrage.  He was

+pacing up and down the uncarpeted floor of his office in a state of

+great agitation.  In a corner of the room, beside the small iron

+stove, sat the secret agent of His Majesty's Minister.  Calm,

+unperturbed by the mutterings of the commissary, he only exhibited a

+slight sign of impatience when he glanced at the clock and noted the

+rapid flight of time.  The squadron of mounted police requisitioned

+by him was making ready to get to horse.  It was then close on eleven

+o'clock.

+

+A moment later one of the police sergeants entered the office with

+the news that a mounted courier had just arrived from the château,

+with a message from Monseigneur to the commissary of police.

+

+"I'll see him at once," said the latter, half hoping that this fresh

+incident would even now prevent the abominable insult to the Bishop.

+

+"What is it, Gustave?" he asked, for he knew the man as one of the

+grooms in Monseigneur's service.

+

+"An attempt at impudent robbery, Monsieur le Commissaire," replied

+the man, "which has resulted in a man's death.  Monseigneur has sent

+me over to notify you at once and to ask what he should do in the

+matter."

+

+M. Fantin threw a look of triumph at the little figure in grey that

+sat huddled beside the iron stove.  The commissary had also advanced

+the theory of an attempted burglary at the château, and was highly

+elated to see his deductions justified.

+

+"A robbery?" he exclaimed.  "How?  When?"

+

+"An hour or two ago, Monsieur le Commissaire," replied Gustave.

+"Monseigneur will explain.  I know nothing of the details except that

+the rascal overturned a lamp.  He was burned to death and nearly set

+fire to the château.  I was sent hither post-haste to see Monsieur le

+Commissaire----"

+

+"Very good," rejoined the commissary.  "Ride straight back to the

+château and tell Monseigneur that I will be there anon."

+

+As soon as the man had gone, M. Fantin turned complacently to the Man

+in Grey.

+

+"As you see, my dear Monsieur Fernand," he began, "there is no need

+to----"

+

+"As your squadron is ready, Monsieur le Commissaire," quoth the agent

+quietly, "'twere a pity not to give them the exercise.  And remember

+the barouche," he added sharply, "and the mounted guard.  Do not on

+any account leave them behind.  My orders are in no way modified."

+

+The commissary swallowed the retort which was hovering on his lips;

+but he threw a look that was almost vicious at the meagre grey-clad

+figure.

+

+"Do you accompany us?" he asked with a sneer.

+

+"I will meet you at the château," replied the secret agent simply.

+

+Half an hour later Monseigneur was making the commissary of police

+welcome at the château.  He appeared more upset than he cared to

+admit by the tragedy enacted inside his house.  He was not a young

+man, and his nerves were severely shaken.  When his visitors entered,

+he was sitting in a large armchair beside the fire in his bedroom; he

+had a glass in his hand, half filled with some sweet-smelling

+restorative.  One of his male servants was in attendance upon him,

+bathing his master's forehead with vinegar and water.

+

+Preceded by Sébastien and accompanied by the secret agent and two men

+of the police, M. Fantin then went to view the scene of the tragedy.

+The two men remained on guard outside the dining-room, where the

+drama had taken place.  The room still presented a disordered

+appearance; nothing had been touched, Sébastien declared, in view of

+M. le Commissaire's visit.  But the lamp which hung from the ceiling

+had been lighted, and by its light the whole extent of what might

+have been a measureless disaster was revealed to M. Fantin's

+horrified gaze.

+

+In the centre of the room on the floor, close to the large

+dining-table, there lay a shapeless mass, obviously a human body,

+charred beyond identification.  Only the lower part, the heavy cloth

+breeches and high leather boots, though badly scorched, were still

+recognisable.  Beside the body, the rich damask table-cloth lay in a

+burned and tangled heap, where the wretched man had dragged it down

+in his fall; and a foot or so away was the heavy lamp which had

+caused the conflagration.  It was lying on its side, with bowl, shade

+and chimney broken, just as it had rolled out of the man's hand.  A

+narrow streak of oil ran from it to the edge of the mantel-kerb.  The

+rich Oriental carpet was burned in several places, and the table

+itself was severely scorched, while heat and smoke had begun their

+work of destruction everywhere on the priceless furniture, until

+water had rendered their work complete.

+

+Sébastien's account of the tragedy was brief and clear.  He had had

+his suspicions aroused during the day by seeing an ill-clad ruffian

+sneaking around the park gates, and in the evening, feeling anxious,

+he made a special tour of the château to see that everything was

+safe.  On entering the dining-room he saw a man standing beside the

+open window, through which he had evidently just made his way.

+He--Sébastien--at once drew his pistol, and the man turned to fly;

+but the aim was good and the man appeared to be hit.  He gave a snarl

+like a wild animal, sprang back into the room, apparently with a view

+to throwing himself upon his assailant, when his strength failed him.

+With one hand he clutched at the table, but he tottered and fell,

+dragging with him both the cloth and the table-lamp, which came down

+with a crash on the top of him, scattering the oil all over his body.

+His clothing at once caught fire, and Sébastien, realising the danger

+to the entire house, instantly ran for the buckets of water, which

+were always kept in the passage for the purpose, and shouted for

+assistance.

+

+Within a few moments he and another lackey got the fire under, and no

+great harm was done, save the shock to Monseigneur's nerves, damage

+to valuable furniture, and the complete obliteration of the felon's

+identity.

+

+The commissary of police asked Sébastien a few questions for form's

+sake.  He also took some perfunctory notes.  He felt irritable and

+gravely annoyed with the secret agent for having placed him in such

+an awkward position vis-à-vis of Monseigneur.

+

+"A squadron of police to investigate a common attempt at burglary,"

+he growled savagely, as Sébastien finally showed him out of the room.

+"We shall be the laughing-stock of the countryside!"

+

+Sébastien laughed.

+

+"'Tis the Chouans who will be pleased, Monsieur le Commissaire," he

+said.  "They have you safely occupied to-night and can go about their

+nefarious business unmolested, I am thinking."

+

+The Man in Grey was about to follow, but turned for a moment on his

+heel.

+

+"By the way, my good Sébastien," he said, "at what time did the

+tragedy take place which you have so graphically described to us?"

+

+For a second or two Sébastien appeared to hesitate.

+

+"Oh," he replied, "somewhere about six or seven o'clock, Monsieur.  I

+couldn't say exactly."

+

+"What made you wait so long, then, before you sent to Monsieur le

+Commissaire?"

+

+"There was a little confusion in the house, Monsieur will understand.

+Monseigneur had given orders at once to send a courier over, but the

+grooms were at their supper, and it took a little time--we meant to

+send at once--the delay was unintentional."

+

+"I am sure it was," broke in the commissary, who was still within

+earshot.  "And now, Monsieur Fernand," he added, "I pray you excuse

+me.  The hour is getting late, and I must make my apologies to

+Monseigneur."

+

+"One moment, Monsieur le Commissaire," rejoined the Man in Grey.

+"Will you not at least question the other servants who came to

+Monsieur Sébastien's assistance?"

+

+"No one came to my assistance," Sébastien assured him.  "The whole

+affair was over in a moment."

+

+"But when the shot was fired----"

+

+"By the time some of the domestics arrived upon the scene, I had put

+out the fire.  Then I locked the dining-room door.  I knew Monsieur

+le Commissaire would not wish anything touched."

+

+"Quite right!--quite right!" said M. Fantin querulously.  "Now,

+Monsieur Fernand, will you come?"

+

+"One moment, Monsieur le Commissaire," said the secret agent, and

+suddenly his whole manner changed to one of commanding authority.

+"There will be plenty of time for excuses presently.  For the nonce

+you will order your captain to make a thorough search of this château

+and of the grounds around.  You will question every one of the

+domestics; and remember that I shall be about somewhere--probably

+unseen--but present, nevertheless, to see that the investigation is

+minute and thorough.  Sébastien will remain in the meanwhile in the

+custody of these two men here, until I have need of him again."

+

+"By Heaven!" protested the Commissaire roughly.

+

+"By Heaven!" retorted the Man in Grey loudly, "you'll obey my orders

+now, Monsieur le Commissaire, or I shall send you straight to

+Monsieur the Minister to report upon your own misconduct!"

+

+M. Fantin, at the threat and at the manner in which it was uttered,

+became as white as a sheet.  But he obeyed--at once and without

+another word.  Sébastien's rugged face had shown no sign of emotion

+as, at a curt word from the secret agent, the two men of the police

+closed up on either side and marched him into an adjoining room.

+

+The commissary had taken the threat of the Minister's all-powerful

+agent very much to heart.  His men searched the château through and

+through, just as if it had been the stronghold of some irreconcilable

+rebel.  The secret agent himself appeared and disappeared, while the

+search was going on, like some grey will-o'-the-wisp--now in one

+room, now in another, now a passage, now half-way upstairs, just

+where least expected.  The search took over three hours.  During that

+time Monseigneur himself sat in his room in front of the fire, the

+very picture of silent and offended dignity.  He listened--motionless

+and dignified--to the commissary's profuse apologies, only now and

+then accepting the ministrations of the lackey who remained with him

+throughout, bathing his forehead with vinegar, or mixing a fresh

+glass of orange-flower water.  Of the grey-clad figure which

+flittered unceremoniously in and out of his private apartments, he

+took no more notice than if he were a fly.

+

+When presently the police actually invaded his own bedroom,

+Monseigneur's attitude remained one of unapproachable reserve.  Even

+when the agent passed his hands over the wainscoting and presently

+found the button that worked the secret spring, Monseigneur showed

+neither interest nor emotion.  The hiding-place itself was found to

+be empty; the Man in Grey walked into it and out again, in a

+matter-of-fact, impassive manner, as if he were performing a

+mechanical and useless job.  Neither here nor inside the house, nor

+in the grounds, nor in any other hiding-place was anyone or anything

+found to impeach Monseigneur's well-known loyalty.

+

+The unfortunate commissary was covered with confusion.  He would

+gladly have strangled the meddlesome official who had placed him in

+such an awkward position, or even have relieved his feelings by

+hurling anathema upon him.  But the secret agent appeared indifferent

+both to the wrath of M. Fantin and to the silent disapprobation of

+the Bishop.  When he was satisfied that the search was done, and well

+done, he took his leave, but not before.

+

+Monseigneur did not vouchsafe him even a look.  But he was quite

+affable with M. le Commissaire, when the latter finally was allowed

+to depart.

+

+"Have you any further orders, Monsieur Fernand?" queried M. Fantin

+with bitter sarcasm, when he had bowed his way out of the presence of

+the outraged prelate.

+

+"Yes," replied the other; "but I will give them to you outside.  And

+stay," he added as the commissary turned on his heel, silent with

+pent-up rage, "take Sébastien with you and keep him at the

+commissariat until further orders."

+

+No chronicler could make a faithful record of all that M. Fantin said

+to himself and to his sergeant even whilst he executed these orders

+punctually.  Fortunately for his feelings on the way home, the Man in

+Grey did not elect to accompany him.  After he had given his final

+orders he disappeared in the darkness, and M. Fantin was only too

+thankful to be rid of that unpleasant presence.

+

+

+V

+

+In and around the château again reigned that perfect silence and

+orderliness which pertain to an aristocratic household.  The squadron

+of police had long since departed: even the sound of their horses'

+hoofs, the clang of metal and rattle of swords and muskets had ceased

+to echo through the night.  For a little while longer soft murmurings

+and stealthy movements were still heard inside the house as the

+servants went to bed, and, whilst they undressed, indulged in

+comments and surmises about the curious happenings of the night.

+Then, even these sounds were stilled.  Monseigneur, however, did not

+go to bed.  He had risen from the armchair, and in it he had

+installed the man who, for several hours had been diligently

+ministering to him with vinegar and orange-flower water.

+

+"Your Highness is none the worse for the experience, I trust," he

+said, as he stooped and threw a log or two into the blaze.

+

+"Tired and anxious," replied the Comte d'Artois querulously.

+

+"A night's rest will soon restore your Royal Highness," rejoined the

+Bishop with deep respect.

+

+"It was a dangerous game to play," continued the prince peevishly.

+"At any moment one of those men might have suspected."

+

+"It was the only possible game to play, your Royal Highness,"

+rejoined the Bishop earnestly.  "The moment those spies were on your

+track and mine, the search was bound to follow.  Think if the police

+had come here whilst you were in hiding in this room or even behind

+the secret panel!  Nay! 'twas a mercy Sébastien shot Grand-Cerf in

+mistake for a spy.  It enabled us to invent that marvellous comedy

+which so effectually hoodwinked not only the police but even that

+astute agent of the Minister himself.  And now," added Monseigneur,

+as a deep sigh of exultation and triumph rose from his breast, "we

+can work with a free hand.  After to-night's work, this house will

+never again be suspected.  We can make it the headquarters of your

+Highness's staff.  It shall be the stepping-stone to your royal

+brother's reconquered throne."

+

+The words were scarcely out of his mouth when, in an instant, he

+paused, his whole attitude one of rigid and terror-filled expectancy.

+Loud and firm footsteps had resounded upon the flagged terrace,

+though muffled by the heavy damask curtain which hung before the

+window.  A second or two later the footsteps halted, the mullion was

+struck with something that clanked, and a voice called out loudly and

+peremptorily:

+

+"Open, in the name of the law!"

+

+The Comte d'Artois had smothered a cry of horror.  He clung to his

+chair with hands that trembled as if with ague, his face became

+deathly white, and he stared with wild, wide-open eyes in the

+direction of the window, whence that peremptory call had come.  He

+was in a state of acute physical terror bordering on collapse.

+Monseigneur, however, had not lost his presence of mind: "Quick, the

+secret panel!" he said, and already the slender hand was manipulating

+the hidden spring.  The Comte d'Artois tottered to his feet; the next

+moment there was a terrific crash of broken glass, the damask curtain

+was roughly torn aside, and the agent stepped into the room.

+

+"Resistance were futile, Monseigneur," he said quietly, for with a

+rapid movement the Bishop had reached the bell-pull.  "I have half a

+squadron of police outside, and six men at my heels."

+

+He came further into the room, and as he did so he called to two of

+his men to stand on either side of Monseigneur.  Then he turned to

+Monsieur le Comte d'Artois:

+

+"I have a barouche and a mounted guard ready to convey your Highness

+to Avranches, where the brig _Delphine_ with her new skipper is at

+your disposal for an immediate return trip to England.  His Majesty

+the Emperor deprecates revenge and bloodshed.  He might punish, but

+he prefers to put the culprit out of the way.  If Monsieur le Comte

+d'Artois will offer no resistance, every respect will be shown to his

+person."

+

+Resistance would, indeed, have been worse than useless.  Even

+Monseigneur replied to his Highness's look of appeal with one of

+resignation.  He picked up a mantle which lay upon the bed and

+silently put it round the Prince's shoulders, then he took the hand

+which His Highness held out to him and kissed it fervently.  Half a

+dozen men closed in around the Prince, and the latter walked with a

+firm step over the threshold of the window, his footsteps and those

+of his escort soon ceasing to echo through the night.

+

+"You have won, Monsieur," said the Bishop coldly, when he found

+himself alone with the Man in Grey.  "I am in your hands."

+

+"Did I not say, Monseigneur, that His Majesty deprecated revenge?"

+said the secret agent quietly.  "You have an estate in the South, a

+château finer than this one, so I'm told.  You are free to go thither

+for an indefinite period, for the benefit of your health."

+

+"Exile!" said the Bishop bitterly.

+

+"Do you not deserve worse?" retorted the Man in Grey coldly.

+

+"I nearly outwitted you, though," exclaimed the Bishop.

+

+"Very nearly, I admit.  Unfortunately for your clever comedy, I

+happened to know that your valet Sébastien shot a man just outside

+your gates early in the afternoon.  When he told me the elaborate

+story of the attempted burglary I knew that he lied, and, with that

+knowledge, I was able to destroy the whole fabric of your

+machinations.  As you see, I bided my time.  And the moment that you,

+thinking that you were alone with the Comte d'Artois, threw down your

+mask I was ready to strike.  Let me bid you farewell, Monseigneur,"

+he added in conclusion, and, without a touch of irony.  "You can have

+twenty-four hours to prepare for your journey South, and you will

+remain in your château there awaiting His Majesty's pleasure."

+

+The next moment the Man in Grey was gone, even as the Bishop's

+parting words struck upon his unheeding ear:

+

+"Awaiting the return of His Majesty Louis XVIII, by the Grace of God,

+King of France," Monseigneur called out at the top of his voice.

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VI

+

+THE MYSTERY OF A WOMAN'S HEART

+

+

+I

+

+The letter dropped from Mme. de Plélan's thin, white hand.  She

+looked across at her daughter with eyes full of tears.

+

+"And now that Monseigneur has gone," she said mournfully, "I feel as

+if I had lost the very mainstay of our valiant little party."

+

+The girl sighed, somewhat impatiently.

+

+"Monseigneur," she said, "would be the first to bid you smother your

+regrets for the past, maman, and to concentrate your thoughts on the

+dangers that still lie ahead."

+

+She was busy at a desk that stood open before her, glancing at a

+number of papers, classifying some, throwing a great number into the

+fire which crackled cheerfully in the hearth, whilst others she tied

+together and put into a small tin box that stood close to her hand.

+

+"It was kind and gracious of Monseigneur," continued Madame la

+Marquise dolefully, "to think of sending me a courier when he must

+have been so busy with his preparations for his sudden departure.

+Oh, that departure!" she added, as once again tears of wrath as well

+as of sorrow welled up to her eyes.  "The shame of it!  The

+humiliation as well as the bitter, bitter disappointment!"

+

+Constance de Plélan made no comment this time on her mother's

+lamentations.  She had apparently completed the work on which she had

+been engaged, for now she rose, closed the desk and locking the small

+tin box with a key which she selected from a bunch at her belt she

+took it up under her arm.  Then she turned to her mother:

+

+"Will you tell me, maman," she said, "just what Monseigneur says in

+his letter?"

+

+Constance stood there in the grey light of the winter afternoon, with

+the flicker of the firelight playing on her tall, graceful figure,

+her arm extended, holding the metal box, her small head carried with

+the stately dignity of a goddess.

+

+"Those devils will be here directly," continued the girl; and as she

+spoke the delicate lines of her face were distorted by an expression

+of intense and passionate hatred.  "But we are ready for them.  I

+have only this box to put away in its usual hiding-place--after

+which, let them come!"

+

+Mme. de Plélan again took up the letter, the perusal of which had

+caused her so much sorrow.  It had arrived by courier a few minutes

+ago; now, at her daughter's request, she began to read it aloud:

+

+"This is what Monseigneur the Bishop writes," she said.  "'My dear

+friend, immediately on receipt of this missive, set to work at once

+to destroy any compromising papers you may have in the house.  I have

+no doubt that the posse of police which has just ransacked my place

+will pay you a visit also.  My friendship for you is well known, and

+your name may appear in one or two of the letters which those brutes

+have confiscated.  Alas! the landing of Monsieur le Comte d'Artois on

+these shores has ended in disaster.  The spies of the Corsican

+upstart were on his track from the first.  They followed His Royal

+Highness to my Palace, kidnapped him as if he were a bale of goods

+and shipped him straight back to England.  My life and liberty are,

+it seems, to be spared, but I have been ordered into exile at my

+château in the Dauphiné.  God guard and preserve you all!  We must

+wait for happier times!"

+

+Constance said nothing for a moment or two.  She stood staring into

+the fire, her lips tightly pressed.

+

+"And all," she mused after a while, speaking slowly and dreamily,

+"through the machinations of that extraordinary man, who is said to

+be a secret agent of Bonaparte's most powerful Minister."

+

+"A man without a name!" added the Marquise, bitter scorn ringing

+through every word she spoke.  "A meagre, insignificant creature,

+grey and colourless as his coat."

+

+"But clever--and relentless," said the girl.  "That Man in Grey is

+killing our hopes one by one."

+

+"I loathe the brute!" ejaculated Madame fervently.

+

+"Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze is dead," continued Constance in the same

+dreary, monotonous voice.  "The Spaniard is a prisoner; Marie

+Vaillant a failure; Monseigneur an exile; and still that Man in Grey

+is allowed to live.  Oh, it is monstrous!" she said, her whole body

+suddenly quivering with passion.  "Monstrous and cowardly!  Are there

+no men amongst us who will rid the King of such a pestilential foe?"

+

+Mme. de Plélan started as if she had been struck.  She stared at her

+daughter, trying to fathom all that was going on behind that smooth

+young brow and within the depths of those passion-filled eyes.

+

+"You mean----?" she murmured.

+

+The girl nodded.  "Why not?" she retorted quite calmly.

+

+"Oh, if we could!" replied Madame.  "But he is so cautious, so

+wary--and lately he has always had two or three spies at his heels."

+

+"There are ways----"

+

+"Oh, as to that, there are a number of our own men who would

+willingly take every risk in order to rid us of the brute.  But in

+cases of that kind," she added slowly, "failure always means such

+terrible reprisals--the death of two or three more of our leaders on

+the guillotine--and we can ill spare them just now."

+

+"I did not mean anything so clumsy," explained Constance quietly.

+"An attempted murder from behind a hedge is, as you say, foredoomed

+to failure.  From what one knows of the Man in Grey he is not likely

+to fall a victim to such an artless trap."

+

+"Then what did you mean, Constance?" asked Madame coldly.

+

+"Men have been decoyed before now," replied the girl, as she looked

+her mother straight between the eyes; "and have of their own will

+walked into traps from which there was no escape.  The man in the

+grey coat may be surrounded by spies, his precious life may be

+watched over by an army of myrmidons, but he is the most astute as

+well as the most relentless enemy of our King--and what other women

+have done before now, surely we can do again."

+

+Mme. la Marquise made no immediate reply.  She was gazing almost with

+awe upon her daughter, who, flushed with ardour, quivering with

+excitement, appeared the very embodiment of that reckless patriotism

+which had already sent Charlotte Corday to the scaffold.

+

+"Constance, in God's name," she murmured, "tell me what you mean----"

+

+But before the girl could reply, the words died upon her lips.  From

+the other side of the château there had come the sound of a great

+commotion, the clatter of horses' hoofs upon the flagged forecourt,

+the clanging of metal, the champing of bits, and finally loud and

+peremptory words of command.

+

+"The police!" exclaimed Madame la Marquise in a hoarse whisper.

+

+"Those devils!" ejaculated the girl with savage intensity of hate.

+

+But neither of the women showed the slightest sign of fear, or even

+of agitation.  They were made of that firm nerve which is always

+ready to meet danger in whatever form, at whatever hour it may

+present itself.  Conspiracy and intrigue were in their blood.  They

+had never become reconciled to the new régime that had sent their

+King and Queen to the guillotine and kept their present uncrowned

+King in exile.  They had never bowed their necks to the democratic or

+the military yoke.  They still fought tooth and nail for the

+restoration of a system which they believed was based upon divine

+right--caring little that that system had been rejected by the entire

+people of France.  And since they could no longer fight in the

+open--for their party had dwindled to vanishing-point and lacked both

+men and materials--they plotted in the dark, in secret, but with

+unswerving loyalty to their King and unbounded belief in ultimate

+victory.

+

+So now with a posse of police at their gates they did not lose their

+heads.  On the contrary, Madame la Marquise de Plélan's attitude

+became if anything more dignified and more calm.  She arranged her

+silk dress in prim folds around her, readjusting the set of her lace

+coif, and took up a piece of knitting wherewith she busied her

+perfectly steady fingers.  Constance, still carrying the metal box,

+turned to go out of the room.

+

+"I will return," she said, "when I have disposed of this box."

+

+"What have you kept in it?" asked Madame rather anxiously.  "From

+what I hear, secret hiding-places stand but little chance when that

+grey-coated ferret is about."

+

+Apparently, however, the young girl had not heard her mother's query,

+for even as the usual ominous "Open, in the name of the law!" rang

+out through the silence of the château, she had run out of the room

+and was speeding down the long corridor towards her own apartments.

+

+

+II

+

+The Man in Grey, quiet and perfectly deferential, stood before Mme.

+la Marquise de Plélan and in a few words explained the duty that lay

+before him.

+

+"By order of His Majesty's Minister of Police," he added firmly.

+

+Mme. la Marquise waived aside his explanations with a quick gesture

+of her slender, aristocratic hand.

+

+"I know, Monsieur, I know," she said calmly.  "French men and women

+now are little better than slaves.  Their very homes, their privacy,

+have ceased to be sacred in the eyes of the State which should be

+their protector, rather than their tyrant."

+

+A search in a private house in those days was no small matter.

+Ordered by the Minister of Police or his accredited representative,

+it consisted in a thorough and rigid examination of every nook and

+cranny, of every corner wherein compromising papers might be hidden.

+The high-born gentlemen and ladies, suspected of furthering the Cause

+of the exiled Bourbon princes by aiding and abetting the Chouans in

+their nefarious practices, were known to be past masters in the art

+of concealing every proof of their own guilt or that of their

+friends; the women especially, who reckoned on a certain amount of

+chivalry on the part of police officers, were the chief custodians of

+the papers and records belonging to those organised bands of

+marauding freebooters.

+

+Madame la Marquise had only thrown one glance on the hated enemy when

+first he entered the room, but already she had appraised him in her

+mind: "Relentless in the exercise of duty," she thought.  "Cold and

+dispassionate; no mercy or consideration could be expected from him.

+If only Constance has burned everything that was compromising--there

+was the tin box and papers which related to the agency at Jersey--and

+many more records which might mean the guillotine for some of us if

+they were found----"

+

+Madame noticed that the moment the agent entered the room he cast one

+rapid look in the direction of the hearth, where the fire was

+half-smothered beneath a heap of burned paper.  On this, however, he

+made no comment; only his glance appeared to harden and the orders to

+his men became more peremptory and more sharp.  He asked Madame for

+her keys.  She took a bunch from her basket and gave them up to him

+without remark beyond the curt statement:

+

+"My daughter has the others."

+

+The Man in Grey opened the desk and the drawers of other pieces of

+furniture in the room, then he left his men to do their work.  Madame

+sat beside the fire, quietly knitting.  When she was respectfully

+asked to move she did so with lips tightly pressed, as if determined

+not to give vent to her indignation.  Cushions and stuffings of

+chairs and sofas were searched through and through; three men were

+busy in this room, others were dispersed throughout the house.  They

+tested the wainscotings and the window recesses; they climbed up the

+chimneys and tapped on the ceilings and the walls.  The calm,

+colourless eyes of the Man in Grey appeared to be everywhere.  Even

+Mme. la Marquise felt a hot flush rising to her pale cheeks when she

+encountered that searching gaze, which seemed to probe her very

+thoughts.

+

+"If only Constance would return!" she sighed to herself impatiently.

+

+The shades of evening were beginning to draw in.  The police were now

+busy in other parts of the house; only the secret agent was still in

+the room.  His fingers were wandering over the elaborate carving of

+the wainscoting.  Madame was silent, her ear strained to catch the

+sound of Constance's footfall on the corridor outside.

+

+Suddenly she heard the familiar light footstep, and, strangely

+enough, the young girl's voice, clear as a bird's and exquisitely

+trained, singing an old French _chanson_.  The next moment the door

+was opened and Constance stood under the lintel.  She had changed her

+plain morning dress for a clinging gown of soft silk, embroidered in

+tiny, coloured rosebuds; her neck and arms were bare, and round her

+shoulders she had wound a diaphanous scarf of old lace.  Her golden

+hair was dressed high in the prevailing fashion of the day; her

+cheeks and lips were slightly rouged, her eyes shone with intense

+excitement.  It was obvious that she had been at pains to enhance her

+great personal attraction.  Even the perfume of sweet peas which

+emanated from her was intended to intoxicate, and of a truth she

+presented an altogether adorable picture of youth and beauty, as well

+as of gay and childlike spirits.

+

+Madame smothered the exclamation of astonishment which at sight of

+her daughter had risen to her lips, whilst the Man in Grey turned

+from his engrossing occupation and was gazing at the exquisite

+apparition in the doorway, offering it that tribute of silent

+admiration which no man--however hidebound--will ever grudge to a

+beautiful woman.

+

+"Ah, Monsieur!" said Constance gaily, as with perfect unconcern she

+stepped into the room and turned a pair of appealing blue eyes to the

+impassive secret agent, "I entreat you, come to the rescue!  Your

+sergeant insists that he must turn out all the things in my bedroom.

+Oh, he is a very worthy man!" she added, and a light of saucy

+mischief began to dance in her eyes; "but he--he tells me that he is

+not a married man, and--and he is too young--Monsieur, I pray

+you--must he look over my things?--my--my--you understand?  Why, it

+is not _convenable_!  Is it, maman?"

+

+"Constance!" came involuntarily from Madame, together with a look of

+horror and reproach.

+

+Even the Man in Grey appeared slightly embarrassed.  The young girl

+ran up to him and suddenly linking her hands around his arm tried to

+drag him towards the door.

+

+"Monsieur," she entreated and, under the charm of her gaiety and her

+girlishness, the icy reserve of the police agent already seemed to

+thaw.  "I can trust you--I don't know if you are married, but--but I

+feel that you are more respectable than your sergeant--I entreat you,

+come!  If my--my--you understand--are to be turned over by rough

+masculine hands, I feel that I could endure it if those hands were

+yours."

+

+"Mademoiselle," protested the Man in Grey, who was making somewhat

+feeble efforts to disengage his arm, "I----"

+

+"Oh, you won't refuse!" she pleaded with tender reproach.

+

+Her lovely face was very close to his; the subtle scent of sweet peas

+rose to his nostrils and somewhat clouded his usually cool and

+discerning mind.  Moreover, no male creature living could have

+withstood for long the appeal of those shimmering blue eyes.  After

+all, she was not asking very much.  Only that he should himself

+perform a duty which the clumsy sergeant might perhaps not have

+performed quite efficiently.

+

+She was still clinging to his arm, still pleading with her eyes.

+After a brief hesitation, more assumed than real, he assented coldly.

+

+"I am at Mademoiselle's service."

+

+She gave a cry of pleasure, and he followed her out of the room.

+

+Madame la Marquise was left bewildered, half-thinking that she must

+have been asleep and dreaming when she saw that dainty and puzzling

+apparition just now--Constance, her daughter, putting forth her

+powers of fascination to please that odious and vulgar creature!  It

+was unbelievable!

+

+Charles, the footman, entered with the lamp.  Madame did not speak;

+she was wrapt in moody contemplation.  Gradually a strange expression

+of disquietude and then of weird misgiving spread over her pale face,

+and once or twice she put a handkerchief to her lips as if to crush a

+cry.

+

+Gradually the commotion in the house became stilled.  A while ago

+Madame had heard the tramp of those hateful police creatures going

+down the stairs in the direction of the offices and servants'

+quarters; then for a time all was still in that part of the château.

+But presently, as Madame sat pondering and listening, she heard a

+sound which--though familiar and reassuring enough--caused her to

+jump to her feet in an access of abject horror.  Her knees shook

+under her--she could hardly stand.

+

+"My God!" she murmured.  "Not that----  Don't let her do that----"

+

+All that the Marquise had heard was the soft strain of a spinet and a

+young girl's pure, fresh voice singing an old French ditty.

+

+Mme. de Plélan stood rigid, as if turned to stone.  The dim light of

+the lamp shone upon her face, which was the colour of pure snow.

+Then she slowly went to the door and out of the room.  She walked

+along the corridor and up the stairs.  Her daughter's rooms gave on

+the landing immediately above.  Madame had to cling to the banisters

+as she went up, or she would have fallen.  An icy horror gripped her

+heart; she was only conscious of a wild desire to interfere, to place

+herself at once and by any means athwart those schemes taking shape

+in Constance's turbulent brain.

+

+The door of Mademoiselle de Plélan's boudoir was wide open.  Opposite

+the door was the spinet at which the young girl sat, playing and

+singing.  The light from the lamp gleamed through the soft tendrils

+of her golden hair, and the pure lines of her delicate profile were

+silhouetted against the glow.  Not far from her stood the agent of

+His Impérial Majesty's Minister of Police, the most bitter enemy her

+friends and kindred had ever known.  Constance was looking at him as

+she sang, and his deep-set eyes, usually so colourless, were fixed

+with a gaze of ardent admiration on the beautiful singer.  On a table

+at his elbow was the tin box, with its lid thrown open.  Only a few

+papers remained at the bottom of the box; the others he had in his

+hand.

+

+Mme. de Plélan tottered as if ready to fall.  An extraordinary

+emotion, born of a nameless terror, was paralysing her limbs.  In

+trying to cross the landing she felt faint and all but measured her

+length on the ground.  A weak cry escaped her lips.  In an instant

+Constance ceased playing and, seeing her mother, ran to her side.

+The next moment her arms were round Madame's shoulders, and she

+almost carried her back into the room.

+

+The Man in Grey had also made a movement as if to run to Madame's

+assistance; then he stood by, looking confused and awkward, as men

+are apt to do when women are ill.  However, he helped Constance

+presently to lead Madame to a chair, and the girl immediately threw

+him a grateful look.

+

+"Maman is over-fatigued," she said softly.  "She has gone through a

+great deal this afternoon."

+

+Her tone of tender reproach and the glance which she cast him from

+the depths of her blue eyes completed the confusion of the Man in

+Grey.  He stammered an apology, feeling that he was an unmitigated

+brute.  At once Constance stretched out her hand to him.

+

+"I did not mean to complain," she said gently.  "You have been so

+kind--so considerate--I----"

+

+Her voice broke in a sob.  The secret agent, deeply moved, took her

+hand and pressed it to his lips.  Then, hurriedly, he gathered up the

+remaining papers out of the tin box, slipped them into his pocket and

+left the room.

+

+By and by his firm voice was heard giving orders to his men to mount.

+

+But as soon as his slim, grey-clad figure had disappeared across the

+landing, Constance ran to the door and closed it with a bang.  For a

+moment she stood quite still, gazing in the direction whence came the

+sound of the enemy's retreating footsteps.  An unmistakable look of

+triumph and satisfaction filled her eyes.  The next instant, however,

+she was down on her knees beside her mother, half-sobbing,

+half-laughing, her cheeks flushed even beneath the rouge.  "There was

+nothing in the tin box, maman," she cried somewhat wildly.  "Only a

+few worthless letters, with nothing in them to compromise any of us

+seriously.  Oh, but I have got him, maman!  I have got him as surely

+as he got Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze.  In a month from now I shall be

+able to twist him round my little finger--and then--and then----"

+

+But Mme. de Plélan did not hear the girl's strange, half-hysterical

+ravings.  She was lying unconscious, her pale face looking ghostlike

+against the silk cushion of her chair.

+

+

+III

+

+Less than a month later, on a clear, cold afternoon early in

+February, a woman, wrapped from head to foot in a dark mantle, was

+making her way along the main road which cuts straight through the

+Cache-Renard woods between Alençon and Plélan.  She came from the

+direction of the château and walked briskly, holding her mantle

+closely round her shoulders.

+

+When she arrived at the clearing where crossroads met and intersected

+the main one, she paused for a moment, listened intently for a second

+or two, then struck into the wood along a side track on her left.

+She followed this track for two hundred mètres or so, then suddenly

+plunged into the thicket.

+

+The undergrowth here was very dense.  Overhead the grey light of the

+late winter's afternoon filtered through the branches of the trees,

+guiding the woman on her way.  Suddenly, out of the thicket, a gruff

+voice called out, "Who goes there?" and the woman without hesitation

+replied, "One who has courage and courts success."

+

+Immediately a dark form detached itself from out the undergrowth.

+

+"Is it you, Blue-Heart?" asked the woman sharply.

+

+"At your service, Mademoiselle," said the rough voice which first had

+challenged her.

+

+"It is all right," said Mademoiselle.  "Are you prepared?"

+

+"Oh, I am prepared right enough!" retorted the man whom she had

+called Blue-Heart.  "My musket has been ready for that vermin this

+past fortnight.  I've been here every afternoon," he continued,

+"since first I had my orders."

+

+"It couldn't be managed sooner, my friend," answered Mademoiselle.

+"The fox was wary; he would not walk into the trap."

+

+"It was baited often enough for him."

+

+"Oh, yes!  He met me in the town.  He walked with me through the

+streets or along the river bank.  He even came to church with me once

+or twice," she added with a strained laugh.  "But, unlike a beast of

+prey, he would not come out of nights."

+

+"Did he suspect you, Mademoiselle?" asked Blue-Heart; "or Madame?"

+

+"Oh, no!" replied the girl.  "Instinctive caution has saved him so

+far; nothing more."

+

+"Think you he will come?"

+

+"I am sure," she replied decisively.  "You'll hear our voices--mine

+you will recognise.  You'll not miss him?" she added with a strange

+quiver in her voice.

+

+"Miss him?" retorted the man with a savage oath.  "Ever since he

+killed Hare-Lip and Mole-Skin last November not a hundred mètres from

+this very spot, I have prayed that a bullet from my musket might lay

+him low."

+

+The girl said nothing more.  The man grasped his musket more firmly

+and cowered into the thicket, and she turned and went back towards

+the cross roads.

+

+At this very moment a man was walking rapidly towards the same cross

+roads, but from the opposite direction.  He, too, held his cloak

+wrapped closely up to his chin, for the air was cold.  But soon he

+paused, threw back his mantle and unfolded a scrap of paper he had

+been holding tightly squeezed in his hand.  Once again he read the

+lines which were so familiar to him, and when he had finished reading

+he pressed the precious scrap of paper once or twice to his lips.

+Then he continued on his way.

+

+Some time before he reached the cross roads, he saw Constance de

+Plélan coming towards him.  A moment or two later he was by her side,

+confused and shy, hardly able to speak owing to the overwhelming

+sense of happiness.

+

+He tried to take her in his arms, but she evaded him, slipping away

+from him like a mischievous elf of the woods.

+

+"Let us walk a little," she said.

+

+He was ready to do anything she wished.  His calm, reserved demeanour

+appeared in strange contrast to her exuberant vitality.  He hardly

+could believe in the reality of this supreme moment, and he moved

+along beside her like a sleepwalker in a dream.  He tried to lead the

+way towards the cross roads.

+

+"There is a side-track there," he said, "sheltered against the wind

+and carpeted with moss.  We should be more lonely there."

+

+But she demurred and, with a laugh, clung to his arm and made him

+turn back towards the city.  She talked at random, almost wildly,

+about irrelevant things, whilst he wished to speak of nothing but of

+his love for her--born on that afternoon when she had sung to him and

+with her own white hands had given him the tin box.  The papers it

+contained were worthless, perhaps; but he had been deeply moved by

+her trust in him and his admiration had quickened into love.  Since

+then he had dreamed of the happy time when she would trust him more

+fully and allow him to walk by her side and to sit with her,

+untrammelled by the presence of strangers.  Hitherto she had been

+very shy and reticent, though at times she met him in the town when

+she was up for a day's shopping or to see her friends.  Once or twice

+she had sent him a treasured little note, telling him that she would

+be going to church alone.

+

+These had been happy times, and his love had grown in intensity with

+every meeting.  But still he longed to have her all to himself.

+Timidly he ventured to suggest a walk in the woods or in the park of

+the château.  And this morning the measure of his happiness appeared

+complete.  She sent him word that she would walk in the woods as far

+as the cross roads close to the château, and would meet him there in

+the late afternoon.  He was too unsophisticated and unversed in the

+usages of Society to marvel at Mademoiselle de Plélan's agreeing to a

+clandestine meeting with a man far beneath her in station and at an

+hour when only flirts were wont to walk abroad.  He was far too

+infatuated by this time to see in this unconventional act aught but

+graciousness on her part.

+

+But now, somehow, he felt disappointed.  She insisted on keeping to

+the main road, where, at this hour, there were many passers-by.  The

+Caen-Alençon coach had only just rattled past with much blowing of

+horn and clanging of metal chains.  And there was such a beautiful

+side-track he knew of, if only he could induce her to follow him

+thither!

+

+The time went by all too quickly.  Constance de Plélan appeared

+anxious to go home.

+

+"I have arranged to meet Annette," she said, "my mother's maid.  Her

+mother lives in the cottage on the road to Plélan.  Annette has been

+spending the afternoon with her, and we have agreed to walk back to

+the château together.  I would not wish her to see you."

+

+And the police agent, smothering a sigh of regret, escorted her back

+as far as the edge of the wood.  He would have liked to walk on with

+her to the château, but this she resolutely forbade him to do.

+

+"We must not be seen together by Annette," she reiterated somewhat

+tartly.

+

+Fernand had not yet earned the right to insist.  The parting was more

+disappointing than even the meeting had been.  Constance de Plélan

+now appeared desperately anxious to be rid of him.  He tried to take

+her hand, but even this privilege was denied him.

+

+"The cottage is just round the bend of the road," she said with

+forced gaiety.  "Annette may appear before us at any moment."

+

+Whereupon she turned and left him standing alone and disconsolate,

+his longing eyes watching her graceful figure as she moved swiftly

+along and soon disappeared round a sharp bend in the road.

+

+Then, with another bitter sigh, he, too, turned on his heel and

+started to walk back through the wood.

+

+

+IV

+

+Constance de Plélan had walked on very rapidly, only looking back now

+and again to see whether the police agent had followed her.  The road

+was now quite lonely; not even a belated passer-by was in sight.

+After a few minutes, the girl halted where a side-track, inches deep

+in mud, struck at right angles and, cutting across an intervening

+meadow, plunged into a dense part of the wood at some distance from

+the road.  For a few seconds Constance appeared to hesitate; she

+pressed her trembling hands against her heart, which was beating so

+furiously that she felt sick and faint.  Next moment, however, she

+started to run down the side-track as fast as the muddy ooze would

+allow her.  A few minutes later she had reached the margin of the

+wood and, no longer hesitating, boldly entered the thicket.

+

+The road along which the police agent was striding with his habitual

+quick and firm step wound in and out of thick masses of coppice; the

+footpath which Constance de Plélan followed so unerringly led by a

+direct short cut straight to the thicket where Blue-Heart lay in wait.

+

+The shades of evening were falling fast; the wintry sunset had long

+since ceased to glimmer among the trees.  Blue-Heart was cowering in

+his hiding-place, grasping his musket and marvelling why Mademoiselle

+had not yet led her quarry into the trap which had been so carefully

+prepared.  The hated police agent had not yet come.  But Blue-Heart

+was patient and content to bide his time.  He knew that the hatred he

+felt for the Man in Grey had its counterpart in the heart of

+Constance de Plélan.  The secret agent had only been in the province

+four months, and already the Chouans had felt the weight of his

+relentless courage, his astuteness and his power.  M. le Comte

+d'Artois, brother and messenger of the uncrowned King, had been sent

+back to England with ignominy through the instrumentality of this one

+man, and when Mademoiselle de Plélan had asked for a volunteer to lay

+this powerful enemy low, Blue-Heart had offered himself, heart and

+soul, ready to strike and take every risk.  If only the quarry would

+come, Blue-Heart's musket was not likely to err.

+

+Suddenly the Chouan drew in his breath.  His whole attitude grew at

+once more rigid and more tense.  Cowering in the thicket, he

+shouldered his musket.  The road stretched out before him, through a

+veil of coppice, for a length of some thirty feet or so, and at a

+distance of less than twenty paces from the spot where he crouched,

+on the alert, holding his breath now that his keen ear had detected

+the sound of approaching footsteps.

+

+Soon these footsteps drew nearer and Blue-Heart muttered an

+imprecation: "Malediction!" came between his clenched teeth.

+"Mademoiselle said that the devil would come alone!"

+

+But his rough, nervy hands grasped the musket with undiminished

+vigour.  If that hated police agent came escorted with a whole posse

+of his own men, Blue-Heart was not going to be done out of his

+vengeance.

+

+Then suddenly the footsteps stopped and the melancholy call of a

+screech-owl pierced the silence of the night.

+

+"White-Beak!" muttered the crouching Chouan as he lowered his musket.

+"What is he doing here at this hour?"

+

+He, too, raised his fingers to his mouth, and the cry of a

+screech-owl rang shrilly through the wood.  Next moment three or four

+men pushed their way cautiously through the thicket.

+

+"Well, is it done?" queried the foremost amongst them, as soon as he

+had become conscious of Blue-Heart's presence close by.

+

+"Done?  No!" growled the latter.  "What have you come for?"

+

+"To lend you a hand," replied White-Beak, "with the body of the

+vermin."

+

+"Too soon!  I haven't got him yet."

+

+"No hitch, I hope," broke in one of the others.

+

+"None."

+

+"Then we can give you a hand now as well as later.  The fox may be

+armed."

+

+"He may," rejoined Blue-Heart.  "Go to the other side of the road,"

+he added, "so as to intercept him in the rear.  You have your musket?"

+

+"No."

+

+"Then you can hold him while I use mine.  It will make assurance

+doubly sure."

+

+They spoke in whispers scarcely audible above the manifold murmurs of

+the wood.  Now, like creeping, furtive beasts of prey, White-Beak and

+his companions crawled on hands and knees through the thicket and

+across the road, and thence under cover once more.  The trap was

+indeed well set for the quarry which could not fail to walk into it

+very soon.  Indeed, less than five minutes later there came from some

+little way down the road the sound of a measured and firm footfall.

+

+With rapid steps the hated police agent was drawing nearer.  A grim

+chuckle escaped the lips of the old Chouan as he once more shouldered

+his musket.  The evening gloom was gradually enfolding the wood in

+its embrace.  On either side of the road the miscreants in their

+hiding-place were peeping through the undergrowth, watching for the

+approach of their prey.  Presently they could discern the vague

+outline of his slender figure walking unhesitatingly towards them.

+Within a few seconds he would be passing right in front of them, at a

+distance of less than twenty paces.  Blue-Heart thought that he would

+wait and take no risks and only pull the trigger when the victim was

+quite near, the aim sure, and the fast gathering darkness not likely

+to play him any illusive trick.  Not a sound, not the flutter of a

+dead leaf nor the crackling of a twig would have revealed to an

+untrained ear the presence of a band of assassins, and for another

+minute or so the police agent walked along, wary and alert as was his

+wont but as yet unsuspicious.  His footstep sounded unhesitating and

+firm.

+

+Then suddenly he paused and threw a quick, searching look around him.

+

+"Who goes there?" he called in a loud and firm voice.

+

+Hie ear, attuned to the faintest breath which might be drawn around

+him, had warned him, all at once, of the danger which awaited him if

+he continued on his path; it had betrayed to his keen consciousness

+the presence of human beings, living, breathing, close by--somewhere

+in the thicket--hiding and crouching in the darkness; obviously with

+evil intent.

+

+Next moment something definite stirred in the thicket not twenty

+paces from where he stood; there was a faint click which to a trained

+ear was unmistakable.  In a twinkling Fernand had drawn a pistol from

+his pocket, and with a swift and sudden spring, he threw himself

+against a tall beech which bordered the road; and here he stood, with

+his back against the massive trunk, pistol in hand and his keen eyes

+searching the darkness around him.

+

+There was a moment of tense suspense and of absolute silence, and in

+an instant the Man in Grey felt his arm seized from behind, the

+pistol was knocked out of his hand, a rough fist was thrust into his

+face, and he found himself pinioned against the tree, whilst a hoarse

+voice shouted lustily:

+

+"You can shoot now, friend Blue-Heart.  No chance of missing the

+vermin in the dark.  We've got him tight."

+

+Then it all happened in a second.  A musket-shot rang through the

+evening air; its sharp report came simultaneously with a loud and

+piercing cry which rang right through and above it.  The cry

+proceeded from a woman's lips; it was immediately followed by a

+violent imprecation from one of the Chouans.  The Man in Grey, dazed,

+bewildered, not understanding, had only heard that cry, straight in

+front of him, right from out the thicket whence had come the report

+and flash of the assassin's musket.  The rough hands that held him

+relaxed, and there was a wild confusion of cries and oaths and a

+scrambling and scrimmage in the undergrowth behind him.

+

+What had happened within the depths of the shadows in front of him he

+did not know, but at a bound he cleared the intervening width of the

+road, and Constance de Plélan fell staggering in his arms.

+

+"Constance!" he exclaimed, still mystified by the turn of events,

+"you are hurt!"

+

+"No, no!" she said in a strange, hoarse whisper.  "I am not hurt.

+Only save yourself----  Go, in God's name, ere I forget that I am a

+woman and again think of you only as the enemy of my King."

+

+"You have saved my life!" he said, as the horror of the situation

+rose with staggering vividness before his mind, "and at risk of your

+own."

+

+But already she had disengaged herself from his arms.  She struggled

+to her feet and, as he tried to assist her, pushed him with amazing

+strength away from her.

+

+"Go, I tell you!" she said, and she tried to steady her voice, which

+came feeble and panting from her throat.  "The hand that fired the

+first shot might fire another ere I could prevent it--and the others

+might come back."

+

+"I'll not go," he rejoined firmly, "until I am sure that you are not

+hurt."

+

+"Hush!" she retorted hurriedly.  "I am not hurt, I say.  And even if

+I were, you must go now--at once.  Have I not said that I might

+repent?  Behind that thicket lurks the man whom I employed to kill

+you--I came back here to gloat over his work.  Yet, somehow, when the

+time came, and I saw you in the grip of those assassins, I could not

+bear to see you die--not like that--five against one--it was too

+horrible, too cowardly.  But you must go.  And you and I must never

+meet again, unless indeed you set your spies on us to-morrow and send

+us all to the guillotine."

+

+"How you hate me, Constance!" he protested with passionate reproach.

+

+"Perhaps I do," she rejoined softly.  "I do not know.  But believe me

+that the guillotine would have no terror for me.  I have betrayed a

+great trust, for you are the enemy of my kindred and my King, and I

+ought not to have failed when the choice lay betwixt your life and

+theirs."

+

+She tottered, and he thought she would fall.

+

+"You are hurt!" he cried hoarsely.

+

+"Even if I were dying," she parried feebly, "I would not have you

+help me now.  If we did not part at this hour, perhaps--who knows?--I

+might become even a blacker traitor than I am.  You and I, Fernand,

+can have nothing in common.  Our ways must for ever lie as far apart

+as are our ideals.  The man who at my bidding would have been your

+murderer will carry me home and minister to my needs.  He and I have

+everything in common--faith, friendship, community of ideals and

+disappointments of hopes and of sorrows.  He is rough, uncultured, a

+potential assassin; but he and I strive for the same Cause and weep

+over the same failures.  In thought he is my friend--you can never be

+aught but an enemy."

+

+And suddenly, without giving him another look, she plunged into the

+thicket.  For a few seconds only it seemed to the Man in Grey that he

+could see her slender form moving among the undergrowth and that he

+heard the crackling of dead twigs beneath her feet.  She had gone for

+comfort and protection to the assassin who was still in hiding.  She

+went to him because, as she had said, with those savage Chouans she,

+the irreconcilable Royalist, had everything in common.

+

+Whereas with him, the stranger, the plebeian police agent, the

+obscure adherent of the newly-founded Empire, she could have nothing

+to do.  Nay, she had actually persuaded an assassin to shoot

+him--vilely--in the back, when, at the fateful minute of crisis, a

+thought of womanly compassion had prompted her to save him from his

+doom.  And, on his part, what was there for him to do but mourn the

+only illusion of his life?  It served him right for being a visionary

+and a fool!

+

+And with a bitter sigh of enduring regret, the police agent turned on

+his heel and went back the way he came.

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VII

+

+THE LEAGUE OF KNAVES

+

+

+I

+

+One of the letters written to the Man in Grey by Fouchée, Duc

+d'Otrante, is preserved in the Archives of the Ministry of Police.

+It is dated February 17th, 1810, and contains the following passage:

+

+"Do not let those official asses meddle with the affair, my good

+Fernand, for they are sure to mismanage it completely.  That man de

+Livardot is an astute brigand and a regular daredevil.  To apprehend

+or to deport him would not be of the slightest use to us; he has

+escaped out of three different prisons already, and has come back

+once--none the worse--from Cayenne.  To murder him from behind a

+thicket would be more useful, but for the fact that he has many

+secrets of that damnable Chouan organisation in his keeping, which

+would be of incalculable value to us, if we could get hold of them.

+At any rate, see what you can do, my dear Fernand.  I rely on your

+skill and discretion.  De Livardot has left England for Jersey; he is

+at St. Helier now.  I'd stake my life that he is on his way to

+France.  The Emperor will be at Caen within the next month.  Remember

+Cadoudal and his infernal machine, and for the love of Heaven keep an

+eye on de Livardot!"

+

+For obvious reasons the Man in Grey did not communicate the actual

+contents of the letter to the préfet of Caen, M. Laurens, a typical

+official of not too assured loyalty, or to M. Carteret, chief

+commissary of the district.  But both these worthies had had news,

+through police spies, of the arrival of de Livardot in Jersey, and

+were alive to the fact that the wily Chouan leader was probably

+meditating a secret landing on the shores of France.

+

+Everyone was on tenter-hooks, with nerves on edge at the prospect of

+the visit of the Emperor, who in less than a month would be spending

+half a day and a whole night at the house of Marshal Cormier, lately

+created Duc de Gisors in recognition of magnificent services rendered

+during the last Austrian campaign.

+

+The Man in Grey, as was his wont, listened unmoved and in silence to

+the many expressions of loyal fears, anxieties and unswerving

+resolutions which flowed so freely from the lips of the various

+official personages who visited M. le Préfet that morning.  But when

+the last caller had departed, and only he and the commissary were

+left to take their leave, he said quietly but significantly:

+

+"I shall leave you a free hand for a few days, Monsieur le Préfet.

+You have the list of persons on whom I have enjoined you and Monsieur

+le Commissaire to keep a watchful eye.  I pray you do not slacken

+your vigilance during my absence."

+

+"You are going away, Monsieur Fernand?" queried the préfet, who tried

+to show some concern, even though in his heart he could not but

+rejoice at the prospect of being so soon rid of this interfering and

+dictatorial nincompoop from Paris.

+

+"I am going to meet de Livardot when he lands," replied the Man in

+Grey simply.

+

+"But you don't know where to find him!" exclaimed the commissary with

+a complacent laugh.

+

+"I daresay I shall contrive to find that out," rejoined the secret

+agent with a smile.  "In any case," he added with deliberate

+solemnity, "remember while I am gone to double the number of your

+spies and not to slacken your vigilance either day or night.  The

+most precious life in the whole world will be in your keeping for

+close on twenty-four hours, and France will hold you answerable for

+its safety."

+

+There was something curiously impressive about the small, colourless,

+grey-clad figure while this solemn warning crossed his usually silent

+lips.  Both the préfet and the commissary, despite their covert

+antagonism to this obscure personage who had so authoritatively been

+placed above their heads, were conscious of a sense of respect and

+awe.

+

+"But you will be back here in time for the Emperor's visit, Monsieur

+Fernand?" rejoined the commissary, trying to speak lightly.

+

+"Such is my intention," replied the secret agent.  "But we are all

+going to be at grips with a man who is both resourceful and utterly

+unscrupulous--and one never knows.  If I do not return, you must take

+it that de Livardot has proved the stronger of us two."

+

+"But you are not going alone?" interjected the préfet, throwing a

+quick glance at the slender form and delicate hands of this

+mysterious creature who, of a truth, appeared more of a dreamer than

+a man of action.

+

+The Man in Grey laughed.

+

+"The last time," he said carelessly, "that de Livardot landed in

+France, our friend Carteret here had a whole squadron of police ready

+to arrest him--we all know with what results.  Murder, pillage,

+robbery, endless intrigues went on for three whole months, after

+which our crafty brigand disappeared as cunningly as he had come.

+Well, we are not going to repeat that blunder, are we, Monsieur le

+Préfet?"  He added more seriously, "This time I go to meet de

+Livardot--and I go alone."

+

+The next moment he was gone, leaving the two worthies puzzled,

+wrathful and contemptuous.

+

+"And de Livardot will do for you," growled the commissary after him

+with an oath.  "And serve you right, too, you interfering, impudent

+shrimp, you!"

+

+

+II

+

+In the narrow, sparsely furnished room, dimly lighted by tallow

+candles fixed in pewter sconces, the men sat waiting.

+

+It was a cold but brilliant night; a small fire smouldered in the

+little iron stove in one corner of the room.  The window beyond was

+open, as was the communicating door, and from time to time violent

+gusts of wind would blow the flame of the candles about and cause the

+grease to trickle and splutter upon the unpolished table-top.  Every

+now and again one of the men would get up, go through to the other

+room, and, leaning out of the window, peer up and down the dark and

+narrow street.  Then he would rejoin his comrades, who sat listlessly

+round the table, sipping wine out of pewter mugs.

+

+"I think we had best make up our minds," said one of them after a

+while.

+

+"I've feared it all along," said another.

+

+"The moment White-Beak returned with the news that that accursed

+grey-coated ferret was lurking in the neighbourhood of the Goat's

+Creek," continued he who had first spoken, "I for one----"  He

+shrugged his shoulders, leaving the sentence unfinished.  But the

+others understood.  There was no need to put into words the fear that

+was uppermost in their minds.

+

+One of the men took up the metal snuffers and with studied care cut

+the wick of the smoking candle.

+

+"Why White-Beak did not put a bullet through the grey fox, I cannot

+imagine," he said slowly.

+

+"I would have done so if I could," retorted he who was called

+White-Beak because his lips appeared absolutely bloodless; "but he

+never came within range of my gun.  And when I tried to creep closer

+he disappeared."

+

+"That cursed spy bears a charmed life," growled the other.

+

+"Methought de Livardot should have broken the spell," here interposed

+a third.

+

+"De Livardot may have been detained in Jersey," suggested another.

+"And the weather in the Channel has been very dirty of late."

+

+"Bah!  From what I hear, Livardot is not like to be detained by bad

+weather.  By all accounts he is a regular daredevil," assented

+White-Beak with a laugh.

+

+"Blue-Heart here says that, even as a lad, he had the pluck of Satan."

+

+"Tell us some more about him, Blue-Heart," added White-Beak.  "The

+chiefs say we've got to do as he tells us, and we've all got a mighty

+lot at stake now.  We ought to know something of the man who is going

+to lord it over us.  What is he like?"

+

+"Well," replied Blue-Heart after a moment's thought, "I used to see

+him when he was a lad and Monsieur le Chevalier his father lived in

+the house yonder, which now belongs to Marshal Cormier.  It's because

+de Livardot comes from these parts, and knows the house so well, that

+the chiefs are sending him over from England to help us in our work."

+

+"But if he hasn't seen the place since he was a lad----"

+

+"Even so!  There are plans of the house and----"

+

+"Hush!" broke in White-Beak peremptorily.

+

+A sudden silence fell upon them.  From away down the narrow street

+had come the weird and mysterious hooting of a screech-owl calling

+through the night.

+

+Blue-Heart jumped to his feet and in a trice was over the threshold

+in the other room.  He strode across to the window and, leaning out,

+peered up and down the street.

+

+Before him, about a kilomètre outside the city, the pointed roofs and

+tall chimneys of Les Acacias peeped above the low houses opposite.

+It was the residence of Marshal Cormier, Duc de Gisors, and here the

+Emperor and his suite would sleep on the following night.  The wintry

+moon picked out the metal ornaments of the roofs and the crests of

+the tall, encircling trees with shimmering lines of silver.

+

+Blue-Heart uttered a comprehensive curse.

+

+"Without de Livardot," he muttered between his teeth, "we shall fail!"

+

+He was about to close the window, thinking that once again his

+comrades' ears and his own had been deceived, when a solitary

+pedestrian at the far end of the street arrested his attention--a man

+walking very slowly, as if he were infinitely weary.  He wore an

+old-fashioned three-cornered hat, and a voluminous mantle was wrapped

+closely round his shoulders.  Blue-Heart waited, breathless, while

+the pedestrian came leisurely down the street.  Presently he paused

+and, with nose in the air, studied the outside aspect of the houses.

+Then he put the fingers of both hands to his lips and once more the

+melancholy call of the screech-owl rang out through the night.

+

+Blue-Heart was holding his breath.  His companions behind him had

+jumped to their feet and stood in a compact knot in and around the

+communicating doorway.  Blue-Heart with his hand motioned them to be

+still; then he leaned still farther out of the window and, in a voice

+scarcely above a whisper, said, as he looked straight down on the

+passer-by:

+

+"The fearful wild-fowl is abroad."

+

+And the other, raising his head, gave reply:

+

+"And the wild duck comes with a feather in her mouth."

+

+"De Livardot!" exclaimed the men excitedly.

+

+Helter-skelter some of them ran down the stairs to greet the leader

+whom their chiefs were sending to command them, whilst the others

+placed a fresh jar of wine, some meat and a hunk of bread upon the

+table.  A moment or two later the stranger entered.

+

+

+III

+

+To those who had so eagerly expected him, de Livardot appeared as a

+short, spare man, prematurely grey, with face drawn, eyes sunk and

+cheeks wan with obvious fatigue verging on exhaustion.  He sank into

+a chair beside the iron stove and eagerly drank the wine offered him.

+

+"I have been three weeks on the road," he murmured hoarsely; "and

+haven't tasted food for two days."

+

+He dragged his chair to the table and they allowed him to eat and

+drink in peace, after which he felt better and answered the inquiring

+glances of the men with an encouraging nod.

+

+"That cursed police-spy nearly did for me," he said.

+

+"We thought something of the sort had happened," muttered Blue-Heart

+with a savage oath.

+

+"The Captain of the _Foam_ put me off at the Goat's Creek," continued

+de Livardot in a steadier voice.  "Then he left me there to make my

+way inland, as I intended to do.  I knew my way well enough, and my

+intention was to walk by night and to lie hidden by day where and how

+I could.  I had no misgivings, but nevertheless my eyes and ears were

+on the watch for spies.  I had climbed to the top of the Dog's Tooth;

+the coast seemed deserted--not a soul was in sight and the night had

+set in dark and stormy.  I was standing on the edge of the cliff and

+at my feet the breakers were dashing themselves against the rocks two

+hundred feet below.  All at once something sprang on me from behind a

+boulder.  The attack was so violent and so sudden that, even as I

+veered round and closed with my assailant, I felt I was doomed.  He

+was small and spare like myself, but he had unusual strength.  We

+fought desperately--both of us--for our lives.  Fortunately,"

+continued de Livardot lightly, "I have spent my best years in

+England, where the art of self-defence is at its best.  With a

+dexterous movement which I had learnt from a champion wrestler, I

+slipped out of his grip; the next moment he lost his footing.  For a

+second or two his hands clawed the air, and then with a piercing

+shriek he fell, two hundred feet on to the rocks below.

+

+"_Et voilà!_" concluded the Chouan leader as he threw a look of

+triumph on his breathless hearers.  "But that accursed spy, whom

+Satan now hath in his keeping, managed to dislocate my knee ere he

+went to join his colleagues in hell, with the result that I have been

+very slow in coming.  Oft times in the last three weeks, as I dragged

+my weary limbs along those interminable roads, I feared I would be

+just too late to be in at the death of the Corsican."

+

+"Thank God, you are here now!" ejaculated one of the men fervently.

+

+"All our work is ready," added Blue-Heart.  "But if you hadn't come

+we shouldn't have known what to do--afterwards."

+

+De Livardot rose and, holding his mug of wine aloft, said firmly:

+

+"Afterwards we'll proclaim his gracious Majesty Louis XVIII, King of

+France.  We'll assemble here and march in triumph to the Hôtel de

+Ville at the break of dawn, with banners flying, singing a Te Deum.

+Then by the time the city is astir the Fleur-de-Lys will be waving

+above every public building, and the worthy bourgeois of Caen will

+realise that France has awakened from her nightmare and that her

+lawful King sits upon his throne again."

+

+He sat down amidst loud applause from the group of ill-kempt,

+unwashed, surly-looking brigands around him.  Mugs were re-filled and

+deep draughts of wine drunk to do honour to the toast.

+

+"And now to work, my friends!" continued de Livardot briskly.

+

+"To work!" exclaimed White-Beak.  "I thought you were dog-tired."

+

+"So I was," he replied gaily, "till we drank that toast."

+

+He took out a bundle of papers from the pocket of his coat and

+glanced rapidly through them.

+

+"I shan't want all these in future," he said.  "And the less of this

+sort of thing one has about one, the safer for the rest of us."

+

+He turned to the iron stove which was close to his hand and,

+selecting some of the papers, dropped them into the fire one by one,

+keeping up a running comment on their contents the while.

+

+"Here goes the list of your names, you fellows," he said.

+"Blue-Heart, whom I haven't seen since I was five; White-Beak, I knew

+you at once; Great-Fang, Green-Eye--I recognised you all.  The chiefs

+spoke to me about you.  And here goes our pass-phrase.  I had such

+trouble to commit it to memory.  But now I feel that I shall never

+forget it again!  Would you fellows have admitted me if I had made a

+mistake?" he added with a light-hearted laugh.

+

+"No," replied Blue-Heart curtly.  Then he said more quietly, as if to

+atone for the bluntness of his negative: "Think of all that we have

+at stake----"

+

+"I know, of course," rejoined de Livardot earnestly.  "I only wished

+to test the measure of your caution.  And now," he continued, "here

+is the plan of Les Acacias, just as it was in my father's time."

+

+He drew his chair in closer to the table and spread the map out

+before him.  He bent over it, shielding his face with his hand.  The

+flickering light of the candles threw into bold relief the grim and

+sinister faces of the Chouans as they pressed eagerly round their new

+leader.

+

+"Now tell me what you've all done!" said de Livardot.

+

+"We followed closely the instructions you sent us from Jersey,"

+Blue-Heart explained, as his grimy forefinger wandered along the

+surface of the map.  "Great-Fang obtained work in the garden of Les

+Acacias and soon located the disused shaft you spoke of, quite close

+to the house.  It had, just as you said, been used at one time for

+lowering wine barrels into the cellar.  It was no trouble to

+Great-Fang, in the course of his work, when no one was about, to

+loosen the stone which closed the mouth of the shaft, and after that

+matters were quite easy."

+

+"I used to leave the postern gate on the latch," interpolated

+Great-Fang; "and the others took it in turns, two by two, to steal

+into the grounds by night.  We very soon found the trap-door at the

+bottom of the shaft which gave directly on the cellars underneath the

+house, and when we had removed that our work was practically done."

+

+"Now we've got two kilogrammes of gunpowder stored down there," added

+the man who as called Green-Eye.

+

+"We carried it over, keg by keg, of nights," interposed Blue-Heart.

+

+"Our time-fuse is set," quoth White-Beak.

+

+"Even if you hadn't come, we should have fired it," concluded

+another.  "We were not going to have our work for nothing."

+

+They all spoke at once, eager to have their say, anxious that the

+leader lately come from England should know the share everyone had in

+the dastardly work which was to rid France of her Emperor.

+

+"Thank Heaven I am in time, then," concluded de Livardot fervently.

+"When does the Corsican arrive?"

+

+"To-morrow afternoon," replied Blue-Heart.

+

+"And he sleeps at Les Acacias?"

+

+"For the one night."

+

+"There is to be a big fête in the evening.  Marshal Cormier has

+issued hundreds of invitations," added White-Beak.

+

+"Nothing could be better!" exclaimed de Livardot.  "And of course we

+wait till the guests have departed, and everyone in Les Acacias,

+including the Upstart, has gone to bed.  Yours, Blue-Heart," he

+continued, "will be the honour of firing the time-fuse, which will

+send Napoleon Bonaparte to a tea-party among the stars.  In the

+meanwhile all of you men must spend the best part of to-morrow in

+seeking out the friends you know of, who are at one with us in this

+great undertaking, and convene them in my name to a meeting in this

+house directly after the event.  In fact, the explosion itself shall

+be the signal by which we'll all rally together for that glorious

+proclamation of our lawful King and our triumphal march to the Hôtel

+de Ville.  Is that understood?"

+

+"Perfectly!" they cried with one accord.

+

+The next half-hour was devoted to the discussion and copying out of

+the names of various personages, whom the Chouans suggested as having

+been chiefly concerned in the present affair--men and women in and

+around the city who were ardent Royalists and would not shrink from a

+direct attack on the man whom they deemed a usurper; men and women

+for the most part who had countenanced if not directly participated

+in many of those hideous crimes which had already sullied the Cause

+they professed to uphold, and who would see in the base murder of the

+Emperor whom they hated, nothing but an act of lofty patriotism.

+

+Wary and cunning, they had hitherto escaped apprehension; though many

+of them were suspected, few had ever been confronted with proofs of

+actual conspiracy.  They were wise enough to employ men like

+Blue-Heart or White-Beak to do their dirtiest work for them, men who

+had neither scruples nor conscience, and who hid their deeds of

+darkness behind weird masks of anonymity.

+

+It was long past midnight ere the party round that table was broken

+up.  De Livardot was the first to go; he had given his orders and he

+knew he would be obeyed.

+

+"You will see nothing of me all day," he said when he finally took

+leave of his comrades.  "I am too well known in these parts to dare

+show my face in the open.  At dusk we shall meet here for a final

+word.  Until then let our password be as before: 'The fearful wild

+fowl is abroad,' and the counterpass: 'And the wild duck comes with a

+feather in her mouth.'  I have not forgotten it this time!" he

+concluded with a hearty laugh, which found its echo in the grim

+chuckle of his men.

+

+

+IV

+

+The visit of the Emperor had sent Caen wild with enthusiasm.  All day

+the streets leading towards Les Acacias were thronged with people

+eager to keep in sight the roofs and chimneys of the house which

+sheltered the Emperor.  The town itself was magnificently beflagged,

+and all day the cheering was both constant and deafening.  In the

+evening there was a popular fête with display of fireworks in the

+grounds of the Old Château on the north side of the town, whilst the

+rout given at Les Acacias by the Duc de Gisors to the notabilities of

+the neighbourhood, at which His Majesty himself was graciously

+pleased to be present, was the most brilliant affair the province had

+ever known.  People had journeyed from far and wide to attend the

+rout; many who came from a distance had taken lodgings in the town

+for the occasion.  Never had Caen been so full of strangers of

+quality.

+

+On the great night the stream of equipages which set down the guests

+at Les Acacias extended for close on a kilomètre from the park gates

+to the confines of the city, and those who were not watching the

+fireworks at the Old Château stood about on the road, in spite of the

+cold, to see the gorgeous liveries, the painted coaches and

+caparisoned horses which were a regular feast for the eyes.  For

+hours the streets were thronged.  Only the narrow little Rue aux

+Juifs on the outskirts of the city appeared dark, solitary and

+unfestive.  It consisted for the most part of tumble-down,

+half-derelict houses, the owners of which had been out of France for

+many years.  And to-night, when the rest of Caen was out to make

+merry, only one of the low, grim-faced houses showed any sign of

+life.  Here a feeble light shone dimly through the cracks of an

+ill-fitting shutter on one of the floors above, and anyone who had

+taken the trouble to be on the watch would have seen dark forms,

+wrapped to the chin, gliding furtively in and out of the door.

+

+But the military, the police and the municipal servants were alike

+engaged in keeping watch over Les Acacias, the stately residence

+which sheltered the most precious life in Europe.

+

+The rout was kept up till the small hours of the morning.  It was two

+o'clock before the last equipage drove through the monumental gates

+of Les Acacias, and these were finally closed upon the departing

+guests.  But for an hour after that the roads around the house were

+still thronged with people too excited to go to bed.  They swarmed

+around the encircling wall, above which they could only see the

+glimmer of lights behind the shuttered windows, and tried to peer

+through the wrought-iron gates, happy to see how completely their

+Emperor trusted them, and that he disdained the usual paraphernalia

+of military guards and sentinels--the relics of bygone times.  The

+house was lighted up; no doubt a number of lackeys would be astir

+keeping watch over the illustrious guest, but there was no glimmer of

+fixed bayonets within the gates, no tramp of martial feet up and down

+the circular drive.

+

+Only at three o'clock did the citizens of Caen finally decide to go

+to bed.  By half-past three the approaches to Les Acacias, as well as

+the streets, were at last deserted; the houses in the city had closed

+down their lights; only in the distance the house in which the

+Emperor slept was illuminated from within; but it, too, now appeared

+absolutely still.

+

+Then suddenly the slumbering city was awakened by an awful sound--a

+terrific crash which broke the window panes of hundreds of houses,

+and which reverberated for many kilomètres around.  Fragments of wood

+and stone and tiles appeared to rain down from the skies like

+death-dealing projectiles, crashing through the roofs of some houses

+on the confines of the city and causing much damage, fortunately

+without any loss of life.

+

+There was hardly a citizen inside the town who did not immediately

+jump out of bed, with beating heart and blanched cheeks and lips that

+quivered with horror, as he murmured the ominous words:

+

+"Les Acacias!  The Emperor!  My God!"

+

+Within a few minutes the garrison was astir.  The whole sky was now

+suffused with a weird and lurid glow.  In the direction of St.

+Martin, where stood Les Acacias, vivid tongues of flame were seen to

+leap intermittently into the night.  The streets leading thither soon

+became crowded with people, clad in promiscuous garments, all running

+in the one direction, and headed by a company of infantry and a

+squadron of cavalry, rushing along with buckets, pumps and ladders,

+in the wake of the hastily summoned official fire-brigade.  The

+confusion threatened to grow serious.  The city police were quite

+unable to cope with it, and the military alone were in a measure able

+to enforce some semblance of order.

+

+Only the Rue aux Juifs, with its crazy houses, remained as before,

+silent and comparatively deserted.  The distant conflagration lit up

+with a weird glow the ramshackle façades which lined the narrow

+thoroughfare.  Neither the police, nor the military, nor yet the few

+sight-seers who drifted down the street in search of a short cut to

+the scene of excitement, had a mind to notice the sombrely clad

+passers-by who halted outside the door of one of these grim-faced

+abodes, about half-way down the street.

+

+Two men, dressed in rough blouses, and with wide-brimmed hats pulled

+over their eyes, appeared to be on guard at the door, and as each

+person passed from the street into the house, one of these men

+uttered a whispered challenge: "The fearful wild fowl is abroad."

+And instantly was heard the equally whispered reply: "And the wild

+duck comes with a feather in her mouth."

+

+After which the gloom beyond appeared to swallow up the newcomer.

+But a number of these, as they went by, added a quick and eager query:

+

+"Has he come?"

+

+And one of the men invariably replied:

+

+"Yes!  Last night.  Just escaped being murdered by one of those

+accursed spies."

+

+Outside were noise, bustle, wild excitement, made up partly of

+horror, partly and mainly of eager curiosity.  Folk rushed aimlessly

+hither and thither: the military charged the populace with loud

+commands to make way; the police shouted and used their swords to cut

+a passage through the crowd for the firemen; everybody shouted or

+screamed; some women fainted; on everyone's lips was the one agonised

+query: "The Emperor!  Is he dead?"

+

+But inside the derelict house in the Rue aux Juifs a dignified hush

+reigned.  The narrow double room on the floor above was filled with a

+throng as passionately excited as was the one which shouted itself

+hoarse in the streets; but the men and women assembled here only

+spoke in whispers, even though the query which was on everyone's lips

+was not a whit less eager: "De Livardot!  Is he here?"

+

+"He and Blue-Heart fired the fuse," said White-Beak in reply.  "No

+doubt they are held up by the crowd.  They will be here soon."

+

+A score or so of men and women wandered about aimlessly from room to

+room, or sat on the gimcrack chairs and the steps of the rickety

+stairs.  They talked in whispers, communicating their excitement to

+one another.  Only now and then a young voice would be raised in

+sudden, half-hysterical laughter.

+

+The shutters were hermetically closed so that no sound should filter

+through.  The usurper was dead, but his sycophants were still abroad

+and his paid minions still in power, and the populace was still

+intoxicated with the glamour which Austerlitz and Wagram, Jena and

+Rivoli had cast over the hated Corsican's name.  Therefore the

+conspirators, though certain of victory, still went about with bated

+breath, whilst an air of mystery still clung to the shabby,

+tumbledown house in the Rue aux Juifs.

+

+White-Beak and his mates, who had prepared the foul crime which had

+just achieved its grim culmination, stood apart from the rest of the

+company, in the narrow hall below--at respectful distance from the

+noble ladies and gentlemen who had paid them to do their cowardly

+task.

+

+But, noble and peasant alike, all these Chouans to-night--a veritable

+league of knaves--were here assembled in order to proclaim their

+triumphant exultation at the cold-blooded murder of the Emperor, and

+to hail the return of their rightful King.

+

+Despite the cold outside, the rooms and staircase felt overpoweringly

+hot.  The tallow candles flickered and guttered in their sconces;

+weariness warring with excitement was depicted on every face.

+

+Then suddenly a woman's voice rang out buoyantly:

+

+"Why should we wait for de Livardot ere we drink the health of His

+Majesty the King?"

+

+"Why, indeed?" came in lusty response from every side.

+

+The effect of the suggestion was electrical.  In a moment mugs and

+flagons were produced.  The gentlemen poured out the wine, whilst

+everyone crowded round the table in the centre of the room.  It

+seemed as if a load of anxiety had been lifted from every shoulder;

+the younger people began to laugh aloud; weariness fled as if by

+magic.  The shutters were flung wide open.  Of a truth, what cause

+was there now for fear or mystery.  Perish the last misgivings, that

+unshakable sense of impending doom!  Let there be noise and revelry

+and gaiety!  The usurper is dead!  Long live the King!  And let every

+passer-by, an he would, pause to hear the rousing, loyal toast:

+

+"The usurper is dead.  Long live His Majesty Louis XVIII, by the

+grace of God, King of France!"

+

+And the echo of the enthusiastic cry reverberated from attic to

+cellar of the old house.  White-Beak and his mates in the hall below

+joined in the acclamation with a rollicking shout.  The veil and

+gloom of doubt had lifted; spirits ran high, laughter rang from end

+to end of the narrow, fusty rooms.

+

+It was when these transports of delight were at their highest that

+the street door was suddenly thrown open, and Blue-Heart, panting,

+half-exhausted, with shaking knees and trembling hands, staggered

+into the narrow hall and fell headlong in the arms of his comrades.

+

+"We are betrayed!" he gasped.  "They are on us!  Sauve qui peut!"

+

+"We are betrayed!"  The awful, ever-recurring cry of the conspirator,

+of the man who concocts deeds of evil under cover of darkness, and

+who mistrusts every hand he grasps!  All these men, accustomed as

+they were to this ever-present danger--a danger which hung over them,

+even when they felt most secure--paused neither to question nor to

+reflect; they scarcely paused to warn the noble ladies and gentlemen

+above, who were still engaged in toasting the triumph of their Cause.

+

+"We are betrayed!  Sauve qui peut!" they shouted and, not waiting to

+hear whether the warning were heeded, scrambled for the door.

+

+"Too late!" gasped Blue-Heart, as with trembling hands he strove to

+detain his struggling mates.  "They were on my heels!"

+

+"They?  Who?" queried the others hoarsely.

+

+"The police!"

+

+"Bah!  The police!" exclaimed White-Beak in a feeble attempt at

+swagger.  "The Corsican is dead.  We have no cause to fear his

+police!"

+

+But already a nameless terror, like a pale, mysterious ghost, had

+floated upwards through the house.  It had reached a small group of

+young men and women gaily chattering at the head of the stairs.

+

+"We are betrayed!"

+

+"Did you hear that?" queried someone, and suddenly excitement died

+away as if stricken down by a poisonous breath, and within a second

+or two the whisper was on every lip: "We are betrayed!"

+

+"Who said it?"

+

+"The men below!"

+

+There was a swift rush for the stairs, while one man hastily

+re-closed the shutters.  Another was leaning over the banisters,

+trying to learn the truth.

+

+"White-Beak!" he called.  "Is that you?  What does it mean?"

+

+"That the police are on us!" was the gruff reply.

+

+"The police!" shouted those above.  "Why, the Corsican is dead

+and----"

+

+"Hark!" came peremptorily from the men.

+

+And all the conspirators held their breath, listening.  The sound was

+unmistakable; a number of men were outside the door.  Quick words of

+command could be heard; the clanging of steel and the snorting and

+pawing of horses.

+

+"But the usurper is dead!" glided as a reassuring cry from a woman's

+lips.

+

+"He is not dead!" retorted Blue-Heart firmly.

+

+"Not dead?  But the explosion--the fire----"

+

+As if to confirm these words, a gigantic sheet of flame in the

+direction of Les Acacias suddenly lit up the whole sky again, with

+such brilliancy that, despite the closed shutters, a lurid glow

+penetrated into the house, throwing for a moment into bold relief the

+pale, haggard faces, and illumining them with a light which was the

+colour of blood.

+

+At the same moment, in the distance was heard the sound of prolonged

+cheering.  Louder and louder it grew as it seemed to spread to every

+corner of the town, till it became absolutely deafening.  A wild

+medley of sounds filled the air with clamorous din; people rushed

+excitedly to and fro, shouting "Vive l'Empereur!" and singing the

+"Marseillaise."  Horses galloped by at breakneck speed; the roll of

+coach-wheels went thundering along the cobblestones; from the château

+close by came the echo of bugle calls.

+

+And in the derelict house of the Rue aux Juifs there reigned silence

+as if of the dead, though well nigh two score men and women were

+there, huddled together in one common and agonising fear.  What had

+happened no one could as yet even conjecture; all they knew was that

+Napoleon had escaped by a miracle and that the police were at the

+door.

+

+"And de Livardot?  Where is he?" was one of the many questions on

+trembling lips.

+

+But to this query even Blue-Heart could give no conclusive reply.  He

+had been with de Livardot until after they had fired the time-fuse

+together, then de Livardot ordered him to go back to the Rue aux

+Juifs and there to wait for him till he arrived, and in the meanwhile

+to tell all the friends to drink and make merry.  He--Blue-Heart--had

+walked rapidly for a time, then curiosity had mastered him and he

+waited until the terrifying explosion rent the air and gave him

+assurance that his task was indeed accomplished.  Then he turned back

+towards the city.

+

+When he reached the Rue aux Juifs he saw that it swarmed with

+police-spies.  He heard words and whispered commands which left no

+doubt in his mind that somehow or other the conspiracy had been

+betrayed, and that a descent on the Chouan meeting-place was in

+contemplation.  At first he made light of the affair.  Was not the

+Corsican dead?  And he--Blue-Heart--and his friends, were they not

+triumphant?  What cause had they to fear the minions of an Empire

+that was now defunct?  Nevertheless, he hung about the street under

+the shadows of doorways, on the _qui vive_.  Then suddenly the rumour

+spread throughout the town that the Emperor was safe.  He had left

+Marshal Cormier's house along with his host and the latter's family

+and entire staff of servants and retainers, directly after the last

+guest had departed.

+

+Not a soul was left at Les Acacias when the explosion occurred.

+Blue-Heart, realising that the plot must have been discovered and

+that the deadliest danger now threatened all his friends, contrived

+to reach the door of the meeting-place undetected, and to sound the

+note of warning which, alas! had already come too late.

+

+The house was surrounded.  The police were swarming everywhere.  The

+Chouans--save for a few of the gentlemen who wore their swords and

+one or two who carried pistols--were practically unarmed.  They put

+up a certain measure of resistance, however; some of the men fired

+pistol shots through the windows, and there was a mêlée on the

+stairs, in the course of which several of the police were wounded;

+but these were armed with swords and muskets, and from the first the

+Chouans knew that they were doomed.  After a struggle which lasted

+less than a quarter of an hour, they were forced to surrender; they

+were doing neither themselves, nor their Cause, nor the women who

+were with them, any good by senseless resistance.

+

+When the last of them was disarmed and men and women alike were

+marched as prisoners down the stairs, a whisper went round among them

+which was not destined for the ears of their captors:

+

+"Thank God," they said, "that at any rate de Livardot has escaped!"

+

+Blue-Heart and his comrades, who were in the fore-front, walking

+under strong escort--as they had offered by far the most determined

+and most savage hostility--caught the whisper and, pointing down in

+the hall where a man in a grey mantle and wearing a three-cornered

+hat stood in the midst of a group of police officers, one of them

+said with a grim oath:

+

+"Escaped?  Not he!  There he is, like the rest of us, already

+half-way to Bicêtre."

+

+"Livardot?  Where?" came in an eager query from his fellow prisoners.

+

+"Why, there!" said Blue-Heart, once more pointing to the man below.

+

+"That's not Livardot!" retorted one of the prisoners emphatically,

+whilst the police laughed grimly, as at an excellent joke.

+

+"Of course it's not de Livardot," added one of the women.  "You are

+dreaming, Blue-Heart.  That's that beastly spy, whom we all know to

+our cost as the Man in Grey."

+

+"But," stammered Blue-Heart who, bewildered and utterly

+uncomprehending, was staring down before him like a man suddenly

+brought up against a measureless abyss; "the police-spy was killed by

+de Livardot on the Dog's Tooth rocks----"

+

+At this moment the Man in Grey looked up and caught Blue-Heart's

+glowering eyes and those of his mates fixed almost crazedly upon him.

+

+"Nay! friend Blue-Heart," he said quietly--in the weird silence which

+had fallen upon the throng--"the police-spy, as you call him, arrived

+safely in the Rue aux Juifs, just in time to learn the details of the

+plot which you and these gentlemen and ladies were so confidently

+hatching.  Your friend de Livardot, whom I certainly met face to face

+on the Dog's Tooth rocks, is quietly awaiting his friends in Bicêtre."

+

+Then, while a string of muttered imprecations fell from the lips of

+the miscreants whom he had so cunningly outwitted, he gave the final

+word of command.

+

+"Forward!  March!  The carriages for the ladies are in the front;

+those for the men in the rear.  Guard your prisoners well, my men!"

+he added.  "They are as crafty as a tribe of foxes.  Forward now, and

+may God always protect the Emperor!"

+

+

+V

+

+Napoleon thanked the Man in Grey personally for the superb way in

+which he had not only saved his Emperor's life, but had also

+succeeded in gathering so many Chouans into his net.

+

+"How was it done, my good Monsieur Fernand?" His Majesty asked

+graciously.

+

+"Quite easily, sire," replied the Man in Grey.  "Your Majesty's spies

+in Jersey gave us warning some time ago that de Livardot was making

+preparations to embark for France.  My business then was to find out

+where he would land.  This I did by watching the best-known Chouans

+in the district.  One of them led me to the Goat's Creek, which I

+then kept in observation.  A week later de Livardot did land there.

+I had him waylaid and arrested, and took possession of his papers.

+One of these gave me a pass phrase and the address in the Rue aux

+Juifs, another was a map of the house and grounds of Les Acacias.

+

+"It was not difficult to imagine a connection between that map and

+your Majesty's visit; nor would it, I hoped, be difficult to assume

+the personality of a man whom, presumably, they had not seen for

+years (I mean de Livardot), and to learn the whole of the plot

+against your Majesty's life.  At any rate I chose to take the risk.

+From one or two of the papers I had gathered that he was being

+recommended by certain Chouan chiefs to a number of their followers

+who did not know him by sight.  I went to the address in the Rue aux

+Juifs and there obtained full details of the infamous plot.  My hope,

+of course, was not only to frustrate that plot, but also to bring the

+conspirators to justice.  This I was able to do through your

+Majesty's gracious co-operation in leaving Les Acacias secretly at my

+suggestion, together with your host and retinue; and also through

+Monsieur le Duc de Gisors' lofty patriotism in allowing his

+magnificent mansion to be sacrificed.  The explosion I knew was to be

+the signal for the rallying of the _infâmes_ who schemed in secret,

+while they left their humbler followers to do the poisonous work for

+them.  Now the trap has closed on them all and your Majesty's

+clemency alone can save them from the gallows."

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER VIII

+

+THE ARROW POISON

+

+

+I

+

+When the secret agent of His Majesty's Minister of Police selected

+Hippolyte Darnier to be his messenger for the occasion, he knew he

+had a man whom he could trust.

+

+Darnier was married: he was a man of middle age, who had served the

+Republic first, then the Consulate and finally the Emperor with

+unswerving loyalty, in circumstances which more often than not

+entailed grave personal risks.  He had always extricated himself from

+difficult and dangerous positions with marvellous coolness and

+acumen, and it was but natural that when the autograph letter signed

+by M. de Trévargan--which implicated the noble Marquis and his family

+in the late abortive conspiracy against the life of the Emperor--had

+to be sent to M. le Duc d'Otrante, the latter's secret agent should

+choose a man of proven courage and address for the purpose.

+

+The Man in Grey took leave of his messenger at his lodgings in the

+Rue de Bras, and at the very last moment of the leave-taking gave him

+the precious letter, which Darnier immediately secreted in the inside

+breast pocket of his coat.  Then he was ready for the journey.

+

+In those days the Paris diligence started from the Hôtel du Portugal

+in Caen every morning at eight o'clock, reaching Lisieux--the first

+stage--at five in the afternoon.  Darnier had secured his seat on the

+banquette by the side of the driver, for although the day was cold,

+he felt that he would be safer there than huddled up between other

+passengers in the interior, some of whom might be unpleasantly

+light-fingered.  There was a fair number of travellers that morning.

+An elderly pair of bourgeois on their way to Evreux and a well-to-do

+shopkeeper's wife going to Paris to visit her son, who was employed

+in the new aerial telegraphs, had secured the _coupé_ in front.  Two

+or three commercial travellers, a couple of young officers on leave

+from the war, a portly fishwife from Caen and a round-cheeked country

+wench occupied the interior.  At the small posting inn of the "Mouton

+Noir," just outside the city, another woman got in.  She had no

+luggage and apparently she had not booked her place, for she had to

+be content with one on the narrow back seat of the inside, wedged in

+between the round-faced country wench and the fishwife from Caen.

+However, the newcomer seemed quite satisfied with her surroundings:

+she sat down placidly and, pulling her hood well over her face, took

+up a book and thereafter remained absorbed in reading, looking

+neither to right nor left, and taking no part in the vapid

+conversation, engendered by boredom, which was carried on around her.

+Her fellow-travellers put her down as belonging to some sort of

+religious community, for she wore a voluminous black cloak with a

+hood which only allowed the point of her chin to peep out below it.

+

+At Mézidon, where halt was made for dinner, everyone trooped into the

+coffee-room of the "Cheval Blanc."  Hippolyte Darnier asked to have

+his meal served in a private room, and as he was provided with

+special credentials bearing the seal of the Ministry of Police, his

+wishes were at once acceded to, and he was served both promptly and

+obsequiously, in a small room adjoining the one where the other

+passengers were dining together.

+

+The woman in the black cloak had been the last to leave the

+diligence.  She had remained in her seat, immersed in her book till

+everyone had scrambled out of the coach.  Then she, too, got out, and

+walked very slowly in the wake of the jovial party ahead.  But she

+did not appear to be in any hurry to join her fellow-travellers, for

+while they settled down with noise and bustle at the well-spread

+table, she strolled away in the direction of the river.

+

+The dinner was over and coffee had been handed round when she entered

+the coffee-room.  The wine had been good, and everyone was hilarious.

+As she closed the door behind her, she was greeted with jovial calls.

+

+"Here, reverend sister, come and sit down."

+

+"You must be famished!"

+

+"This roasted gigot is positively excellent!"

+

+But the woman paid no heed to these well-meant suggestions, beyond a

+few whispered "Thank you's."  Her hood still covered her face, all

+but the point of her chin, after the manner adopted by professed nuns

+of cloistered orders when men are about.  She crossed the coffee-room

+rapidly to the door of the private room beyond, where Hippolyte

+Darnier was having his solitary dinner.

+

+The serving-maid tried to stop her.

+

+"There's a gentleman in there," she said, "who wishes to be alone."

+

+"Oh!" said the woman quietly, "that is quite all right.  I am

+travelling in his company."

+

+With that she opened the door and went into the inner room.

+

+There was so much noise going on in the coffee-room at the time that

+no one was able to state positively afterwards how Darnier greeted

+the intruder, and whether or no her statement was true that she was

+travelling in his company.  Certain it is that, after a quarter of an

+hour or so, she came out again, as quietly, as silently as she had

+come, re-crossed the coffee-room, and went out, leaving this time a

+curious, almost uncanny air of mystery behind her.

+

+"I have never been fond of these female _callotins_ myself," said one

+of the young officers after a while.

+

+"I cannot stand people who make no noise when they walk," asserted

+the worthy bourgeois of Evreux.

+

+The well-to-do farmer's wife, conscious of undisputed respectability,

+added with some acidity:

+

+"Strange that a professed nun should be travelling alone in a man's

+company."

+

+After that comments on the occurrence became freer and more ribald,

+and very soon the absentee had not a shred of reputation left in the

+minds of the worthy but intensely bored people congregated around the

+festive board of the "Cheval Blanc."

+

+At two o'clock the ostler in charge announced that the diligence was

+ready to start.  Jean Baptiste, the jocund host of the "Cheval

+Blanc," was going round the table, collecting payment for the good

+déjeuner which had been served to his well-satisfied clients.

+

+"What shall I do about the gentleman in there?" asked the serving

+maid, pointing to the door of the private room.  "He was asleep the

+last time I went in."

+

+"Wake him up," replied Jean Baptiste.

+

+"I have done all I could to wake him," answered the wench.  "He

+doesn't seem inclined to move."

+

+"He'll have to move," rejoined Jean Baptiste with a laugh; "or the

+diligence will go without him."

+

+With that he strode across to the door of the private room, kicked it

+open with his foot, and called out in his lusty voice which, as

+someone remarked, was loud enough to wake the dead:

+

+"Now then, Monsieur, 'tis time to wake up!  The diligence is about to

+start.  You'll never get to Paris at this rate."

+

+The door had remained wide open.  The travellers in the coffee-room

+could see the figure of M. Darnier sitting huddled in a chair, and

+half-leaning against the table, like one who is in a drunken sleep.

+

+"Give him a good shake, papa Baptiste!" called one of the young

+officers waggishly.  "Your good wine has been too much for him."

+

+Jean Baptiste stooped and gave the huddled figure a good shake.  Then

+suddenly he uttered a horrified "Oh, mon Dieu!"

+

+"What is it?" queried the travellers anxiously.

+

+"The man is dead!"

+

+

+II

+

+Never had the Paris diligence been so late in starting from Mézidon;

+and when finally, with much cracking of whip and rattling of chains,

+it thundered along the cobblestones of the Grande Rue, it was without

+its full complement of passengers.

+

+M. le Commissaire de Police had ordered the detention of most of them

+as witnesses of the occurrences which culminated in the death of

+Hippolyte Darnier, who was known to the commissaire as an employé on

+the police staff at Caen.

+

+It was no use grumbling.  No one who had seen or spoken to the woman

+in the black cloak could be allowed to leave the city until M. le

+Procureur Imperial in Caen had granted them leave to do so.

+

+In the meanwhile M. le Sous-Préfet, who was quite hopelessly out of

+his depth, interrogated the witnesses without eliciting more than a

+noisy and confused account of the events of the past few hours

+wherein the weather, the bad state of the roads, and the good wines

+of the "Cheval Blanc" vied in importance with the doings of a

+so-called mysterious nun, of whom nothing had been seen by anybody

+save the point of a chin and a voluminous black cloak and hood.  By

+the time that the sous-préfet had jotted down these miscellaneous

+depositions, it was discovered that the mysterious personage in

+question had disappeared.  Whereupon search parties were sent abroad

+in every direction, with strict orders to bring any woman who was

+seen wearing any kind of a black cloak forthwith before M. le

+Commissaire, whilst the sous-préfet, freely perspiring under the

+effort, wrote out a detailed and wholly unintelligible report of the

+incidents, which he dispatched by mounted courier to his chief at

+Caen.

+

+The search parties, after two or three hours' diligent scouring of

+the neighbourhood, brought back an inoffensive farm servant, who was

+trudging home from her milking, wrapped in a black shawl; the kitchen

+wench from the Hôtel de Madrid, who had gone out to meet her

+sweetheart and had borrowed her mistress's black cloak for the

+occasion; and old Madame Durand, the caretaker at the church of St.

+Pierre, who always wore a black gown as an outward symbol of her

+official position and responsible calling.

+

+One lad, more intelligent than the rest, while wandering along the

+tow-path of the river, had espied a black cloak and hood floating

+down-stream until its progress was arrested by a clump of rushes.

+The lad fished for the cloak with a barge-pole and succeeded in

+landing it.  He brought it in triumph to Mézidon, where he became the

+hero of the hour.

+

+Late in the evening M. Laurens, préfet of Caen, received his

+subordinate's report.  At once he communicated with M. Carteret, the

+chief commissary of police.  The two, fearing that the officious

+secret agent would keep them out of their beds for the next two

+hours, with God knows what orders to proceed to Mézidon in the middle

+of the night, decided to say nothing to him until the morning.  After

+all, the matter was not of such paramount importance.  Darnier, they

+argued, had had too much to drink and had a fit of apoplexy in an

+overheated room.

+

+But next morning, when the chief commissary did present himself

+before the Minister's agent with the Mézidon report, he for one felt

+that he would far sooner have sacrificed a night's rest than endure

+the icy reprimand and the coolly worded threats wherewith the

+insufferable little man had greeted his news.

+

+"By your culpable negligence," the Minister's agent had said in his

+quiet monotone which made every official conscious of some unavowed

+peccadillo shiver, "you have given the murderer an added chance of

+escape."

+

+"The murderer!" protested M. Carteret, with a feeble attempt at

+swagger.  "What in the world makes you think that Darnier has been

+murdered?  Why, the leech----"

+

+"Because an ignorant country apothecary finds no sign of violence

+upon a dead body," retorted the Man in Grey coldly, "unanswerable

+logic must not be deemed at fault."

+

+"But what motive could anyone have for murdering poor Darnier?"

+argued the commissary with a shrug of his wide shoulders.

+

+"You forget that he was the bearer of an important report from me to

+the Minister," replied the Man in Grey.

+

+The commissary gave a long, low whistle.  He certainly had forgotten

+that all-important fact for the moment.

+

+"And you think," he said, "that the woman in the black cloak was an

+emissary of those cursed Chouans, and that she murdered Darnier in

+order to steal that report----"

+

+"Together with the autograph letter of Monsieur le Marquis de

+Trévargan which implicates him and his family in the plot against the

+Emperor," broke in the secret agent.  "I should have thought it was

+self-evident."

+

+He wasted no further argument on the commissary, who, bewildered and

+helpless, solemnly scratched his head, as if to extricate therefrom a

+solution of the weird mystery.

+

+An hour or so later Madame Darnier, the widow of the murdered man,

+called at the prefecture in answer to a hurried summons.  As someone

+must break the terrible news to her, the Man in Grey undertook the

+task, speaking as sympathetically and as gently as he could.  She was

+a delicate-looking woman, still in the prime of life, and with

+justified pretensions to good looks.  She took the news badly, for,

+as she explained later when she was calmer, she had been devoted to

+her husband and he to her, and they had only been married five years.

+She had no children, she said, in answer to the secret agent's kindly

+inquiries, and her dear husband's death left her practically without

+means of support.  The assurance that His Majesty's Minister of

+Police would provide generously for the widow of a man who had died

+in the service of the State gave her some small measure of comfort,

+and when she finally took her leave, she appeared, if not more

+consoled, at any rate more tranquil.

+

+Madame Darnier had been unable to furnish the police with any clue

+which might guide them in their investigations.  She was quite sure

+that her husband had no enemies, and whilst she had been aware that

+his work often entailed grave personal risks, she knew nothing about

+the work itself, nor, in this case, had he told her anything beyond

+the fact that he was going to Paris and would be absent about ten

+days.  She repudiated with indignation the suggestion that he had

+been travelling in the company of some woman unknown to herself, and

+of her own accord threw out the suggestion that some of those

+_méchant_ Chouans--knowing her husband's connection with the

+police--had not scrupled to slay him.

+

+

+III

+

+The Château de Trévargan, situated upon a lonely piece of coast

+midway between the mouths of the Orne and the Dives and about ten or

+a dozen miles from Caen, had remained one of the beauty spots of the

+neighbourhood.  Though its owners had emigrated at the outbreak of

+the Revolution and their domain had become the property of the State,

+it had been bought nominally by a man named Leclerc, who had been the

+Marquis's agent, and who held it thenceforward and administered it

+with unswerving loyalty, in the name of his former master.  Leclerc

+with his wife and family had settled down in the château, and

+together they looked after the house, the park and the estate during

+the Marquis's prolonged absence abroad.  They always appeared

+plentifully supplied with money, which no doubt came to them through

+one of the many agencies in Jersey, and when M. le Marquis returned

+to France some five years ago he found his house in perfect order;

+and it is supposed that he rewarded his faithful steward generously,

+for the latter retired with his family to a little estate close by,

+where they continued to live in undiminished affluence.

+

+M. le Marquis de Trévargan had obviously not brought a fortune back

+from exile; nevertheless, he and Madame la Marquise kept up a good

+deal of style at the château.  They also went to Paris and made their

+obeisance to the Emperor at Versailles, and hitherto not the

+slightest suspicion of disloyalty to the new régime had attached to

+them.

+

+The discovery of the outrageous plot against the life of the Emperor

+during the latter's visit to Caen the previous month, had left the

+Trévargans unscathed, even though close upon a score of their

+personal friends were implicated in the affair.  It was only three

+weeks later that M. le Marquis learned that the one foolish letter he

+had written in the whole course of his cautious career had fallen

+into the hands of the police.  He had written to his friend the Comte

+de Romorantin, urging him to keep aloof from the conspirators until

+he was sure that the Corsican had really been sent to Hades.

+

+"Madame la Marquise and myself do not intend to appear at Caen until

+we know for certain that the coup has been successful.  We have done

+our share in the matter of providing funds, but we prefer to let

+Blue-Heart, White-Beak and the other ruffians do the work for us.  We

+shall be ready to proclaim His Majesty King Louis XVIII in the Hôtel

+de Ville as soon as we know that all fear of failure or discovery is

+at an end.  I entreat you to do likewise and to destroy this letter

+as soon as read."

+

+Unfortunately, M. de Romorantin had not destroyed the letter.  He had

+it in his pocket at the very moment when the police made the raid on

+the house in the Rue aux Juifs and arrested the Chouan conspirators

+red-handed.  The letter was seized, together with every other paper

+which happened to be in the possession of the prisoners, and it was

+that same highly compromising letter which Hippolyte Darnier was

+taking to Paris when he died so mysteriously in the private room of

+the "Cheval Blanc" at Mézidon.

+

+Investigation at the château on the day following the discovery of

+the plot had led to no result.  M. le Marquis watched with lofty

+indifference and disdain the turning over of his private papers and

+belongings by the heedless hands of the police.  Except for that one

+letter, he had never committed an indiscretion or written an

+unguarded word in his life.  But there was the letter!  And it was

+this very search which, coming as a bolt from the blue, had assured

+him that he was no longer immune from suspicion.

+

+The day following the death of Hippolyte Darnier, M. le Marquis de

+Trévargan received another visit from the police, this time in the

+person of M. Carteret, the commissary, whom he knew personally, and

+who came accompanied by a small, insignificant-looking personage

+dressed in grey.  Once more, secure in the knowledge that nothing

+that could in any way compromise him existed inside his château, the

+Marquis received his visitors with condescending hauteur.

+

+"Ah, ça, my good Carteret," he said to the commissary somewhat

+tartly, "when am I and Madame la Marquise to be free from this

+insolent interference?  Since when are the loyal subjects of His

+Majesty to be treated as if they were criminals?"

+

+The worthy M. Carteret felt hot and cold all over.  He had an

+enormous regard for M. le Marquis de Trévargan and a wholesome terror

+of the Minister's secret agent, and between the two he did not know

+to which saint he should pray for protection.

+

+"Loyalty is a matter of degree," here interposed the Man in Grey in

+his usual monotone; "as Monsieur le Marquis well knows."

+

+"I only know, Monsieur," retorted the Marquis haughtily, "that

+certain aspersions have been cast upon my good name, chiefly on the

+strength of a forged letter----"

+

+"A forged letter, Monsieur le Marquis?" interposed the Man in Grey

+with a smile.  "Monsieur de Romorantin has owned to its authenticity."

+

+"Monsieur de Romorantin was scared out of his wits," rejoined the

+Marquis, "or he never would have been taken in by such a clumsy

+forgery.  And," he added haughtily, "I challenge you to produce it,

+so that at least I might have a chance of proving the truth of what I

+say."

+

+"It is just because the letter has been stolen," stammered M.

+Carteret, "and the messenger murdered that we are here to-day,

+Monsieur le Marquis."

+

+While he spoke a door at the farther end of the room opened, and a

+tall, handsome woman appeared upon the threshold.  When the

+commissary finished speaking, she broke into a ringing laugh.

+

+"A pretty story indeed!" she said harshly.  "A monstrous accusation

+hurled at Monsieur le Marquis de Trévargan!  And when he demands to

+be confronted with proofs of his guilt, these proofs are said to be

+destroyed, whilst a vague hint of murder goes to swell the iniquitous

+charge.  A pretty pass, indeed!" she continued, as with stately steps

+she advanced into the room.  "Fortunately His Majesty has some

+friendship for Monsieur le Marquis and myself, and we can appeal to

+him to punish those who have put this affront upon us."

+

+"Your pardon, Madame la Marquise," answered the Man in Grey, as soon

+as she had finished her impassioned tirade.  "Monsieur le Commissaire

+said that the letter had been stolen; he did not say that it had been

+destroyed."

+

+An almost imperceptible shadow seemed to pass as in a flash over the

+Marquise's handsome face; but the very next second she shrugged her

+handsome shoulders and said flippantly:

+

+"The same thing, my good man."

+

+"I trust not, Madame la Marquise," rejoined the Man in Grey.

+

+"Oh, we all know," here interrupted M. le Marquis with a sneer, "that

+in your unavowable profession, Monsieur, you are bound to send a

+certain number of unfortunates to what you call justice, whether they

+are guilty or not, or you would lose your highly lucrative

+employment.  Isn't that so?"

+

+"Our employment, Monsieur le Marquis," replied the Man in Grey

+imperturbably, "is not likely to find favour in your sight."

+

+"Well!" rejoined Madame with a harsh laugh, "so long as you don't

+trump up a charge of murder against some poor innocent this time----"

+

+"Murder, Madame la Marquise!" queried the secret agent with a look of

+mild astonishment in his colourless eyes.  "Who spoke of murder?"

+

+"I thought," parried the Marquise airily, "that some spy or other of

+yours was murdered and robbed of the forged letter, which was

+supposed to convict Monsieur le Marquis de Trévargan and myself of

+disloyalty."

+

+"One of our men was certainly robbed of a letter written by Monsieur

+le Marquis de Trévargan to Monsieur de Romorantin on the eve of the

+conspiracy against the Emperor," said the Man in Grey, "but I am

+happy to say that he is alive at the present moment----"

+

+A terrific crash of broken china drowned the rest of his speech.  The

+table against which Madame la Marquise had been leaning fell over,

+scattering precious _bibelots_ in every direction.

+

+"How clumsy of me!" exclaimed Madame in some confusion, whilst the

+commissary of police, agitated and obsequious, crawled about on his

+hands and knees, trying to collect the fragments of priceless china

+which littered the carpet.  "Do not trouble, I pray you, Monsieur le

+Commissaire," said the Marquise with affable condescension.  "The

+servant will clear away the rubbish."

+

+She sank into a chair, as if tired out with the interminable

+interview, and put her aristocratic hand up to her mouth, smothering

+a yawn.

+

+"As you were saying, Monsieur--er----" she drawled wearily.

+

+"I was not saying anything, Madame la Marquise," rejoined the Man in

+Grey, smiling.

+

+"Your spy or messenger, whatever he was----" interposed the Marquis

+impatiently.  "You were saying something about him."

+

+"Oh! nothing that would interest Monsieur le Marquis," replied the

+secret agent.  "He was stabbed in the hand with a pin steeped in a

+deadly arrow poison, which in ordinary circumstances would have

+killed him in less than five minutes.  Fortunately for him the

+assassin was either inexperienced or clumsy, or perhaps the poison

+had become stale by keeping.  At any rate, poor Hippolyte Darnier was

+nearly killed--but not quite.  He is still very ill--half paralysed;

+but the leech assures me that he will recover."

+

+This time there was no mistaking the shadow which once more passed

+across the Marquise's handsome face, whilst for the space of a second

+or two the somewhat high colour of her cheeks changed to a leaden

+hue.  The Marquis instinctively came forward a few steps, obtruding

+his stately figure between the police agent and his wife.  Next

+moment, however, Madame had regained her composure.  She rose from

+her chair, tall, dignified, unspeakably haughty.

+

+"So much the better for your friend, Monsieur--er--I forget your

+name," she said coldly.  "And now," she added as she walked

+majestically towards the door, "if you or Monsieur le Commissaire

+have any more senseless questions to ask, you must be content with

+the information Monsieur le Marquis condescends to give you.  I

+confess to being weary of this folly."

+

+She pushed open the door and sailed out of the room, as arrogant as

+any Queen of the old régime dismissing an importunate courtier.  Then

+the door fell to behind her and her firm step soon died away along

+the marble corridor.

+

+

+IV

+

+The commissary of police was pining to take his leave, and much to

+his relief the Man in Grey put no further questions to M. le Marquis,

+and after a few seconds declared himself ready to go.  M. de

+Trévargan was quite pleasant to poor M. Carteret, who obviously

+greatly disapproved of this intrusion on the privacy of the stately

+château.

+

+"The man is a veritable pest!" he contrived to whisper in the

+Marquis's ear, behind the back of the secret agent.  "I would wish to

+assure Monsieur le Marquis----"

+

+"Do not trouble to do that, my good Monsieur Carteret," interrupted

+M. de Trévargan impatiently.  "Your assurances are unnecessary.  You

+were obeying orders: and the man, I suppose, was fulfilling what he

+believed to be his duty."

+

+Somewhat comforted, the commissary went downstairs in the wake of the

+Man in Grey, who was waiting for him in the vast entrance hall below,

+and was gazing in rapt admiration at the pictures and statuary which

+would not have shamed a royal residence.

+

+"It is a rare treat," he was saying to the pompous majordomo who was

+waiting to usher the visitors out, "for art-lovers to have the

+opportunity of seeing these priceless treasures.  Are they not

+sometimes shown to the public?"

+

+"Oh, no, Monsieur," replied the majordomo sententiously.  "As

+Monsieur and Madame de Trévargan are in residence, it would not be

+seemly to allow strangers to wander about the château."

+

+"Ah!" said the Man in Grey, "then my sister was lucky indeed.  She

+saw all these beautiful pictures and statues yesterday!"

+

+"Yesterday, Monsieur?" queried the man, as haughtily as his master

+and mistress would have done.  "I do not understand."

+

+"It's quite simple," rejoined the secret agent.  "My sister is the

+intimate friend of one of the maids here, and yesterday, as Madame la

+Marquise was away all day, this friend smuggled my sister into this

+part of the château and showed her all these marvellous art

+treasures----"

+

+"This would be a pretty story, Monsieur," here broke in the majordomo

+impatiently, "if it were based on some semblance of truth.  Madame la

+Marquise did not happen to be away all day yesterday."

+

+"But surely----" protested the Man in Grey.

+

+"Madame la Marquise was indeed very much at home," continued the

+other with becoming sternness, "seeing that she entertained the

+children of the Convent School here to déjeuner at midday and games

+all the afternoon."

+

+The secret agent now appeared overwhelmed with confusion at his

+stupid blunder.

+

+"I am very sorry," he murmured haltingly.  "There's some mistake on

+my part--I understood my sister to say that she was here

+yesterday--it must have been some other day----"

+

+"Very likely!" retorted the majordomo with a sneer; and giving the

+plebeian police agent the supercilious stare which so much

+impertinence deserved, he finally closed the monumental doors of the

+château upon the unwelcome visitors.

+

+"Another snub!" remarked the commissary of police as he descended the

+steps beside his silent colleague.  "And why you trumped up that

+story about your sister and a maid, I cannot imagine!" he added with

+withering contempt.

+

+But the Man in Grey apparently did not hear him, He was murmuring

+under his breath:

+

+"Clever enough to have secured an alibi!  I might have guessed it!

+And such an actress!  But, then, how in Heaven's name was it done?

+How?  And by whom?"

+

+

+V

+

+The Man in Grey had allowed the commissary of police to return to

+Caen, but he seemed to find it impossible to tear himself away from

+the neighbourhood of Trévargan.  He felt that the lordly château held

+a grim secret within its walls, and he could not rest until he had

+wrung it from them.

+

+All day he hung about the approaches of the park and, as soon as

+night fell, managed to creep into the depths of the shrubberies

+before the gates were closed.  Here he remained on the watch, peering

+through the thicket at the stately pile, the windows of which soon

+became lighted from within, one by one.  What he expected to see he

+could not have told you, but Night is the great guardian of dark

+mysteries and unavowable deeds, and the secret agent hoped that the

+gloom would mayhap give him the key to that riddle which had baffled

+him in broad light of day.

+

+From where he was crouching he commanded a view both of the front of

+the house and of the path which led to the back.  He had been lying

+in wait for nearly two hours, and a neighbouring church clock had

+just struck ten, when through the darkness he perceived the figure of

+a woman, wrapped in a cloak, walking quickly towards the château.  At

+first he thought it might be one of the maids returning from a walk,

+but as the figure passed close to him, something vaguely familiar in

+the poise of the head and the shape of the cloak, caused him suddenly

+to crawl out of his hiding-place as noiselessly as he could, and to

+follow the woman until a bend in the avenue afforded him the

+opportunity which he sought.  In one second he had taken off his

+mantle and, springing on her from behind, he caught her in his arms

+and threw the mantle over her head, smothering the cry which had

+risen to her lips.  Though he was short and slight, he had uncommon

+strength, and the woman was small and slender.  He lifted her off the

+ground and carried her along the avenue and down a side-path, until

+he had reached a secluded portion of the park.

+

+Here he laid his burden down and unwound the mantle which was

+stifling her.  Then he turned the light of his dark lantern upon her.

+

+"Madame Darnier!" he murmured.  "Just as I thought!"

+

+Then, as the woman was still lying there almost unconscious, he threw

+back her cloak and looked at her hands.  There was nothing in them.

+He felt for the pockets in her cloak and in her dress; his hands

+wandered over the folds of her gown; his ears, attuned to the

+slightest sound, listened for the crackling that would reveal the

+presence of papers concealed about her person.  But there was

+nothing, and he frowned in deep puzzlement as he encountered her

+large, melancholy eyes, which were following his every movement with

+the look of a trapped animal watching its captor.

+

+"What are you doing here in Trévargan?" he asked sternly.

+

+"Help me to get up," she replied almost fiercely, "and I may tell

+you."

+

+More puzzled than before, he raised her to her feet.

+

+"You remember me?" he asked.

+

+"Of course," she replied.  "How could I forget the man who first held

+the cup of such bitter sorrow to my lips?"

+

+"Someone had to tell you," he rejoined more gently, "and your husband

+was in my employ."

+

+"And died in your employ," she answered roughly.

+

+"Will you believe me," he retorted, "that, had I known of the

+terrible risk which he was running, I would have undertaken the

+errand myself?"

+

+"Yes," she said dully, "I know that you are not a coward."

+

+"Will you tell me why you are here?" he reiterated firmly.

+

+She looked round her, right into the gloom in the direction where the

+lights of the château glimmered feebly through the trees.  Then,

+turning to the Man in Grey, she said calmly:

+

+"There was a suspicion gnawing at my heart.  I came to see if I could

+confirm it, or lull it for ever to rest."

+

+"You suspect the Trévargans of having had a hand in the outrage

+against your husband?"

+

+"Don't you?" she retorted.

+

+He made no reply and even through the darkness she could see that he

+appeared deeply buried in thought.  He had turned off the light of

+his lantern, and by the dim light of the moon, partly hidden behind a

+veil of clouds, they could only distinguish one another's outline

+against the dense background of the shrubberies.

+

+"Will you allow me to escort you home?" he asked abruptly.

+

+She nodded in assent, and he, knowing the way, guided her along the

+less frequented paths of the park till he came to a locked postern

+gate.  Asking her to wait a moment and, drawing a small tool from his

+pocket, he coolly picked the lock, and a moment or two later he and

+Mme. Darnier were walking rapidly down the main road in the direction

+of the city.

+

+

+VI

+

+Next morning, when the Man in Grey arrived at the commissariat of

+police, he was greeted with sneers and acid reproaches by M. Carteret

+and M. le Préfet.

+

+"I must say," said the latter with becoming pomposity, "that your

+attitude with regard to Monsieur and Madame de Trévargan is

+exceedingly reprehensible.  You have placed my colleague and myself

+in a very awkward position.  Monsieur le Marquis is one of the most

+influential, as he has always been one of the most loyal, personages

+in the province, and I have no doubt that he will visit his

+displeasure upon us both, though, Heaven knows! we have done nothing

+but follow your foolish lead in the matter."

+

+"I pray you have patience, my good Monsieur Laurens," said the Man in

+Grey with unruffled calm.  "The matter to which you refer is on the

+point of reaching its culmination."

+

+"I was alluding to the affair of Hippolyte Darnier," said the préfet.

+

+"So was I," retorted the Man in Grey.

+

+"Are you about to discover who murdered him?" queried M. Carteret,

+with a touch of taunt.

+

+"Yes," replied the secret agent.  "With the help of Madame Darnier,

+whom I have summoned hither."

+

+The préfet shrugged his shoulders with marked impatience.

+

+"And I must ask you," added the Man in Grey in his blandest tones

+which admitted of no argument, "not to interfere in anything I may

+say to Madame Darnier in the course of our interview; to express no

+surprise and, above all, not to attempt to contradict.  And you know,

+Monsieur Laurens, and you, too, Monsieur le Commissaire," he added

+sternly, "that when I give an order I intend it to be obeyed."

+

+Hardly had this peremptory command fallen from his lips than Madame

+Darnier was announced.

+

+She came in, looking even more fragile and more delicate in her deep

+mourning than she had done before.  Her large, melancholy eyes

+sought, as if appealingly, those of the three men who had half-risen

+to greet her.  The Man in Grey offered her a chair, into which she

+sank.

+

+"You sent for me, Monsieur?" she asked, as she pressed a

+black-bordered handkerchief to her quivering lips.

+

+"Only to give you the best of news, Madame," the secret agent said

+cheerily.

+

+"The best of news?" she murmured.  "I do not understand."

+

+"My friend Hippolyte Darnier," he exclaimed, "your husband, Madame,

+is out of danger----"

+

+She rose suddenly, as if some hidden spring had projected her to her

+feet, and stood rigid and tense, her cheeks the colour of yellow wax,

+her eyes so dilated that they seemed as black as coal.  The préfet

+and the commissaire had, indeed, the greatest difficulty to maintain

+the attitude of impassivity which the Minister's agent had so rigidly

+prescribed.

+

+"Out of danger," murmured Mme. Darnier after a while.  "What do you

+mean?"

+

+"No wonder you are overcome with emotion, Madame," rejoined the

+secret agent.  "I myself did not dare breathe a word to you of my

+hopes at Trévargan last night, for I had not had the leech's final

+pronouncement.  But I have had hopes all along.  We transported your

+dear husband's inanimate body to my lodgings after his--er--accident

+the other day.  He was totally unconscious; it almost seemed as if

+_rigor mortis_ had already set in.  But I suppose the deadly arrow

+poison, which a murderous hand had injected with the aid of a pin,

+was either stale or ineffectual.  Certain it is that my dear friend

+Darnier rallied, that he is alive at this moment, and that I shall

+have the pleasure of conducting you to his bedside immediately."

+

+While he spoke the Man in Grey had kept his eyes fixed steadily upon

+the woman.  She was still standing as rigid as before and clinging

+with one hand to the back of the chair, whilst with the other she

+continued to press her handkerchief to her lips.  Nor could the other

+two men detach their eyes from her face, which appeared like a

+petrified presentation of abject and nameless horror.

+

+"Darnier," continued the Man in Grey relentlessly, "is slowly

+regaining consciousness now.  The leech desires that the first sight

+which greets his eyes should be that of his beloved wife.  Come,

+Madame, it is a short walk to my lodgings.  Let me conduct you----

+Ah!" he suddenly exclaimed, as with his usual agility he literally

+threw himself upon the staggering woman.  "Drop that, now!  Drop it,

+I say!"

+

+But he was too late.  Madame Darnier had fallen back into her chair.

+From a deep scratch across her hand drops of blood were oozing

+freely.  The commissaire and the préfet were gazing, horror-stricken

+and helpless, upon her face, which was slowly becoming distorted.  A

+curious, jerky quiver shook her limbs from time to time.

+

+"She has killed herself with the same poison wherewith she sent her

+unfortunate husband to his death," said the secret agent quietly.

+

+"To his death?" gasped the préfet.  "Then the story of Hippolyte

+Darnier's recovery----"

+

+"Was false," broke in the Man in Grey.  "It was a trap set to wring

+an avowal from the murderer.  And we must own," he added earnestly,

+"that the avowal has been both full and conclusive."

+

+He threw his mantle over the wretched woman, who was already past

+help.  But he dispatched one of the servants of the prefecture for

+the nearest leech.

+

+"But what made you guess----?" queried the commissary, who was

+gasping with astonishment.

+

+"The fact that Madame Darnier was the daughter of the man Leclerc,

+who for years devoted himself to the fortunes of the Trévargans.  He

+and his family are devoted heart and soul to the Marquis and his

+cause.  The daughter has proved herself a fanatic, a madwoman, I

+should say.  She killed her husband to save the family she loved."

+

+"But those accursed Trévargans----" said the préfet.

+

+"Their punishment will not long be delayed.  I sent a copy of the

+compromising letter to the Minister--the original is still in my

+keeping."

+

+

+

+

+CHAPTER IX

+

+THE LAST ADVENTURE

+

+

+I

+

+The riders put their horses to a walk.  It was getting late in the

+afternoon, and the sun, crimson and cheerless, was setting in a sea

+of slate-coloured mist.  A blustering wind from the south-west blew

+intermittent rain showers into the faces of the two solitary

+wayfarers.  They had ridden hard all day--a matter of over thirty

+miles from Evreux--and one of them, at any rate, a middle-aged,

+stoutish, official-looking personage, showed signs both of fatigue

+and of growing ill-temper.  The other, younger, more slender, dressed

+in colourless grey from head to foot, his mantle slung lightly from

+his shoulders, his keen eyes fixed straight before him, appeared

+moved by impatience rather than by the wind or the lateness of the

+hour.

+

+The rain and the rapidly falling dusk covered the distant hills and

+the valley beyond with a mantle of gloom.  To right and left of the

+road the coppice, still dressed in winter garb, already was wrapped

+in the mysteries of the night.

+

+"I shall not be sorry to see the lights of Mantes," said M. Gault,

+the commissary of police of Evreux, to his companion.  "I am getting

+saddle-sore, and this abominable damp has got into my bones."

+

+The other sighed with obvious impatience.

+

+"I would like to push on to Paris to-night," he said.  "The moon

+will be up directly, and I believe the rain-clouds will clear.  In

+any case the night will not be very dark, and I know every inch of

+the way."

+

+"Another six hours or more in the saddle!" growled the commissaire.

+"No, thank you!"

+

+"I thought you were anxious about those escaped prisoners of yours,"

+observed the Man in Grey.

+

+"So I am," retorted M. Gault.

+

+"And that you desired Monsieur le Ministre to hear of the escape

+through your lips, before rumour hath played havoc with the event,"

+continued the other tartly.

+

+"So I do--so I do!" grunted the commissary.  "But those damned

+Chouans only got away last night from Evreux, where they should never

+have been brought.  They were apprehended at Caen; the outrage, which

+you were able to avert, had been planned and was discovered at Caen;

+the knaves should have been tried and hanged at Caen.  Instead of

+which," continued M. Gault wrathfully, "they were marched to Evreux,

+on their way to Paris.  At Evreux we had neither the facilities nor

+the personnel to guard such a _rusé_ gang adequately--they gave us

+the slip----"

+

+"And," interrupted the Man in Grey, in his iciest manner, "the men

+who planned to murder the Emperor are now at large, free to concoct a

+further outrage, which, this time, may prove successful!"

+

+"Through no fault of mine!" protested the commissary.

+

+"That will be for the Minister to decide," concluded the Man in Grey.

+

+But even this thinly-veiled threat failed to instil new vigour into

+M. Gault.  Alarmed at the possible effects upon his future career of

+what might be deemed official negligence, he had wished to place his

+excuses personally before His Majesty's Minister of Police, ere the

+latter could hear through outside sources that the desperate gang of

+malefactors who had planned the affair of the infernal machine

+against the Emperor's life had escaped from Evreux, and that such

+astute and reckless criminals as Blue-Heart and White-Beak were again

+at large.  In spite of M. Gault's anxiety, however, to be the first

+to gain the Minister's ear, his whole middle-aged, over-indulged

+person protested against any prolongation of what had become

+torturing fatigue.

+

+"You are young, Monsieur Fernand," he added dolefully.  "You do not

+realise----  Malediction!  What was that?" he ejaculated, as his

+horse gave a sudden jump to one side and nearly unseated him.  The

+animal had shied at something not at present visible to its rider.

+It was still retreating, with ears set back, nostrils quivering, its

+body trembling with fright, so that M. Gault had the greatest

+difficulty alike to keep his seat and soothe the poor beast.

+

+"I wonder what the brute shied at," he said.

+

+But already the Man in Grey had dismounted.  He led his horse across

+the road, and then to a spot where, on the farther side of the

+intervening ditch, a large, dark mass lay huddled, only vaguely

+discernible in the gloom.  He peered with anxious eyes into the

+darkness; then he called to the commissary.

+

+"I pray you hold my horse, Monsieur Gault," he said peremptorily.

+

+"What is it?" queried the latter as--still with some difficulty--he

+brought his horse alongside the other and gathered up the reins which

+Fernand had thrown to him.

+

+"That is just what I wish to ascertain," replied the Minister's agent

+simply.

+

+He jumped lightly over the ditch and approached the huddled mass.

+This proved to be the body of a young man with fair hair and beard,

+dressed in rough peasant's clothes.  The linen blouse he wore was

+smeared round about his shoulders with stains of a dull crimson

+colour, whilst the dead leaves beneath him were soiled in the same

+way.  In a moment, Fernand had passed his slim, experienced hand over

+the face of the man, over his body and his feet, which were bare.

+These were cold and rigid, but the stains upon the blouse and upon

+the bed of dead leaves were yet dank to the touch.

+

+"What is it?" queried the commissary again, more impatiently.

+

+"Murder!" replied the Man in Grey laconically.

+

+"The high roads are not safe," remarked M. Gault sententiously.  "And

+even in this district, where those _satané_ Chouans do not ply their

+nefarious trade, the police seem unable to ensure the safety of

+peaceable travellers."

+

+He gave an involuntary shiver and gazed anxiously behind him.

+

+"I pray you, Monsieur Fernand," he said, "do not let us linger here.

+This is an affair for the local police, and we must get to Mantes

+before dark."

+

+"You need not linger, Monsieur le Commissaire," rejoined the Man in

+Grey.  "I pray you, tie my horse to the nearest tree and continue

+your journey, if you have a mind."

+

+He had risen to his feet and appeared to be examining the ground

+closely all round the spot where lay the body of the murdered man.

+M. Gault uttered one of his favourite oaths.  Indeed, he had no mind

+to continue his journey alone, with those murdering footpads lurking

+in the woods and the road to Mantes lonely and unsafe.

+

+"What are you looking for now, Monsieur Fernand?" he queried sharply.

+"Surely, the police of Mantes can deal with the affair.  Are you

+looking for traces of the miscreants?"

+

+"No," replied the other, "I am looking for the murdered man's boots."

+

+"The murdered man's boots!" exclaimed the commissary crossly.  "Why,

+the fellow is just a rough peasant, and no doubt he walked barefoot."

+

+"No doubt," agreed the Man in Grey.

+

+Nevertheless, he continued his search and even plunged into the

+thicket, only to emerge therefrom in a minute or two, as the darkness

+made it impossible to distinguish anything that might be hidden in

+the undergrowth.

+

+"I don't know why you should be so obstinate about those boots!"

+growled the commissary.

+

+But to this remark the Man in Grey vouchsafed no reply.  He had

+resumed his mount and was already in the saddle.

+

+"I am going on to Paris," he said briefly.

+

+Poor M. Gault heaved a doleful sigh.

+

+"To Paris!" he ejaculated pitiably.  "But I----"

+

+"You'll stay at Mantes," enjoined the Minister's agent emphatically,

+"and there await my orders or those of Monsieur le Ministre.  You are

+on no account to leave your post," he added sternly, "on pain of

+instant dismissal and degradation."

+

+With that he put his horse to a sharp trot, heedless whether the

+unfortunate commissary followed him or not.

+

+

+II

+

+The Man in Grey was sitting, travel-stained and weary, in the

+dressing-room of M. le Duc d'Otrante, Minister of Police to His

+Impérial Majesty.  He had ridden all night, only halting now and

+again to give his horse a rest, as he could not get a change of mount

+during the whole distance between Mantes--where he had obtained a

+fresh horse, and where he left M. Gault comfortably installed in the

+best hotel of the place--and Paris, where he arrived an hour after

+daybreak, stiff, aching in every limb, scarcely able to tumble out of

+the saddle.

+

+But he would not wait even to change his clothes or get a little

+rest.  Within a quarter of an hour of his arrival in the capital he

+was knocking at the monumental gateway of M. le Duc's magnificent

+palace.  Obviously he was a privileged person as far as access to the

+all-powerful Minister was concerned, for no sooner had his name been

+mentioned to M. le Duc's confidential valet than he was ushered into

+the great man's presence.

+

+The police agent had the power of concise and rapid diction.  Within

+a very few minutes the Minister was in possession of all the facts

+connected with the mysterious murder of the unknown person on the

+highway to Mantes.

+

+"The man's clothes were rougher and more shabby than his physical

+condition suggested," Fernand remarked in conclusion.  "His hands

+were not those of a peasant; his feet were quite clean though the

+roads were muddy.  Clearly, then, his boots had been taken off by the

+murderers, presumably in the hope that some valuables might have been

+concealed inside them.  At once my mind jumped to thoughts of a

+written message--sent by you, Monsieur le Ministre, perhaps.  At any

+rate, I left old Gault at Mantes and rode another sixty kilomètres to

+ascertain as quickly as possible what my conjectures were worth."

+

+"Describe the man to me," said the Minister.

+

+"Age under thirty," replied Fernand; "short, square beard, fair hair

+slightly curled----"

+

+"Hector Duroy," broke in the Minister.

+

+"Then he was your messenger?"

+

+"Yes!  He started for Evreux early yesterday morning.  I wished him

+to meet you there."

+

+"To tell me what, Monsieur le Ministre?"

+

+"That the Emperor left Versailles incognito yesterday in response to

+the usual request from the ex-Empress.  You know how he literally

+flies to do her behests."

+

+"Alas!" said the Man in Grey with something of a sigh.  "But I don't

+understand," he added inquiringly, "if the Emperor has gone to

+Malmaison----"

+

+"Not to Malmaison this time," interposed M. le Duc.  "The ex-Empress

+is at Chartres, staying at the Hôtel National, and she desired the

+Emperor to go to her there.  This time she seems to have pleaded

+family imbroglios.  She is always ready with a pretext whenever she

+desires to see him; and with him, as you know, her slightest whim is

+law.  Enough that he set out for Chartres this morning, in the

+strictest incognito, accompanied only by one of his valets--Gerbier,

+I think.  Fortunately he apprised me yesterday of his project.  I

+begged him to let me send an escort to guard him, but--well! you know

+what he is.  The future Empress is already on her way to France; the

+Emperor, naturally, guards very jealously the secret of his continued

+visits to Josephine.  Curtly enough he forbade me to interfere.  But,

+knowing you to be at Evreux, I sent a courier to you, telling you

+what had occurred and suggesting that perhaps you could send a posse

+across to Chartres to keep watch quietly and discreetly while the

+Emperor was there.  He will be there to-night, of course," concluded

+the Minister with a weary sigh, "and no doubt he will return

+to-morrow.  But these incognito visits of his are always a terror to

+me, and this time----"

+

+"This time," concluded Fernand as the Minister paused, hardly daring

+to put into words all the anxiety which he felt, "the courier whom

+you dispatched to me was waylaid and murdered, and your message,

+which, I imagine, gave some details of the Emperor's movements, is in

+the hands of a band of Chouans."

+

+"Chouans?" exclaimed the Minister.  "What makes you think----"

+

+"Some of the rascals whom we arrested at Caen in connection with the

+affair of the infernal machine, and who were being conveyed to Paris

+in accordance with your instructions, escaped from Evreux prison the

+night before last.  The commissary of police and I were on our way to

+report the matter to you when we came across the body of the murdered

+man in the woods outside Mantes."

+

+"Malediction!" ejaculated the Duc d'Otrante; and though during his

+arduous service he had been faced with many and varied dangers which

+threatened at different times the life of his Impérial master, his

+cheeks became almost livid now, when the vista of horrible

+possibilities was thus suddenly conjured up before his mind.  Then he

+continued more calmly: "Which of the villains have escaped, did you

+say?"

+

+"The Marquis de Trévargan, for one," replied the Man in Grey.

+

+"And the Marquise?"

+

+"No.  We had not arrested her yet.  She was not directly named in the

+affair, and we can always lay our hands on her, if occasion demands."

+

+"Anyone else?"

+

+"Those two villains they call Blue-Heart and White-Beak, the most

+daring and infamous scoundrels in the whole crowd."

+

+"One of them was paid by Mademoiselle de Plélan to murder you,"

+remarked the Minister drily.

+

+To this, however, the Man in Grey made no reply; only his

+cheeks--always colourless--became a shade more ashen in hue.  M. le

+Duc d'Otrante, who knew something and guessed a great deal of this

+single romantic episode in the life of his faithful agent, smiled

+somewhat maliciously.

+

+"The last we heard of the Plélans, mother and daughter," he said,

+"was that Madame had joined some relatives in the south, but that the

+beautiful Constance had remained at Evreux.  She is a niece,

+remember, of Monsieur de Trévargan, and France does not hold another

+conspirator quite so astute and so daring as either of these two.  De

+Trévargan is a model of caution and Constance de Plélan is

+recklessness personified; but both will stake their all for the Cause

+of those degenerate Bourbons----"

+

+"And both are at large," added the Man in Grey somewhat impatiently;

+"while the Emperor is travelling without escort upon the high roads."

+

+"Do you suppose that Constance de Plélan had anything to do with the

+escape of the Chouan prisoners at Evreux?"

+

+"I imagine that she was the prime mover," replied Fernand calmly; and

+even the Minister's sharp, probing eyes failed to detect the

+slightest sign of emotion in the grave face of the police agent at

+this significant mention of Constance de Plélan's name in connection

+with the recent Chouan affair.  "No doubt she gave Monsieur de

+Trévargan and his gang all the help they required from outside, and

+shelter afterwards.  But time is getting on, Monsieur le Ministre,"

+he continued eagerly, "and the Emperor, you say, is on his way----"

+

+"He left Versailles at six o'clock this morning," rejoined the

+Minister.  "He will be at Chartres by nightfall."

+

+"He will never reach Chartres," announced the Man in Grey, "if--as I

+believe--Blue-Heart and his gang waylay him on the road."

+

+"That is just what is in my mind," assented the Minister with a

+shudder.  "It is close on seven o'clock now, and I can have a posse

+of police on the way within half an hour; but whether they can reach

+the Emperor in time to be of service is very doubtful.  According to

+arrangement, he will have left Versailles an hour ago.  He is

+travelling in his private _berline_, harnessed with his four bays,

+which, as you know, fly over the ground with almost unbelievable

+swiftness.  He will get relays on the way and proceed with

+undiminished speed.  Our men have not the horses wherewith to cover

+the ground at such a rate."

+

+"Let me have a horse out of your stables, Monsieur le Ministre,"

+rejoined the Man in Grey.  "I'll cover the ground fast enough."

+

+"You, Fernand!" exclaimed M. le Duc.  "What can you do--by yourself?"

+

+"I don't know.  I can always take short cuts and gain ground that

+way.  I know every inch of the district.  I can overtake the

+Emperor's _berline_ and warn him that assassins are on his track.  He

+has a postilion, I presume, and Gerbier is with him, you say.  Well!

+with the coachman, we should be four of us to divert a musket-shot

+from the most precious life in France."

+

+"But, my good Fernand," argued the Minister, "I cannot even tell you

+which road the Emperor has taken.  As you know, he can either go by

+the main Paris--Chartres road--which, of course, is the more direct,

+but also the more public--or he can go by way of Houdan and----"

+

+"Both roads converge at Maintenon, and I can intercept him there by

+cutting across fields and meadows, if you will give me your swiftest

+horse, Monsieur le Ministre.  If you don't know which road the

+Emperor is taking," he continued with unanswerable logic, "the

+Chouans do not know it either.  They also would have to waylay him

+somewhere past Maintenon."

+

+"Unless they are in full force and patrol both roads----" suggested

+the Minister.

+

+"They would hardly have had time to make such elaborate arrangements.

+Moreover, both roads are very open and moderately frequented.  It is

+only after Malmaison that the single road strikes through the woods

+and becomes very lonely, especially at nightfall.  A horse, Monsieur

+le Ministre!" entreated the Man in Grey, his keen, deep-set eyes

+glowing with ardour and enthusiasm.  "A horse!  Ten years of my life

+for the swiftest horse in your stables!"

+

+The Minister said nothing more.  He, too, was a man of energy and of

+action; he, too, at this hour, was filled with passionate fervour for

+the Cause which he was destined so soon to betray, and he knew how to

+appreciate the ardent spirit which irradiated the entire personality

+of this insignificant little Man in Grey.  At once he rang the bell

+and gave the necessary orders.  Within twenty minutes Fernand was

+again in the saddle.  Fatigue and weariness both had fallen from him

+like a discarded mantle.  He had no time to feel tired now.  Ahead,

+the _berline_ harnessed with the four swift bays was thundering down

+the Chartres road, and the most valuable life in France was

+threatened by a band of assassins, shrewd enough to have planned a

+desperate _coup_.  Somewhere on the broad highway the murderers were

+lurking, and the Emperor--unguarded, unsuspecting--might even at this

+hour be falling into their hands.

+

+On!  On, Fernand!  The four splendid bays from the Impérial stables

+have two hours' start of you!  In the streets of Paris, the life of

+the great city is running its usual course.  Men are hurrying to

+business, women to their marketing, soldiers or officials to their

+duties.  One and all pause for an instant as the hoofs of a powerful

+grey strike showers of glowing sparks from out the stones of the

+pavements, and a horse and rider thunder past at breakneck speed on

+the way to Versailles.

+

+

+III

+

+Just before the main Paris-Chartres road plunges into the woods,

+about a kilomètre from Maintenon, where two narrow roads which lead,

+the one to Houdan and the other to Dreux, branch off from the

+diligence route, there stood in this year of grace 1810 an isolated

+inn by the wayside.  The house itself was ugly enough; square and

+devoid of any engaging architectural features, it was built of

+mottled brick, but it nestled at the cross roads on the margin of the

+wood and was flanked by oak and chestnut coppice, interspersed here

+and there with a stately beech or sycamore, and its dilapidated sign

+bore the alluring legend, "The Farmer's Paradise."

+

+The Paris-Chartres road with its intermittent traffic provided the

+"Paradise" with a few customers--with some, at least, who were not to

+be scared by the uninviting appearance of the house and its not too

+enviable reputation.  Wayfarers, coming from Houdan or from Dreux on

+their way to Chartres, were forced to halt here in order to pick up

+the diligence, and would sometimes turn into the squalid inn for a

+cup of that tepid, acid fluid which Alain Gorot, the landlord, so

+grandiloquently termed "steaming nectar."  But during the greater

+part of the day the place appeared deserted.  The light-fingered

+gentry--footpads and vagabonds--who were its chief customers, were

+wont to use it as a meeting-place at night, but during the day they

+preferred the shelter of the woods, for the police were mostly always

+at their heels.

+

+On this cold winter's afternoon, however, quite a goodly company was

+gathered in the coffee-room.  A log fire blazed in the open hearth

+and lent a semblance of cheeriness and comfort to the bare, ugly

+room, in which the fumes of rank tobacco and wet, steaming clothes

+vied with the odour of stale food and wine to create an almost

+insufferable atmosphere.

+

+The Paris-Chartres diligence had gone by an hour ago, and had picked

+up one solitary passenger at the cross roads.  Soon after that a

+hired chaise, coming from Dreux, had driven up to the "Farmers

+Paradise."  A lady and a gentleman had alighted from it and gone into

+the house, while the driver sought shelter for his horse in the

+tumbledown barn at the back of the house and a warm corner for

+himself in the kitchen.

+

+It was then three o'clock in the afternoon, and the roads and country

+around appeared desolate and still.  M. le Marquis de Trévargan sat

+with his niece, Constance de Plélan, at a trestle-table in a corner

+of the coffee-room.  It was they who had driven over from Dreux in

+the hired chaise.  The landlord had served them with soup which,

+though unpalatable in other ways, was, at any rate, hot and therefore

+very welcome after the long, cold journey in the narrow, rickety

+chaise.

+

+Three or four men--ill-clad, travel-stained and unwashed--were

+assembled in the opposite corner of the room, talking in whispers,

+and near the door a couple of farm labourers were settling accounts

+with mine host, whilst a third, seemingly overcome by papa Gorot's

+"nectar," was sprawling across the table with arms outstretched and

+face buried between them--fast asleep.

+

+Gorot, having settled with the two labourers, shook this lout

+vigorously by the shoulder.

+

+"Now, then," he shouted roughly.  "Up you get!  You cannot stay here

+all night, you know!"

+

+The sleeper raised a puckered, imbecile face to the disturber of his

+peace.

+

+"Can't I?" he said slowly with the deliberateness of the drunkard.

+And his head fell down again with a thud upon his arm.

+

+Gorot swore lustily.

+

+"Out you get!" he shouted into the man's ear.  "You drunken oaf--I'll

+put you out if you don't go!"

+

+Once more the sleeper raised his head and stared with dim, bleary

+eyes at his host.

+

+"I am not drunk," he said thickly and with comical solemnity.  "I am

+not nearly so drunk as you think I am."

+

+"We'll soon see about that," retorted Gorot.  "Here!" he added,

+turning to the three ruffians at the farther end of the room.  "One

+of you give me a hand.  We'll put this lout the other side of the

+door."

+

+There was more than one volunteer for the diverting job.  One of the

+men without more ado seized the sleeper under the armpits.  Gorot

+took hold of his legs, and together they carried him out of the room

+and deposited him in the passage, where he rolled over contentedly

+and settled down to sleep in the angle of the door even whilst he

+continued to mutter thickly: "I am not nearly so drunk as you think I

+am."

+

+When the landlord returned to the coffee-room he was summarily

+ordered out again by M. de Trévargan, and he, nothing loth,

+accustomed as he was to his house being used for every kind of secret

+machinations and nameless plottings, shuffled out

+complacently--unastonished and incurious--and retired to the purlieus

+of the kitchen, leaving his customers to settle their own affairs

+without interference from himself.

+

+

+IV

+

+As soon as the door had closed on Alain Gorot, M. de Trévargan turned

+to the crowd of ill-clad loafers in the corner.

+

+"Now that we are rid of that fellow at last," he said with marked

+impatience, "tell me just what you have done."

+

+"We carried out your orders," replied one of the men, a grim-looking

+giant, bearded and shaggy like a frowsy cat.  "We strewed more than a

+kilo of nails, bits of broken glass and pieces of flint across both

+the roads, at a distance of about a kilomètre from here, and then we

+covered up the lot with a thin layer of earth."

+

+The others chuckled contentedly.

+

+"When the _sacré_ Corsican comes along in his fine chaise," said one

+of them with a coarse laugh, "he'll have two or three spanking bays

+dead lame as soon as they have pranced across our beautiful carpet."

+

+M. de Trévargan turned to his niece.

+

+"We couldn't think of a better plan," he said, "as we could only

+muster one musket among us, and that one we owe to your kindness and

+foresight."

+

+Constance de Plélan did not reply at once.  She took up an old and

+dilapidated musket from the nook behind her and examined it with deft

+fingers and a critical eye.

+

+"It will serve," she said coldly after a while.

+

+"Serve?  Of course it will serve," rejoined M. de Trévargan lightly.

+"What say you, Blue-Heart?"

+

+"That I wish you would let me have it, Monsieur le Marquis," answered

+the old Chouan.  "I'd guarantee that I would not miss the accursed

+Corsican."

+

+"And I'll not miss him either," said M. de Trévargan, as he rose from

+the table and stood before his ruffianly followers the very

+embodiment of power and determination.  "And I myself desire to have

+the honour of ridding France of that pestilential vermin."

+

+"And now 'tis time we went," he added authoritatively.  "Two of you

+go up the Paris road--and two up the Dreux road.  Take cover in the

+thicket, and as soon as one of you perceives the rumble of wheels in

+the distance, give the signal.  We'll all be on the watch for it and

+hurry to the spot ere the first of the bays goes lame."

+

+M. de Trévargan then once more turned to his niece.

+

+"If we succeed, Constance," he said, and with sudden impulse he took

+her hand and kissed it almost reverently, "the glory of it will be

+yours."

+

+"I only did my duty," she replied coldly.  "I am thankful that I

+happened to be at Evreux, just when you wanted me most."

+

+"Nay, dear child," he rejoined earnestly.  "You must not belittle the

+services you have rendered to me and to the King.  If you had not

+known how to bribe our warders at Evreux, and how to send us word and

+succour, we could not have effected our escape.  If you had not given

+us shelter we must certainly have been recaptured.  If you had not

+conveyed me hither, I--in my indifferent state of health--could never

+have followed the others across country; and if you had not found

+that old musket for us, we could not have done for the Corsican at

+this hour, when God Himself is delivering him into our hands.  That

+is so, is it not, my men?" he concluded, turning to his followers.

+

+"Ay!  Ay!" they replied unanimously.

+

+"God grant you may succeed!" said Constance de Plélan, as she gently

+disengaged her hand from his.

+

+"We cannot fail," he declared firmly.  "One or more of the Corsican's

+horses must go dead lame over the carpet of nails and broken glass

+and flint.  The carriage must then halt, and the coachman and

+postilion will get down to see to the injured beasts.  That will be

+our opportunity.  Blue-Heart and the others will fall on the men and

+I shall hold Napoleon at the end of my musket, and though it may be

+old, I know how to shoot straight and my aim is not likely to err.

+And now let us get on," he added peremptorily.  "The Corsican's

+carriage cannot be far off."

+

+Constance, without another word, handed him his hat and mantle.  The

+latter he fastened securely round his shoulders, leaving his arms

+free for action.  Then he turned to pick up the musket Blue-Heart and

+White-Beak were ready to follow.  They and the two others strode

+towards the door, with backs bent and an eager, furtive look on their

+bearded faces, like feline creatures on the hunt.  Constance de

+Plélan was standing in the middle of the room and her eyes were on

+the door, when it was suddenly thrown open.  The figure of the

+drunken labourer appeared, clear-cut against the dark passage beyond.

+In an instant he had stepped into the room, closed the door to behind

+him, and was now standing with his back to it and holding a loaded

+pistol in his right hand.

+

+It all happened so quickly that neither M. de Trévargan nor any of

+the others had time to realise what had occurred; and for an instant

+they stood as if rooted to the spot, staring at the unexpected

+apparition.  Only Constance de Plélan understood what the presence of

+this man, here and at this hour, portended.  She was gazing at him

+with fixed, dilated pupils, and her cheeks had become livid.

+

+"You!" came in a hoarse murmur through her bloodless lips.

+

+Next moment, however, M. de Trévargan had recovered his presence of

+mind.

+

+"Out of the way, you lout!" he cried roughly.

+

+And he stretched out his hand to grasp the musket, still believing

+that this was merely a drunken boor who was feeling quarrelsome and

+who could easily be scared away.

+

+"If you touch that musket, Monsieur le Marquis," said the man at the

+door quietly, "I fire."

+

+Then only did de Trévargan, in his turn, look steadily at him.  As in

+a flash, remembrance came to him.  He recognised that pale,

+colourless face, those deep-set grey eyes which once before--at the

+Château de Trévargan--had probed his very soul and wrested from him

+the secret of Darnier's assassination.

+

+"That accursed police agent!" he muttered between his teeth.  "A moi,

+Blue-Heart.  Let him fire and be damned to him!"

+

+But even Blue-Heart and White-Beak, those desperate and reckless

+Chouans, who were always prepared to take any and every risk, and who

+counted life more cheaply than they did the toss of a coin, paused,

+awestruck, ere they obeyed; for the Man in Grey, with one of those

+swift and sudden movements which were peculiar to him, had taken one

+step forward, seized Constance de Plélan by the wrist, dragged her to

+him against the door, and was even now holding the pistol to her side.

+

+"One movement from any of you," he said with the same icy calm; "one

+word, one step, one gesture, and by the living God, I swear that I

+will kill her before your eyes!"

+

+Absolute, death-like silence ensued.  M. de Trévargan and the four

+Chouans stood there, paralysed and rigid.  To say that they did not

+stir, that they did not breathe one word or utter as much as a sigh,

+would but ill express the complete stillness which fell upon them, as

+if some hidden and awful petrifying hand had suddenly turned them

+into stone.  Constance de Plélan had not stirred either.  She also

+stood, motionless as a statue, her hand held firmly in a steel-like

+grasp, the muzzle of the pistol against her breast.  Fearlessly,

+almost defiantly, she gazed straight into the eyes of this man who

+had so reverently worshipped her and whom she had so nearly learned

+to love.

+

+"From my soul," he whispered, so low that even she could scarcely

+hear, "I crave your pardon.  From my soul I worship you still.  But I

+would not love you half so dearly, Constance, did I not love my

+Emperor and France more dearly still."

+

+"You coward!" came after a moment or two of tense suspense, from the

+parched lips of M. de Trévargan.  "Would you seize upon a woman----?"

+

+"The Emperor's life or hers," broke in the Man in Grey coldly.  "You

+give me no other choice.  What I do, I do, and am answerable for my

+actions to God alone.  So down on your knees every one of you!" he

+added firmly.  "Now!  At once!  Another movement, another word, and I

+fire!"

+

+"Fire then, in the name of Satan, your friend!" cried Constance de

+Plélan loudly.  "Oncle Armand, do not hesitate.  Blue-Heart, seize

+this miscreant!  Let him kill me first; but after that you will be

+five against one, and you can at last rid us of this deadly foe!"

+

+"Down on your knees!" came in a tone of frigid calm from the police

+agent.  "If, ere I count three, I do not see you kneel--I fire!"

+

+And even before the words were out of his mouth, the five Chouans

+dropped on their knees, helpless before this relentless threat which

+deprived them of every vestige of will-power.

+

+"Oh, that I had not stayed Blue-Heart's hand that day in the woods!"

+cried Constance de Plélan with a sigh of fierce regret.  "He had you

+then, as you have us now----"

+

+"As he and the others would have the Emperor," rejoined the Man in

+Grey.  "If I allowed my heart to stay my hand."

+

+And that relentless hand of his tightened its grip on Constance de

+Plélan's wrist, till she felt sick and faint and fell back against

+the door.  She felt the muzzle of the pistol against her side: the

+hand which held it neither swerved nor quaked.  The keen, grey eyes

+which had once radiated the light of his ineffable love for her held

+no pity or remorse in them now: they were watching for the slightest

+movement on the part of the five Chouans.

+

+Slowly the afternoon light faded into dusk.  The figures of the

+Chouans now appeared like dark and rigid ghosts in the twilight.  The

+ticking of the old clock in the ingle-nook alone broke the deathlike

+silence of the room.  Minute sped after minute while the conspirators

+remained as if under the ban of some evil fairy, who was keeping them

+in an enchanted castle in a dreamless trance from which perhaps they

+would never wake again.  Minute sped after minute, and they lost

+count of time, of place, of very existence.  They only appeared alive

+through the one sense of hearing, which had for them become

+preternaturally acute.  In the house, too, every sound was hushed.

+The landlord and his servants had received their orders from the

+accredited agent of His Majesty's Minister of Police, and they were

+not likely to risk life and liberty by disobedience.

+

+Outside, the air was damp and still, so still that through the open

+casement there could be heard--very far away--the rumble of carriage

+wheels and the patter of horses' hoofs on the muddy road.

+

+It seemed as if an electrical wave went right through the room at the

+sound, and the police agent's grip tightened on Constance's wrist.  A

+slight tremor appeared to animate those five marble-like statues who

+were kneeling on the floor.

+

+The carriage was drawing nearer: it was less than a hundred mètres

+away.  The clang of hoofs upon the road, the rattle of metal chains,

+the shouts of the postilion, could already be distinctly heard.  Then

+suddenly the carriage had come to stop.

+

+A bitter groan went right through the room, like the wail of

+condemned spirits in torment.  But not one of the Chouans moved.  How

+could they when a woman's life was the price that would have to be

+paid now for the success of their scheme.

+

+Only a heartrending cry rose from Constance de Plélan's lips:

+

+"In Heaven's name, Oncle Armand," she entreated, "let the man fire!

+Think you I should not be glad to die?  Blue-Heart, has your courage

+forsaken you?  What is one life when there is so much at stake?  O

+God!" she added in a fervent prayer, "give them the strength to

+forget everything save their duty to our King!"

+

+But not a sound--not a movement came in response to her passionate

+appeal.  Through the open casement a confused murmur of voices could

+be distinctly heard some distance away, up the side-road which ran

+from Dreux.  The Emperor's carriage was obviously being held up.

+One, if not more, of the spanking bays had gone dead lame while

+trotting across Blue-Heart's well-laid carpet.  The rough, stained

+hands of the Chouans opened and closed till their thick knuckles

+cracked in an agony of impotence.

+

+

+V

+

+How long the torture of this well-nigh intolerable suspense lasted

+not one of those present could have told.  The twilight gradually

+faded into gloom; darkness like a huge mantle slowly enveloped those

+motionless, kneeling figures in the coffee-room of "The Farmer's

+Paradise."

+

+But if some semblance of hope had crept into the hearts of the

+Chouans at sight of the beneficent darkness, it was soon dispelled by

+the trenchant warning which came like a blow from a steel-hammer from

+the police agent's lips:

+

+"If I hear the slightest movement through the darkness, one flutter,

+one creak, even a sigh--I shall fire," he had said, as soon as the

+gloom of the night had begun to creep into the more remote corners of

+the room.  And even through the darkness the over-strained ears of

+the kneeling Chouans caught the sound of a metallic click--the

+cocking of the pistol which threatened Constance de Plélan's life.

+And so they remained still--held more securely on their knees by that

+one threat than by the pressure of giant hands.

+

+An hour went by.  Through the open window the sound of the murmur of

+voices had given place to renewed clanking of metal chains, to pawing

+of the ground by high-mettled horses, to champing of bits, to

+snorting, groaning and creaking, as the heavy travelling chaise once

+more started on its way.

+

+After that it seemed like eternity.

+

+When once again the silent roads gave forth signs of life and

+movement; when, from the direction of Paris there came the sound of a

+cavalcade, of a number of horses galloping along at breakneck speed;

+when after a while it dawned upon these enchanted statues here that a

+posse of police had arrived at "The Farmer's Paradise," and the men

+were even now dismounting, almost a sigh of relief rose from five

+oppressed breasts.

+

+They knew the game was up; they knew that all that they had staked

+had been swept aside by the ruthless, unerring hand of the man who

+had terrorised and cowed and bent them to his will.

+

+Constance de Plélan was resting against the door in a state of

+semi-consciousness.  Two or three minutes later the landlord, who,

+acting under the orders given him by the secret agent, had gone to

+meet the posse of police on the road and guided them to his house,

+now led them to the back entrance of the coffee-room.  The arrest of

+M. de Trévargan and the Chouans was an easy matter.  They were, in

+fact, too numb and dazed to resist.

+

+All five were tried for the murder of Hector Duroy, the police

+messenger, and for an attempted outrage against the person of the

+Emperor, and all five were condemned to penal servitude for life.  At

+the Restoration, however, M. de Trévargan was publicly absolved of

+participation in the murder, and honoured by the King for having made

+such a bold, if unsuccessful, attempt to "remove" the Corsican

+usurper.

+

+But Constance de Plélan was never brought to trial.  Powerful

+influences were said to have saved her.

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN GREY ***

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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Man in Grey, by Baroness Orczy

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+<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The man in grey, by Baroness Emmuska Orczy</p>

+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>

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+

+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The man in grey</p>

+<p style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:0; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:1em;'>Being episodes of the Chovan conspiracies in Normandy during the First Empire.</p>

+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Baroness Emmuska Orczy</p>

+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 25, 2022 [eBook #68172]<br />[Last updated: July 3, 2022]</p>

+<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p>

+  <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Al Haines</p>

+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN GREY ***</div>

+

+<h1>

+<br /><br />

+  The Man In Grey<br />

+</h1>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<p class="t3">

+  Being Episodes of the Chovan Conspiracies in<br />

+  Normandy During the First Empire.<br />

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<p class="t2">

+  By BARONESS ORCZY<br />

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<p class="t3">

+  AUTHOR OF<br />

+  "Lord Tony's Wife," "Leatherface"<br />

+  "The Bronze Eagle," etc.<br />

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p class="t3">

+  A. L. BURT COMPANY<br />

+  Publishers New York<br />

+</p>

+

+<p class="t4">

+  Published by arrangement with GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY<br />

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p class="t4">

+  <i>Copyright, 1918,<br />

+  By George H. Doran Company</i><br />

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<p class="t4">

+  <i>Printed in the United States of America</i><br />

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p class="t3b">

+CONTENTS

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#proem">PROEM</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent" style="font-size: 80%">

+CHAPTER

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap01">I Silver-Leg</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap02">II The Spaniard</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap03">III The Mystery of Marie Vaillant</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap04">IV The Emeralds of Mademoiselle Philippa</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap05">V The Bourbon Prince</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap06">VI The Mystery of a Woman's Heart</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap07">VII The League of Knaves</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap08">VIII The Arrow Poison</a>

+</p>

+

+<p class="noindent">

+<a href="#chap09">IX The Last Adventure</a>

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p class="t2">

+<a id="proem"></a>

+THE MAN IN GREY

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h3>

+PROEM

+</h3>

+

+<p>

+It has been a difficult task to piece together the

+fragmentary documents which alone throw a light&mdash;dim

+and flickering at the best&mdash;upon that mysterious

+personality known to the historians of the Napoleonic

+era as the Man in Grey.  So very little is known about

+him.  Age, appearance, domestic circumstances,

+everything pertaining to him has remained a matter

+of conjecture&mdash;even his name!  In the reports sent

+by the all-powerful Minister to the Emperor he is

+invariably spoken of as "The Man in Grey."  Once

+only does Fouché refer to him as "Fernand."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Strange and mysterious creature!  Nevertheless,

+he played an important part&mdash;<i>the</i> most important,

+perhaps&mdash;in bringing to justice some of those reckless

+criminals who, under the cloak of Royalist convictions

+and religious and political aims, spent their time in

+pillage, murder and arson.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Strange and mysterious creatures, too, these men

+so aptly named Chouans&mdash;that is, "chats-huants";

+screech-owls&mdash;since they were a terror by night and

+disappeared within their burrows by day.  A world of

+romance lies buried within the ruins of the châteaux

+which gave them shelter&mdash;Tournebut, Bouvesse,

+Donnai, Plélan.  A world of mystery encompasses the

+names of their leaders and, above all, those of the

+women&mdash;ladies of high degree and humble peasants

+alike&mdash;often heroic, more often misguided, who supplied

+the intrigue, the persistence, the fanatical hatred

+which kept the fire of rebellion smouldering and

+spluttering even while it could not burst into actual

+flame.  D'Aché, Cadoudal, Frotté, Armand le Chevallier,

+Marquise de Combray, Mme. Aquet de Férolles&mdash;the

+romance attaching to these names pales beside

+that which clings to the weird anonymity of

+their henchmen&mdash;"Dare-Death," "Hare-Lip,"

+"Fear-Nought," "Silver-Leg," and so on.  Theirs were the

+hands that struck whilst their leaders planned&mdash;they

+were the screech-owls who for more than twenty years

+terrorised the western provinces of France and, in

+the name of God and their King, committed every

+crime that could besmirch the Cause which they

+professed to uphold.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Whether they really aimed at the restoration of

+the Bourbon kings and at bolstering up the fortunes

+of an effete and dispossessed monarchy with money

+wrung from peaceable citizens, or whether they were

+a mere pack of lawless brigands made up of deserters

+from the army and fugitives from conscription, of

+felons and bankrupt aristocrats, will for ever remain

+a bone of contention between the apologists of the old

+régime and those of the new.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+With partisanship in those strangely obscure

+though comparatively recent episodes of history we

+have nothing to do.  Facts alone&mdash;undeniable and

+undenied&mdash;must be left to speak for themselves.  It

+was but meet that these men&mdash;amongst whom were to

+be found the bearers of some of the noblest names in

+France&mdash;should be tracked down and brought to justice

+by one whose personality has continued to be as

+complete an enigma as their own.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap01"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER I

+<br /><br />

+SILVER-LEG

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+"Forward now!  And at foot-pace, mind, to the

+edge of the wood&mdash;or&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The ominous click of a pistol completed the

+peremptory command.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Old Gontran, the driver, shook his wide shoulders

+beneath his heavy caped coat and gathered the reins

+once more in his quivering hands; the door of the

+coach was closed with a bang; the postilion scrambled

+into the saddle; only the passenger who had so

+peremptorily been ordered down from the box-seat

+beside the driver had not yet climbed back into his

+place.  Well! old Gontran was not in a mood to fash

+about the passengers.  His horses, worried by the

+noise, the shouting, the click of firearms and the

+rough handling meted out to them by strange hands in

+the darkness, were very restive.  They would have

+liked to start off at once at a brisk pace so as to

+leave these disturbers of their peace as far behind

+them as possible, but Gontran was holding them in

+with a firm hand and they had to walk&mdash;walk!&mdash;along

+this level bit of road, with the noisy enemy still

+present in their rear.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The rickety old coach gave a lurch and started on

+its way; the clanking of loose chains, the grinding of

+the wheels in the muddy roads, the snorting and

+travail of the horses as they finally settled again into

+their collars, drowned the coachman's muttered

+imprecations.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A fine state of things, forsooth!" he growled to

+himself more dejectedly than savagely.  "What the

+Emperor's police are up to no one knows.  That such

+things can happen is past belief.  Not yet six o'clock

+in the afternoon, and Alençon less than five kilomètres

+in front of us."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But the passenger who, on the box-seat beside him,

+had so patiently and silently listened to old Gontran's

+florid loquacity during the early part of the journey,

+was no longer there to hear these well-justified

+lamentations.  No doubt he had taken refuge with his

+fellow-sufferers down below.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There came no sound from the interior of the coach.

+In the darkness, the passengers&mdash;huddled up against

+one another, dumb with fright and wearied with

+excitement&mdash;had not yet found vent for their outraged

+feelings in whispered words or smothered oaths.  The

+coach lumbered on at foot-pace.  In the affray the

+head-light had been broken; the two lanterns that

+remained lit up fitfully the tall pine trees on either

+side of the road and gave momentary glimpses of a

+mysterious, fairy-like world beyond, through the

+curtain of dead branches and the veil of tiny bare twigs.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Through the fast gathering gloom the circle of

+light toyed with the haze of damp and steam which

+rose from the cruppers of the horses, and issued from

+their snorting nostrils.  From far away came the cry

+of a screech-owl and the call of some night beasts on

+the prowl.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Instinctively, as the road widened out towards the

+edge of the wood, Gontran gave a click with his

+tongue and the horses broke into a leisurely trot.

+Immediately from behind, not forty paces to the rear,

+there came the sharp detonation of a pistol shot.

+The horses, still quivering from past terrors, were

+ready to plunge once more, the wheelers stumbled,

+the leaders reared, and the team would again have

+been thrown into confusion but for the presence of

+mind of the driver and the coolness of the postilion.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh! those accursed brigands!" muttered Gontran

+through his set teeth as soon as order was restored.

+"That's just to remind us that they are on the watch.

+Keep the leaders well in hand, Hector," he shouted

+to the postilion: "don't let them trot till we are well

+out of the wood."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Though he had sworn copiously and plentifully

+at first, when one of those outlaws held a pistol to his

+head whilst the others ransacked the coach of its

+contents and terrorised the passengers, he seemed inclined

+to take the matter philosophically now.  After all,

+he himself had lost nothing; he was too wise a man

+was old Gontran to carry his wages in his breeches

+pocket these days, when those accursed Chouans

+robbed, pillaged and plundered rich and poor alike.

+No!  Gontran flattered himself that the rogues had got

+nothing out of him: he had lost nothing&mdash;not even

+prestige, for it had been a case of twenty to one at

+the least, and the brigands had been armed to the

+teeth.  Who could blame him that in such circumstances

+the sixty-two hundred francs, all in small silver

+and paper money&mdash;which the collector of taxes

+of the Falaise district was sending up to his chief

+at Alençon&mdash;had passed from the boot of the coach

+into the hands of that clever band of rascals?

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Who could blame him? I say.  Surely, not the

+Impérial Government up in Paris who did not know

+how to protect its citizens from the depredations of

+such villains, and had not even succeeded in making

+the high road between Caen and Alençon safe for

+peaceable travellers.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Inside the coach the passengers were at last giving

+tongue to their indignation.  Highway robbery at

+six o'clock in the afternoon, and the evening not a

+very dark one at that!  It were monstrous, outrageous,

+almost incredible, did not the empty pockets

+and ransacked valises testify to the scandalous fact.

+M. Fouché, Duc d'Otrante, was drawing a princely

+salary as Minister of Police, and yet allowed a

+mail-coach to be held up and pillaged&mdash;almost by daylight

+and within five kilomètres of the county town!

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The last half-hour of the eventful journey flew by

+like magic: there was so much to say that it became

+impossible to keep count of time.  Alençon was

+reached before everyone had had a chance of saying

+just what he or she thought of the whole affair, or

+of consigning M. le Duc d'Otrante and all his

+myrmidons to that particular chamber in Hades which was

+most suitable for their crimes.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Outside the "Adam et Ève," where Gontran finally

+drew rein, there was a gigantic clatter and din as the

+passengers tumbled out of the coach, and by the dim

+light of the nearest street lantern tried to disentangle

+their own belongings from the pile of ransacked

+valises which the ostlers had unceremoniously

+tumbled out in a heap upon the cobble stones.  Everyone

+was talking&mdash;no one in especial seemed inclined to

+listen&mdash;anecdotes of former outrages committed by

+the Chouans were bandied to and fro.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Gontran, leaning against the entrance of the inn,

+a large mug of steaming wine in his hand, watched

+with philosophic eye his former passengers, struggling

+with their luggage.  One or two of them were

+going to spend the night at the "Adam et Ève": they

+had already filed past him into the narrow passage

+beyond, where they were now deep in an altercation

+with Gilles Blaise, the proprietor, on the subject of

+the price and the situation of their rooms; others had

+homes or friends in the city, and with their broken

+valises and bundles in their hands could be seen

+making their way up the narrow main street, still

+gesticulating excitedly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It's a shocking business, friend Gontran," quoth

+Gilles Blaise as soon as he had settled with the last

+of his customers.  His gruff voice held a distinct note

+of sarcasm, for he was a powerful fellow and feared

+neither footpads nor midnight robbers, nor any other

+species of those <i>satané</i> Chouans.  "I wonder you did

+not make a better fight for it.  You had three or four

+male passengers aboard&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What could I do?" retorted Gontran irritably.  "I

+had my horses to attend to, and did it, let me tell you,

+with the muzzle of a pistol pressing against my temple."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You didn't see anything of those miscreants?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing.  That is&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Just when I was free once more to gather the

+reins in my hands and the order 'Forward' was given

+by those impudent rascals, he who had spoken the

+order stood for a moment below one of my lanterns."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And you saw him?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"As plainly as I see you&mdash;except his face, for that

+was hidden by the wide brim of his hat and by a

+shaggy beard.  But there is one thing I should know

+him by, if the police ever succeeded in laying hands on

+the rogue."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What is that?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He had only one leg, the other was a wooden one."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Gilles Blaise gave a loud guffaw.  He had never

+heard of a highwayman with a wooden leg before.

+"The rascal cannot run far if the police ever do get

+after him," was his final comment on the situation.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Thereupon Gontran suddenly bethought himself of

+the passenger who had sat on the box-seat beside him

+until those abominable footpads had ordered the poor

+man to get out of their way.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Have you seen anything of him, Hector?" he

+queried of the postilion.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well, now you mention him," replied the young

+man slowly, "I don't remember that I have."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He was not among the lot that came out of the

+coach."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He certainly was not."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I thought when he did not get back to his seat

+beside me, he had lost his nerve and gone inside."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So did I."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well, then?" concluded Gontran.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But the puzzle thus propounded was beyond Hector's

+powers of solution.  He scratched the back of

+his head by way of trying to extract thence a key to

+the enigma.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We must have left him behind," he suggested.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He would have shouted after us if we had,"

+commented Gontran.  "Unless&mdash;&mdash;" he added with

+graphic significance.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Hector shook himself like a dog who has come out

+of the water.  The terror of those footpads and of

+those pistols clicking in the dark, unpleasantly close to

+his head, was still upon him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You don't think&mdash;&mdash;" he murmured through

+chattering teeth.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Gontran shrugged his shoulders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It won't be the first time," he said sententiously,

+"that those miscreants have added murder to their

+other crimes."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Lost one of your passengers, Gontran?" queried

+Gilles Blaise blandly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"If those rogues have murdered him&mdash;&mdash;" quoth

+Gontran with an oath.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then you'd have to make a special declaration

+before the chief commissary of police, and that within

+an hour.  Who was your passenger, Gontran?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I don't know.  A quiet, well-mannered fellow.

+Good company he was, too, during the first part of

+the way."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What was his name?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I can't tell.  I picked him up at Argentan.  The

+box-seat was empty.  No one wanted it, for it was

+raining then.  He paid me his fare and scrambled

+up beside me.  That's all I know about him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What was he like?  Young or old?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I didn't see him very well.  It was already getting

+dark," rejoined Gontran impatiently.  "I couldn't

+look him under the nose, could I?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But <i>sacrebleu</i>!  Monsieur le Commissaire de Police

+will want to know something more than that.  Did

+you at least see how he was dressed?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes," replied Gontran, "as far as I can recollect

+he was dressed in grey."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well, then, friend Gontran," concluded Gilles

+Blaise with a jovial laugh, "you can go at once to

+Monsieur le Commissaire de Police, and you can tell

+him that an industrious Chouan, who has a wooden

+leg and a shaggy beard but whose face you did not

+see, has to the best of your belief murdered an

+unknown passenger whose name, age and appearance

+you know nothing about, but who, as far as you can

+recollect, was dressed in grey&mdash;&mdash;  And we'll see," he

+added with a touch of grim humour, "what Monsieur

+le Commissaire will make out of this valuable

+information."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The men were cowering together in a burrow

+constructed of dead branches and caked mud, with a

+covering of heath and dried twigs.  Their heads were

+close to one another and the dim light of a dark

+lanthorn placed upon the floor threw weird, sharp

+shadows across their eager faces, making them

+appear grotesque and almost ghoulish&mdash;the only

+bright spots in the surrounding gloom.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+One man on hands and knees was crouching by the

+narrow entrance, his keen eyes trying to pierce the

+density of the forest beyond.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The booty was all there, spread out upon the damp

+earth&mdash;small coins and bundles of notes all smeared

+with grease and mud; there were some trinkets, too,

+but of obviously little value: a pair of showy gold

+ear-rings, one or two signets, a heavy watch in a chased

+silver case.  But these had been contemptuously

+swept aside&mdash;it was the money that mattered.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The man with the wooden leg had counted it all

+out and was now putting coins and notes back into

+a large leather wallet.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Six thousand two hundred and forty-seven

+francs," he said quietly, as he drew the thongs of the

+wallet closely together and tied them securely into a

+knot.  "One of the best hauls we've ever had.  'Tis

+Madame who will be pleased."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Our share will have to be paid out of that first,"

+commented one of his companions.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes, yes!" quoth the other lightly.  "Madame

+will see to it.  She always does.  How many of you

+are there?" he added carelessly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Seven of us all told.  They were a pack of cowards

+in that coach."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well!" concluded the man with the wooden leg,

+"we must leave Madame to settle accounts.  I'd best

+place the money in safety now."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He struggled up into a standing position&mdash;which

+was no easy matter for him with his stump and in the

+restricted space&mdash;and was about to hoist the heavy

+wallet on to his powerful shoulders, when one of his

+mates seized him by the wrist.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hold on, Silver-Leg!" he said roughly, "we'll

+pay ourselves for our trouble first.  Eh, friends?" he

+added, turning to the others.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But before any of them could reply there came a

+peremptory command from the man whom they had

+called "Silver-Leg."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Silence!" he whispered hoarsely.  "There's

+someone moving out there among the trees."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At once the others obeyed, every other thought

+lulled to rest by the sense of sudden danger.  For a

+minute or so every sound was hushed in the narrow

+confines of the lair save the stertorous breathing

+which came from panting throats.  Then the look-out

+man at the entrance whispered under his breath:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I heard nothing."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Something moved, I tell you," rejoined

+Silver-Leg curtly.  "It may only have been a beast on the

+prowl."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But the brief incident had given him the opportunity

+which he required; he had shaken off his

+companion's hold upon his wrist and had slung the wallet

+over his shoulder.  Now he stumped out of the burrow.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Friend Hare-Lip," he said before he went, in the

+same commanding tone wherewith he had imposed

+silence awhile ago on his turbulent mates, "tell

+Monseigneur that it will be 'Corinne' this time, and you,

+Mole-Skin, ask Madame to send Red-Poll over on

+Friday night for the key."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The others growled in assent and followed him out

+of their hiding-place.  One of the men had

+extinguished the lanthorn, and another was hastily

+collecting the trinkets which had so contemptuously

+been swept aside.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hold on, Silver-Leg!" shouted the man who had

+been called Hare-Lip; "short reckonings make long

+friends.  I'll have a couple of hundred francs now,"

+he continued roughly.  "It may be days and weeks

+ere I see Madame again, and by that time God knows

+where the money will be."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But Silver-Leg stumped on in the gloom, paying

+no heed to the peremptory calls of his mates.  It was

+marvellous how fast he contrived to hobble along,

+winding his way in and out in the darkness, among

+the trees, on the slippery carpet of pine needles and

+carrying that heavy wallet&mdash;six thousand two hundred

+francs, most of it in small coin&mdash;upon his back.  The

+others, however, were swift and determined, too.

+Within the next minute or two they had overtaken

+him, and he could no longer evade them; they held

+him tightly, surrounding him on every side and

+clamouring for their share of the spoils.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We'll settle here and now, friend Silver-Leg,"

+said Hare-Lip, who appeared to be the acknowledged

+spokesman of the malcontents.  "Two hundred francs

+for me out of that wallet, if you please, ere you move

+another step, and two hundred for each one of us

+here, or&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The man with the wooden leg had come to a halt,

+but somehow it seemed that he had not done so because

+the others held and compelled him, but because

+he himself had a desire to stand still.  Now when

+Hare-Lip paused, a world of menace in every line of

+his gaunt, quivering body, Silver-Leg laughed with

+gentle irony, as a man would laugh at the impotent

+vapourings of a child.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Or what, my good Hare-Lip?" he queried slowly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then as the other instinctively lowered his gaze

+and mumbled something between his teeth,

+Silver-Leg shrugged his shoulders and said with kind

+indulgence, still as if he were speaking to a child:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Madame will settle, my friend.  Do not worry.

+It is bad to worry.  You remember Fear-Nought: he

+took to worrying&mdash;just as you are doing now&mdash;wanted

+to be paid out of his turn, or more than his

+share, I forget which.  But you remember him?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I do," muttered Hare-Lip with a savage oath.

+"Fear-Nought was tracked down by the police and

+dragged to Vincennes, or Force, or Bicêtre&mdash;we never

+knew."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+To the guillotine, my good Hare-Lip," rejoined

+Silver-Leg blandly, "along with some other very

+brave Chouans like yourselves, who also had given

+their leaders some considerable trouble."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Betrayed by you," growled Hare-Lip menacingly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Punished&mdash;that's all," concluded Silver-Leg as he

+once more turned to go.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Treachery is a game at which more than one can

+play."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The stakes are high.  And only one man can win,"

+remarked Silver-Leg dryly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And one man must lose," shouted Hare-Lip, now

+beside himself with rage, "and that one shall be you

+this time, my fine Silver-Leg.  À moi, my mates!"

+he called to his companions.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And in a moment the men fell on Silver-Leg with

+the vigour born of terror and greed, and for the first

+moment or two of their desperate tussle it seemed as

+if the man with the wooden leg must succumb to the

+fury of his assailants.  Darkness encompassed them

+all round, and the deep silence which dwells in the

+heart of the woods.  And in the darkness and the

+silence these men fought&mdash;and fought desperately&mdash;for

+the possession of a few hundred francs just filched

+at the muzzle of a pistol from a few peaceable

+travellers.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Pistols of course could not be used; the police

+patrols might not be far away, and so they fought on

+in silence, grim and determined, one man against half

+a dozen, and that one halt, and weighted with the

+spoils.  But he had the strength of a giant, and with

+his back against a stately fir tree he used the heavy

+wallet as a flail, keeping his assailants at arm's

+length with the menace of death-dealing blows.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then, suddenly, from far away, even through the

+dull thuds of this weird and grim struggle, there came

+the sound of men approaching&mdash;the click of sabres,

+the tramp and snorting of horses, the sense of men

+moving rapidly even if cautiously through the gloom.

+Silver-Leg was the first to hear it.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hush!" he cried suddenly, and as loudly as he

+dared, "the police!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Again, with that blind instinct born of terror and

+ever-present danger, the others obeyed.  The common

+peril had as swiftly extinguished the quarrel as greed

+of gain had fanned it into flame.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The cavalcade was manifestly drawing nearer.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Disperse!" commanded Silver-Leg under his

+breath.  "Clear out of the wood, but avoid the tracks

+which lead out of it, lest it is surrounded.  Remember

+'Corinne' for Monseigneur, and that Red-Poll can

+have the key for Madame on Friday."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Once again he had made use of his opportunity.

+Before the others had recovered from their sudden

+fright, he had quietly stumped away, and in less than

+five seconds was lost in the gloom among the trees.

+For a moment or two longer an ear, attuned by terror

+or the constant sense of danger, might have perceived

+the dull, uneven thud of his wooden leg against the

+soft carpet of pine needles, but even this soon died

+away in the distance, and over the kingdom of darkness

+which held sway within the forest there fell once

+more the pall of deathlike silence.  The posse of

+police in search of human quarry had come and gone,

+the stealthy footsteps of tracked criminals had ceased

+to resound from tree to tree; all that could be heard

+was the occasional call of a night-bird, or the furtive

+movement of tiny creatures of the wild.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Silence hung over the forest for close upon an

+hour.  Then from behind a noble fir a dark figure

+detached itself and more stealthily, more furtively

+than any tiny beast it stole along the track which

+leads to the main road.  The figure, wrapped in a

+dark mantle, glided determinedly along despite the

+difficulties of the narrow track, complicated now by

+absolute darkness.  Hours went by ere it reached

+the main road, on the very spot where some few

+hours ago the mail-coach had been held up and

+robbed by a pack of impudent thieves.  Here the

+figure halted for awhile, and just then the heavy

+rain clouds, which had hung over the sky the whole

+evening, slowly parted and revealed the pale waning

+moon.  A soft light gradually suffused the sky and

+vanquished the impenetrable darkness.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Not a living soul was in sight save that solitary

+figure by the roadside&mdash;a man, to all appearances,

+wearing a broad-brimmed hat casting a deep shadow

+over his face; the waning moon threw a cold light

+upon the grey mantle which he wore.  On ahead the

+exquisite tower of the church of Notre Dame

+appeared vague and fairylike against the deep sapphire

+of the horizon far away.  Then the solitary figure

+started to walk briskly in the direction of the city.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+M. le Procureur Impérial, sitting in his comfortable

+armchair in the well-furnished apartment which

+he occupied in the Rue St. Blaise at Alençon, was

+surveying his visitor with a quizzical and questioning

+gaze.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+On the desk before him lay the letter which that

+same visitor had presented to him the previous

+evening&mdash;a letter penned by no less a hand than that of

+M. le Duc d'Otrante himself, Minister of Police, and

+recommending the bearer of this august autograph to

+the good will of M. de Saint-Tropèze, Procureur

+Impérial at the tribunal of Alençon.  Nay, more!

+M. le Ministre in that same autograph letter gave orders,

+in no grudging terms, that the bearer was to be

+trusted implicitly, and that every facility was to be

+given him in the execution of his duty: said duty

+consisting in the tracking down and helping to bring

+to justice of as many as possible of those saucy

+Chouans who, not content with terrorising the

+countryside, were up in arms against the government of

+His Impérial Majesty.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A direct encroachment this on the rights and

+duties of M. le Procureur Impérial; no wonder he

+surveyed the quiet, insignificant-looking individual

+before him, with a not altogether benevolent air.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le préfet sitting on the opposite side of the

+high mantelpiece was discreetly silent until his chief

+chose to speak.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After a brief while the Procureur Impérial

+addressed his visitor.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monsieur le Duc d'Otrante," he said in that dry,

+supercilious tone which he was wont to affect when

+addressing his subordinates, "speaks very highly of

+you, Monsieur&mdash;Monsieur&mdash;  By the way, the

+Minister, I perceive, does not mention your name.

+What is your name, Monsieur?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Fernand, Monsieur le Procureur," replied the man.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Fernand?  Fernand what?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing, Monsieur le Procureur.  Only Fernand."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The little Man in Grey spoke very quietly in a

+dull, colourless tone which harmonised with the

+neutral tone of his whole appearance.  For a moment

+it seemed as if a peremptory or sarcastic retort

+hovered on M. le Procureur's lips.  The man's

+quietude appeared like an impertinence.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Saint-Tropèze belonged to the old <i>Noblesse</i>.

+He had emigrated at the time of the Revolution and

+spent a certain number of years in England, during

+which time a faithful and obscure steward administered

+his property and saved it from confiscation.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The blandishments of the newly-crowned Emperor

+had lured M. de Saint-Tropèze back to France.

+Common sense and ambition had seemingly got the

+better of his antiquated ideals, whilst Napoleon was

+only too ready to surround himself with as many

+scions of the ancient nobility as were willing to swear

+allegiance to him.  He welcomed Henri de Saint-Tropèze

+and showered dignities upon him with a

+lavish hand; but the latter never forgot that the

+Government he now served was an upstart one, and

+he never departed from that air of condescension

+and high breeding which kept him aloof from his

+more plebeian subordinates and which gave him an

+authority and an influence in the province which they

+themselves could never hope to attain.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le préfet had coughed discreetly.  The warning

+was well-timed.  He knew every word of the

+Minister's letter by heart, and one phrase in it might,

+he feared, have escaped M. le Procureur's notice.  It

+ordered that the bearer of the Ministerial credentials

+was to be taken entirely on trust&mdash;no questions were

+to be asked of him save those to which he desired to

+make reply.  To disregard even the vaguest hint

+given by the all-powerful Minister of Police was, to

+say the least, hazardous.  Fortunately M. de

+Saint-Tropèze understood the warning.  He pressed his

+thin lips tightly together and did not pursue the

+subject of his visitor's name any farther.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You propose setting to work immediately,

+Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;Fernand?" he asked with frigid hauteur.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"With your permission, Monsieur le Procureur,"

+replied the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"In the matter of the highway robbery the other

+night, for instance?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"In that and other matters, Monsieur le Procureur."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You were on the coach which was attacked by

+those damnable Chouans, I believe?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes, Monsieur le Procureur.  I picked up the

+coach at Argentan and sat next to the driver until

+the vehicle was ordered to halt."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then what happened?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A man scrambled up on the box-seat beside me,

+and holding a pistol to my head commanded me to

+descend."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And you descended?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes," replied the man quietly.  He paused a

+moment and then added by way of an explanation:

+"I hurt my knee coming down; the pain caused me

+to lose some measure of consciousness.  When I

+returned to my senses, I found myself on the roadside&mdash;all

+alone&mdash;there was no sign either of the coach or

+of the footpads."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"An unfortunate beginning," said M. de Saint-Tropèze

+with a distinct note of sarcasm in his voice,

+"for a secret agent of His Majesty's Police sent down

+to track some of the most astute rascals known in the

+history of crime."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I hope to do better in the future, Monsieur le

+Procureur," rejoined the Man in Grey simply.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Saint-Tropèze made no further remark, and

+for a moment or two there was silence in the room.

+The massive Louis XIV clock ticked monotonously;

+M. de Saint-Tropèze seemed to be dissociating his

+well-bred person from the sordid and tortuous affairs

+of the Police.  The Man in Grey appeared to be

+waiting until he was spoken to again, and M. le préfet

+had a vague feeling that the silence was becoming

+oppressive, as if some unspoken enmity lurked

+between the plebeian and obscure police agent and the

+highly connected and influential Procurator of His

+Majesty the Emperor.  He threw himself blandly

+into the breach.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Of course, of course," he said genially.  "You,

+Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;Fernand, are lucky to have escaped

+with your life.  Those rascals stick at nothing

+nowadays.  The driver of the coach fully believed that

+you had been murdered.  I suppose you saw nothing

+of the rogue?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But this was evidently not one of the questions

+which the Man in Grey had any desire to answer, and

+M. Vimars did not insist.  He turned obsequiously

+to M. le Procureur.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The driver," he said, "spoke of one having a

+wooden leg.  But the worthy Gontran was very vague

+in all his statements.  I imagine that he and all the

+male passengers must have behaved like cowards or

+the rascals would never have got so clean away."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The night was very dark, Monsieur le Préfet,"

+observed the Man in Grey dryly, "and the Chouans

+were well armed."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Quite so," here broke in M. le Procureur

+impatiently, "and no object can be served now in

+recriminations.  See to it, my good Vimars," he continued

+in a tone that was still slightly sarcastic but entirely

+peremptory, "that the Minister's orders are obeyed

+to the last letter.  Place yourself and all your

+personnel and the whole of the local police at

+Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;Fernand's disposal, and do not let me hear any

+more complaints of inefficiency or want of good will

+on your part until those scoundrels have been laid by

+the "heel."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+M. de Saint-Tropèze paused after his peroration.

+With an almost imperceptible nod of his handsome

+head he indicated both to his visitor and to his

+subordinate that the audience was at an end.  But M. le

+préfet, though he knew himself to be dismissed,

+appeared reluctant to go.  There was something which

+M. le Procureur had forgotten, and the worthy préfet

+was trying to gather up courage to jog his memory.

+He had a mightily wholesome respect for his chief,

+had M. Vimars, for the Procureur was not only a

+man of vast erudition and of the bluest blood, but

+one who was held in high consideration by His

+Majesty's government in Paris, ay, and, so 'twas said,

+by His Majesty himself.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+So M. Vimars hummed and hawed and gave one

+or two discreet little coughs, whilst M. le Procureur

+with obvious impatience was drumming his well-manicured

+nails against the arm of his chair.  At last

+he said testily:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have something you wish to say to me, my

+good Monsieur Vimars?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes, Monsieur le Procureur," hazarded the préfet

+in reply, "that is&mdash;there is the matter of the

+burglary&mdash;and&mdash;and the murder last night&mdash;that is&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le Procureur frowned: "Those are local matters,"

+he said loftily, "which concern the commissary

+of police, my good Vimars, and are beneath the

+notice of Monsieur le Ministre's secret agent."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The préfet, conscious of a reprimand, blushed to

+the very roots of his scanty hair.  He rose with some

+haste and the obvious desire to conceal his discomfiture

+in a precipitate retreat, when the Man in Grey

+interposed in his quiet, even monotone:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing is beneath the notice of a secret agent,

+Monsieur le Procureur," he said; "and everything

+which is within the province of the commissary of

+police concerns the representative of the Minister."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Vimars literally gasped at this presumption.

+How anyone dared thus to run counter to M. le

+Procureur's orders simply passed his comprehension.

+He looked with positive horror on the meagre,

+insignificant personage who even now was meeting

+M. le Procureur's haughty, supercilious glance without

+any sign of contrition or of shame.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Saint-Tropèze had raised his aristocratic

+eyebrows, and tried to wither the audacious malapert

+with his scornful glance, but the little Man in Grey

+appeared quite unconscious of the enormity of his

+offence; he stood by&mdash;as was his wont&mdash;quietly and

+silently, his eyes fixed inquiringly on the préfet, who

+was indeed hoping that the floor would open

+conveniently and swallow him up ere he was called upon

+to decide whether he should obey the orders of his

+official chief, or pay heed to the commands of the

+accredited agent of M. the Minister of Police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But M. le Procureur decided the question himself

+and in the only way possible.  The Minister's letter

+with its peremptory commands lay there before him&mdash;the

+secret agent of His Majesty's Police was to be

+aided and obeyed implicitly in all matters relating

+to his work; there was nothing to be done save to

+comply with those orders as graciously as he could,

+and without further loss of dignity.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have heard the wishes of Monsieur le Ministre's

+agent, my good Vimars," he said coldly; "so

+I pray you speak to him of the matter which

+exercises your mind, for of a truth I am not well

+acquainted with all the details."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Whereupon he fell to contemplating the exquisite

+polish on his almond-shaped nails.  Though the

+over-bearing little upstart in the grey coat could command

+the obsequiousness of such men as that fool Vimars,

+he must be shown at the outset that his insolence

+would find no weak spot in the armour of M. de

+Saint-Tropèze's lofty self-respect.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh! it is very obvious," quoth the préfet, whose

+only desire was to conciliate both parties, "that the

+matter is not one which affects the graver question of

+those <i>satané</i> Chouans.  At the same time both the

+affairs of last night are certainly mysterious and

+present some unusual features which have greatly

+puzzled our exceedingly able commissary of police.

+It seems that in the early hours of this morning the

+library of Monseigneur the Constitutional Bishop of

+Alençon was broken into by thieves.  Fortunately

+nothing of any value was stolen, and this part of the

+affair appeared simple enough, until an hour or two

+later a couple of peasants, who were walking from

+Lonrai towards the city, came across the body of a

+man lying face upwards by the roadside.  The man

+was quite dead&mdash;had been dead some time apparently.

+The two louts hurried at once to the commissariat of

+police and made their depositions.  Monsieur Lefèvre,

+our chief commissary, proceeded to the scene of the

+crime; he has now the affair in hand."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The préfet had perforce to pause in his narrative

+for lack of breath.  He had been talking volubly

+and uninterruptedly, and indeed he had no cause to

+complain of lack of attention on the part of his hearer.

+M. le Ministre's secret agent sat absolutely still,

+his deep-set eyes fixed intently upon the narrator.

+Alone M. le Procureur Impérial maintained his

+attitude of calm disdain.  He still appeared deeply

+absorbed in the contemplation of his finger-nails.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"At first," resumed the préfet after his dramatic

+pause, "these two crimes, the greater and the less,

+seemed in no way connected, and personally I am not

+sure even now that they are.  A certain air of

+similarity and mystery, however, clings to them both,

+for in both cases the crimes appear at the outset so

+very purposeless.  In the case of the burglary in

+Monseigneur's palace the thieves were obviously

+scared before they could lay hands on any valuables,

+but even so there were some small pieces of silver

+lying about which they might have snatched up, even

+if they were in a vast hurry to get away; whilst in

+the case of the murder, though the victim's silver

+watch was stolen and his pockets ransacked, the

+man was obviously poor and not worth knocking down."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And is the identity of the victim known to the

+police?" here asked the Man in Grey in his dull,

+colourless voice.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Indeed it is," replied the préfet; "the man was

+well known throughout the neighbourhood.  He was

+valet to Madame la Marquise de Plélan."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le Procureur looked up suddenly from his

+engrossing occupation.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ah!" he said, "I did not know that.  Lefèvre did

+not tell me that he had established the identity of

+the victim."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He sighed and once more gazed meditatively upon

+his finger-nails.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Poor Maxence!  I have often seen him at Plélan.

+There never was a more inoffensive creature.  What

+motive could the brute have for such a villainous

+murder?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The préfet shrugged his shoulders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Some private quarrel, I imagine," he said.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A love affair?" queried the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh no, Monsieur.  Maxence was the wrong side

+of fifty."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A smart man?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Anything but smart&mdash;a curious, shock-headed,

+slouchy-looking person with hair as red as a fox's."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Just for the space of one second the colourless

+eyes of the Man in Grey lit up with a quick and

+intense light; it seemed for the moment as if an

+exclamation difficult to suppress would escape his thin,

+bloodless lips, and his whole insignificant figure

+appeared to be quivering with a sudden, uncontrollable

+eagerness.  But this departure from his usual quietude

+was so momentary that M. le préfet failed to notice

+it, whilst M. le Procureur remained as usual

+uninterested and detached.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Poor Maxence!" resumed M. Vimars after awhile.

+"He had, as far as is known, not a single enemy in

+the world.  He was devoted to Madame la Marquise

+and enjoyed her complete confidence; he was not

+possessed of any savings, nor was he of a quarrelsome

+disposition.  He can't have had more than a few

+francs about his person when he was so foully waylaid

+and murdered.  Indeed, it is because the crime is

+ostensibly so wanton that the police at once dismissed

+the idea that those abominable Chouans had anything

+to do with it."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Is the road where the body was found very lonely

+of nights?" asked the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It is a lonely road," replied the préfet, "and never

+considered very safe, as it is a favourite haunt of the

+Chouans&mdash;but it is the direct road between Alençon

+and Mayenne, through Lonrai and Plélan."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Is it known what business took the confidential

+valet of Madame la Marquise de Plélan on that lonely

+road in the middle of the night?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It has not been definitely established," here broke

+in M. le Procureur curtly, "that the murder was

+committed in the middle of the night."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I thought&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The body was found in the early morning,"

+continued M. de Saint-Tropèze with an air of cold

+condescension; "the man had been dead some hours&mdash;the

+leech has not pronounced how many.  Maxence had

+no doubt many friends or relations in Alençon: it is

+presumed that he spent the afternoon in the city and

+was on his way back to Plélan in the evening when

+he was waylaid and murdered."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That presumption is wrong," said the Man in

+Grey quietly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Wrong?" retorted M. le Procureur frigidly.

+"What do you mean?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I was walking home from Plélan towards Alençon

+in the small hours of the morning.  There was

+no dead body lying in the road then."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The body lay by the roadside, half in the ditch,"

+said M. le Procureur dryly, "you may have missed

+seeing it."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Possibly," rejoined the Man in Grey equally

+dryly, "but unlikely."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Were you looking out for it then?" riposted the

+Procureur.  But no sooner were the words out of his

+mouth than he realised his mistake.  The Man in

+Grey made no reply; he literally appeared to withdraw

+himself into an invisible shell, to efface himself

+yet further within a colourless atmosphere, out of

+which it was obviously unwise to try to drag him.

+M. le Procureur pressed his thin lips together,

+impatient with himself at an unnecessary loss of

+dignity.  As usual M. le préfet was ready to throw

+himself into the breach.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am sure," he said with his usual volubility,

+"that we are wasting Monsieur le Procureur's

+valuable time now.  I can assure you, Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;Fernand,

+that our chief commissary of police can

+give you all the details of the crime&mdash;if, indeed, they

+interest you.  Shall we go now?&mdash;that is," he added,

+with that same feeling of hesitation which overcame

+him every time he encountered the secret agent's calm,

+inquiring look, "that is&mdash;er&mdash;unless there's anything

+else you wish to ask of Monsieur le Procureur."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I wish to know with regard to the murder, what

+was the cause of death," said the Man in Grey quietly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A pistol shot, sir," replied M. de Saint-Tropèze

+coldly, "right between the shoulder blades, delivered

+at short range apparently, seeing that the man's coat

+was charred and blackened with powder.  The leech

+avers that he must have fallen instantly."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Shot between the shoulders, and yet found lying

+on his back," murmured the Man in Grey.  "And

+was nothing at all found upon the body that would

+give a clue to the motive of the crime?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing, my dear sir," broke in the préfet glibly,

+"nothing at all.  In his breeches' pocket there was a

+greasy and crumpled sheet of letter-paper, which on

+examination was found to be covered with a row

+of numerals all at random&mdash;like a child's exercise-book."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Could I see the paper?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It is at the commissariat of police," explained the

+Procureur curtly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Where I can easily find it, of course," concluded

+the Man in Grey with calm decision.  "In the

+meanwhile perhaps Monsieur le préfet will be kind enough

+to tell me something more about the burglary at the

+Archbishop's Palace."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There's very little to tell, my good Monsieur

+Fernand," said M. Vimars, who, far more conscious

+than was the stranger of the Procureur's growing

+impatience, would have given a month's salary for

+the privilege of making himself scarce.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"With what booty did the burglars make off?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"With nothing of any value; and what they did

+get they dropped in their flight.  The police found a

+small silver candlestick, and a brass paper weight in

+the street close to the gate of Monseigneur's Palace,

+also one or two books which no doubt the burglars

+had seized in the hope that they were valuable

+editions."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing, then, has actually been stolen?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing.  I believe that Monseigneur told the

+chief commissary that one or two of his books are

+still missing, but none of any value.  So you see, my

+good Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;Fernand," concluded M. Vimars

+blandly, "that the whole matter is quite beneath your

+consideration.  It is a case of a vulgar murder with

+only a private grudge by way of motive&mdash;and an

+equally vulgar attempt at burglary, fortunately with

+no evil results.  Our local police&mdash;though none too

+efficient, alas! in these strenuous days, when His

+Majesty's army claims the flower of our manhood&mdash;is

+well able to cope with these simple matters, which,

+of course, must occur in every district from time to

+time.  You may take it from me&mdash;and I have plenty

+of experience, remember&mdash;that the matter has no

+concern whatever with the Chouans and with your

+mission here.  You can, quite conscientiously, devote the

+whole of your time to the case of the highway robbery

+the other night, and the recovery of the sixty-two

+hundred francs which were stolen from the coach,

+as well as the tracking of that daring rascal with the

+wooden leg."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Satisfied with his peroration, M. Vimars at last

+felt justified in moving towards the door.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I don't think," he concluded with suave obsequiousness,

+"that we need take up any more of Monsieur

+le Procureur's valuable time, and with his gracious

+permission&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+To his intense relief, M. Vimars perceived that the

+Man in Grey was at last prepared to take his leave.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Saint-Tropèze, plainly at the end of his

+patience, delighted to be rid of his tiresome visitors,

+at once became pleasantly condescending.  To the

+secret agent of His Majesty's Police he gave a quite

+gracious nod, and made the worthy préfet proud and

+happy by whispering in his ear:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do not allow that little busybody to interfere

+with you too much, my dear Monsieur Vimars.  I

+am prepared to back your skill and experience in such

+matters against any young shrimp from Paris."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The nod of understanding which accompanied this

+affable speech sent M. Vimars into an empyrean of

+delight.  After which M. le Procureur finally bowed

+his visitors out of the room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The little Man in Grey walked in silence beside

+M. Vimars along the narrow network of streets which

+lead to the Hôtel de Ville.  The préfet had a suite

+of apartments assigned to him in the building, and

+once he was installed in his own well-furnished

+library, untrammelled by the presence of his chief, and

+with the accredited agent of His Majesty's Minister

+sitting opposite to him, he gave full rein to his own

+desire for perfect amity with so important a personage.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He began by a lengthy disquisition on the merits

+of M. le Procureur Impérial.  Never had there been

+a man of such consideration and of such high culture

+in the city.  M. de Saint-Tropèze was respected alike

+by the municipal officials, by the townspeople and by

+the landed aristocracy of the neighbourhood&mdash;and he

+was a veritable terror to the light-fingered gentry, as

+well as to the gangs of Chouans that infested the

+district.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey listened to the fulsome panegyric

+with his accustomed deep attention.  He asked a few

+questions as to M. de Saint-Tropèze's domestic

+circumstances.  "Was he married?" "Was he wealthy?"

+"Did he keep up a luxurious mode of life?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+To all these questions M. Vimars was only too

+ready to give reply.  No, Monsieur le Procureur was

+not married.  He was presumably wealthy, for he

+kept up a very elegant bachelor establishment in the

+Rue St. Blaise with just a few old and confidential

+servants.  The sources of his income were not known,

+as Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze was very proud and

+reserved, and would not condescend to speak of his

+affairs with anyone.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Next the worthy préfet harked back, with wonted

+volubility, to the double outrage of the previous night,

+and rehearsed at copious length every circumstance

+connected with it.  Strangely enough, the secret agent,

+who had been sent by the Minister all the way from

+Paris in order to track down that particular band

+of Chouans, appeared far more interested in the

+murder of Mme. de Plélan's valet and the theft of a

+few books out of Monseigneur the Bishop's library

+than he was in the daring robbery of the mail-coach.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You knew the unfortunate Maxence, did you not,

+Monsieur le Préfet?" he asked.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why, yes," replied M. Vimars, "for I have often

+paid my respects to Madame la Marquise de Plélan."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What was he like?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You can go over to the commissariat of police

+and see what's left of the poor man," rejoined the

+préfet, with a feeble attempt at grim humour.  "The

+most remarkable feature about him was his red

+hair&mdash;an unusual colour among our Normandy peasantry."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Later M. Vimars put the finishing touch to his

+amiability by placing his services unreservedly at the

+disposal of M. le Ministre's agent.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Is there anything that I can do for you, my good

+Monsieur Fernand?" he asked urbanely.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Not for the moment, I thank you," replied Fernand.

+"I will send to you if I require any assistance

+from the police.  But in the meanwhile," he added, "I

+see that you are something of a scholar.  I should

+be greatly obliged if you could lend me a book to

+while away some of my idle hours."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A book?  With pleasure!" quoth M. Vimars, not

+a little puzzled.  "But how did you know?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That you were a scholar?" rejoined the other

+with a vague smile.  "It was a fairly simple guess,

+seeing your well-stocked cases of books around me,

+and that a well-fingered volume protrudes even now

+from your coat-pocket."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ah!  Ah!" retorted the préfet ingenuously, "I see

+that truly you are a great deal sharper, Monsieur

+Fernand, than you appear to be.  But in any case," he

+added, "I shall be charmed to be of service to you in

+the matter of my small library.  I flatter myself that it

+is both comprehensive and select&mdash;so if there is

+anything you especially desire to read&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I thank you, Sir," said the Man in Grey; "as a

+matter of fact I have never had the opportunity of

+reading Madame de Staël's latest work, <i>Corinne</i>, and

+if you happen to possess a copy&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"With the greatest of pleasure, my dear sir,"

+exclaimed the préfet.  He went at once to one of his

+well-filled bookcases, and after a brief search found

+the volume and handed it with a smile to his visitor.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It seems a grave pity," he added, "that no new

+edition of this remarkable work has ever been printed.

+But Madame de Staël is not in favour with His

+Majesty, which no doubt accounts for the publisher's

+lack of enterprise."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A few more words of polite farewell: after which

+M. Vimars took final leave of the Minister's agent.

+The little Man in Grey glided out of the stately apartment

+like a ghost, even his footsteps failing to resound

+along the polished floor.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+V

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Buried in a capacious armchair, beside a cheerfully

+blazing fire, M. le Procureur Impérial had allowed

+the copy of the <i>Moniteur</i> which he had been reading

+to drop from his shapely hands on to the floor.  He

+had closed his eyes and half an hour had gone by in

+peaceful somnolence, even while M. Lefèvre, chief

+commissary of police, was cooling his heels in the

+antechamber, preparatory to being received in

+audience on most urgent business.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le Procureur Impérial never did anything in

+a hurry, and, on principle, always kept a subordinate

+waiting until any officiousness or impertinence which

+might have been lurking in the latter's mind had been

+duly squelched by weariness and sore feet.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+So it was only after he had indulged in a short

+and refreshing nap that M. de Saint-Tropèze rang

+for his servant, and ordered him to introduce

+M. Lefèvre, chief commissary of police.  The latter, a

+choleric, apoplectic, loud-voiced official, entered the

+audience chamber in a distinctly chastened spirit.  He

+had been shown the original letter of credentials sent

+to M. le Procureur by the Minister, and yesterday he

+had caught sight of the small grey-clad figure as it

+flitted noiselessly along the narrow streets of the city.

+And inwardly the brave commissary of police had

+then and there perpetrated an act of high treason, for

+he had sworn at the ineptitude of the grand Ministries

+in Paris, which sent a pack of incompetent agents to

+interfere with those who were capable of dealing with

+their own local affairs.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Monsieur le Procureur Impérial, who no doubt

+sympathised with the worthy man's grievances, was

+inclined to be gracious.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well?  And what is it now, my good Monsieur

+Lefèvre?" he asked as soon as the commissary was

+seated.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"In one moment, Monsieur le Procureur," growled

+Lefèvre.  "First of all, will you tell me what I am to

+do about that secret agent who has come here, I

+suppose, to poke his ugly nose into my affairs?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What you are to do about him?" rejoined M. de

+Saint-Tropèze with a smile.  "I have shown you the

+Minister's letter: he says that we must leave all

+matters in the hands of his accredited agent."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By your leave," quoth Lefèvre wrathfully, "that

+accredited agent might as well be polishing the

+flagstones of the Paris boulevards, for all the good that

+he will do down here."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You think so?" queried M. le Procureur, and

+with a detached air, he fell into his customary

+contemplation of his nails.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And with your permission," continued the

+commissary, "I will proceed with my own investigations

+of the outrages committed by those abominable

+Chouans, for that bundle of conceit will never get the

+hang of the affair."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But the Minister says that we must not interfere.

+We must render all the assistance that we can."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Bah! we'll render assistance when it is needed,"

+retorted Lefèvre captiously.  "But in the meantime I

+am not going to let that wooden-legged scoundrel slip

+through my fingers, to please any grey-coated

+marmoset who thinks he can lord it over me in my own

+district."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Saint-Tropèze appeared interested.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have a clue?" he asked.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"More than that.  I know who killed Maxence."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ah!  You have got the man?  Well done, my

+brave Lefèvre," exclaimed M. le Procureur, without,

+however, a very great show of enthusiasm.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I haven't got him yet," parried Lefèvre.  "But I

+have the description of the rascal.  A little patience

+and I can lay my hands on him&mdash;provided that

+busybody does not interfere."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Who is he, then?" queried M. de Saint-Tropèze.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"One of those damned Chouans."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You are sure?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Absolutely.  All day yesterday I was busy

+interrogating witnesses, who I knew must have been

+along the road between Lonrai and the city in the

+small hours of the morning&mdash;workpeople and so on,

+who go to and from their work every morning of

+their lives.  Well! after a good deal of trouble we

+have been able to establish that the murder was

+actually committed between the hours of five and half-past,

+because although no one appears actually to have

+heard the pistol shot, the people who were on the road

+before five saw nothing suspicious, whilst the two

+louts who subsequently discovered the body actually

+heard the tower clock of Notre Dame striking the

+half-hour at the very time."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well?  And&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No fewer than three of the witnesses state that

+they saw a man with a queer-shaped lip, dressed in

+a ragged coat and breeches, and with stockingless

+feet thrust into sabots, hanging about the road shortly

+before five o'clock.  They gave him a wide berth, for

+they took him to be a Chouan on the prowl."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why should a Chouan trouble to kill a wretched

+man who has not a five-franc piece to bless himself

+with?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That's what we've got to find out," rejoined the

+commissary of police, "and we will find it out, too,

+as soon as we've got the ruffian and the rest of the

+gang.  I know the rogue, mind you&mdash;the man with

+the queer lip.  I have had my eye on him for some

+time.  Oh! he belongs to the gang, I'll stake mine

+oath on it: a youngish man who should be in the

+army and is obviously a deserter&mdash;a ne'er-do-well who

+never does a day's honest work and disappears o'

+nights.  What his name is and where he comes from

+I do not know.  But through him we'll get the others,

+including the chief of the gang&mdash;the man with the

+wooden leg."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"God grant you may succeed!" ejaculated M. le

+Procureur sententiously.  "These perpetual outrages

+in one's district are a fearful strain on one's nerves.

+By the way," he added, as he passed his shapely hand

+over a number of miscellaneous papers which lay in

+a heap upon his desk, "I don't usually take heed of

+anonymous letters, but one came to me this morning

+which might be worth your consideration."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He selected a tattered, greasy paper from the heap,

+fingering it gingerly, and having carefully unfolded it

+passed it across the table to the chief commissary of

+police.  Lefèvre smoothed the paper out: the writing

+was almost illegible, and grease and dirt had helped

+further to confuse the characters, but the commissary

+had had some experience of such communications, and

+contrived slowly to decipher the scrawl.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It is a denunciation, of course," he said.  "The

+rogues appear to be quarrelling amongst themselves.

+'If,' says the writer of the epistle, 'M. le Procureur

+will send his police to-night between the hours of ten

+and twelve to the Cache-Renard woods and they follow

+the directions given below, they will come across

+the money and valuables which were taken from the

+mail-coach last Wednesday, and also those who

+robbed the coach and murdered Mme. de Plélan's

+valet.  Strike the first bridle-path on the right after

+entering the wood by the main road, until you come

+to a fallen fir tree lying across another narrow path;

+dismount here and follow this track for a further

+three hundred mètres, till you come to a group of five

+larches in the midst of a thicket of birch and oak.

+Stand with your back to the larch that is farthest

+from you, and face the thicket; there you will perceive

+another track which runs straight into the depths

+of the wood, follow it until you come to a tiny clearing,

+at the bottom of which the thicket will seem so

+dense that you would deem it impenetrable.  Plunge

+into it boldly to where a nest of broken branches

+reveals the presence of human footsteps, and in front

+of you you will see a kind of hut composed of dead

+branches and caked mud and covered with a rough

+thatch of heather.  In that hut you will find that for

+which you seek.'

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do you think it worth while to act upon this

+anonymous denunciation?" queried M. Saint-Tropèze

+when Lefèvre had finished reading.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I certainly do," replied the commissary.  "In any

+case it can do no harm."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You must take plenty of men with you."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Leave that to me, Monsieur le Procureur," rejoined

+Lefèvre, "and I'll see that they are well armed,

+too."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What about the secret agent?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Lefèvre swore.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That worm?" was his sole but very expressive comment.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Will you see him about the matter?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What do you think?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I suppose you must."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And if he gives me orders?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You must obey them, of course.  Have you seen

+him this morning?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes.  He had ordered me to come to his lodgings

+in the Rue de France."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What did he want?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The scrap of paper which we had found in the

+breeches' pocket of Maxence."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You gave it to him?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Of course," growled Lefèvre savagely.  "Haven't

+we all got to obey him?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You left him in his lodgings, then?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Doing what?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Reading a book."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Reading a book?" exclaimed M. de Saint-Tropèze

+with a harsh laugh.  "What book?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I just noticed the title," replied Lefèvre, "though

+I'm nothing of a scholar and books don't interest

+me."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What was the title?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"<i>Corinne</i>," said the commissary of police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Apparently M. le Procureur Impérial had come to

+the end of the questions which he desired to put to

+the worthy M. Lefèvre, for he said nothing more,

+but remained leaning back in his chair and gazing

+straight out of the window beside him.  His pale,

+aristocratic profile looked almost like chiselled marble

+against the purple damask of the cushions.  He

+seemed absorbed in thought, or else supremely bored;

+M. Lefèvre&mdash;nothing of a psychologist, despite his

+calling&mdash;could not have said which.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The ticking of the massive Louis XIV clock upon

+the mantelpiece and the sizzling of damp wood on the

+hearth alone broke the silence which reigned in the

+stately apartment.  Through the closed window the

+manifold sounds which emanate from a busy city

+came discreet and subdued.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Instinctively M. Lefèvre's glance followed that of

+his chief: he, too, fell to gazing out of the window

+where only a few passers-by were seen hurrying

+homewards on this late dreary October afternoon.

+Suddenly he perceived the narrow, shrinking figure

+of the little Man in Grey gliding swiftly down the

+narrow street.  The commissary of police smothered

+the savage oath which had risen to his lips: he turned

+to his chief, and even his obtuse perceptions were

+aroused by what he saw.  M. le Procureur Impérial

+was no longer leaning back listlessly against the

+damask cushions: he was leaning forward, his fine,

+white hands clutching the arms of his chair.  He,

+too, had apparently caught sight of the grey-clad

+figure, for his eyes, wide open and resentful, followed

+it as it glided along, and on his whole face there was

+such an expression of hatred and savagery that the

+worthy commissary felt unaccountably awed and

+subdued.  Next moment, however, he thought he must

+have been dreaming, for M. de Saint-Tropèze had

+once more turned to him with that frigid urbanity

+which became his aristocratic personality so well.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well, my good Lefèvre," he said, "I don't really

+think that I can help you further in any way.  I quite

+appreciate your mistrust of the obtrusive stranger,

+and personally I cannot avoid a suspicion that he will

+hamper you by interfering at a critical moment

+to-night during your expedition against the Chouans.

+He may just be the cause of their slipping through

+your fingers, which would be such a terrible pity now

+that you have gathered the net so skilfully around

+them."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Lefèvre rose, and with firm, deliberate movements

+tightened the belt around his portly waist, re-adjusted

+the set of his tunic, and generally contrived to give

+himself an air of determination and energy.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I'll say nothing to the shrimp about our expedition

+to-night," he said with sullen resolution.  "That

+is, unless you, Monsieur le Procureur, give me orders

+to do so."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, I?" rejoined M. de Saint-Tropèze carelessly.

+"I won't say anything one way or the other.  The

+whole matter is out of my hands and you must act

+as you think best.  Whatever happens," he added

+slowly and emphatically, "you will get no blame from

+me."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Which was such an extraordinary thing for M. le

+Procureur to say&mdash;who was one of the most pedantic,

+censorious and autocratic of men&mdash;that the good

+Lefèvre spoke of it afterwards to M. le préfet and to

+one or two of his friends.  He could not understand

+this attitude of humility and obedience on the part

+of his chief: but everyone agreed that it was small

+wonder M. le Procureur Impérial was upset, seeing

+that the presence of that secret police agent in

+Alençon was a direct snub to all the municipal and

+departmental authorities throughout the district, and M. de

+Saint-Tropèze was sure to resent it more than anyone

+else, for he was very proud, and acknowledged to be

+one of the most capable of highly-placed officials in

+the whole of France.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+VI

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The night that followed was unusually dark.  Out

+in the Cache-Renard woods the patter of the rain on

+the tall crests of the pines and the soughing of the

+wind through the branches of the trees drowned every

+other sound.  In the burrow built of dead branches,

+caked mud and dried heather, five men sat waiting,

+their ears strained to the crackling of every tiny twig,

+to the fall of every drop of moisture from the

+over-laden twigs.  Among them the dark lantern threw a

+dim, flickering light on their sullen, glowering faces.

+Despite the cold and the damp outside, the atmosphere

+within was hot to suffocation; the men's breath came

+panting and laboured, and now and again they

+exchanged a few whispered words.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"In any case," declared one of them, "if we feel

+that he is playing us false we shall have to do for

+him to-night, eh, mates?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A kind of muffled assent went round the circle, and

+one man murmured:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do you really mistrust him, Hare-Lip?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I should," replied Hare-Lip curtly, "if I thought

+he knew about Red-Poll."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You don't think that he suspects?" queried another.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I don't see how he can.  He can't have shown

+his face, or rather his wooden leg inside Alençon

+since the mail-coach episode.  The police are keen

+after him.  But if he did hear rumours of the death of

+Red-Poll he will also have heard that the murder was

+only an ordinary case of robbery&mdash;watch and money

+stolen&mdash;and that a sheet of letter-paper covered with

+random numerals was found in the breeches' pocket

+of the murdered man."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+One of the men swore lustily in the dark.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The paper covered with numerals!" he muttered

+savagely under his breath.  "You clumsy fool to have

+left that behind!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What was the use&mdash;&mdash;" began another.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But Hare-Lip laughed, and broke in quietly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do ye take me for a fool, mates?  I was not

+going to take away that original sheet of paper and

+proclaim it to our chiefs that it was one of us who

+killed Red-Poll.  No!  I took the sheet of letter-paper

+with me when I went to meet Red-Poll.  After he

+fell&mdash;I shot him between the shoulders&mdash;I turned him

+over on his back and ransacked his pockets; that was

+a blind.  Then I found the paper with the figures and

+copied them out carefully&mdash;that was another blind&mdash;in

+case Silver-Leg heard of the affair and suspected

+us."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+One or two of the others gave a growl of dissent.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You might have been caught while you were playing

+that silly game," said one of the men, "which

+would not deceive a child."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Silver-Leg is no gaby," murmured another.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well, he'll be here anon," concluded Hare-Lip

+lightly.  "If you think he means to play a dirty trick,

+he can go and join Red-Poll, that's all."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He may not come, after all."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He must come.  I had his message to meet him

+here to-night without fail.  The chiefs have planned

+another attack: on the Orleans coach this time.

+Silver-Leg wants us to be of the party."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We ought to have got hold of the last booty

+before now!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Impossible!  Mole-Skin and I have not figured

+out all the directions from the book and the numerals

+yet.  It is not an easy task, I tell you, but it shall be

+done soon, and we can take you straight to the spot

+as soon as we have the directions before us."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Unless Silver-Leg and Madame remove the booty

+in the meanwhile," grunted one of the party caustically.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I sometimes wonder&mdash;&mdash;" said another.  But he

+got no further.  A peremptory "Hush!" from

+Hare-Lip suddenly silenced them all.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+With a swift movement one of them extinguished

+the lanthorn, and now they cowered in absolute

+darkness within their burrow like so many wild beasts

+tracked to earth by the hunters.  The heat was

+suffocating: the men vainly tried to subdue the sound of

+their breath as it came panting from their parched

+throats.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The police!" Hare-Lip muttered hoarsely.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But they did not need to be told.  Just like tracked

+beasts they knew every sound which portended

+danger, and already from afar off, even from the very

+edge of the wood, more than a kilomètre away, their

+ears, attuned to every sound, had perceived the

+measured tramp of horses upon the soft, muddy road.

+They cowered there, rigid and silent.  The darkness

+encompassed them, and they felt safe enough in their

+shelter in the very heart of the woods, in this secret

+hiding-place which was known to no living soul save

+to them.  The police on patrol duty had often passed

+them by: the nearest track practicable on horseback

+was four hundred mètres away, the nearest footpath

+made a wide detour round the thicket, wherein these

+skulking miscreants had contrived to build their lair.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+As a rule, it meant cowering, silent and motionless,

+inside the burrow whilst perhaps one posse of police,

+more venturesome than most, had dismounted at the

+end of the bridle-path and plunged afoot into the

+narrower track, scouring the thicket on either side for

+human quarry.  It involved only an elementary

+amount of danger, distant and intangible, not worth

+an accelerated heart-beat, or even a gripping of knife

+or pistol wherewith to sell life and liberty at a price.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And so, for the first five minutes, while the tramp

+of horses' hoofs drew nearer, the men waited in placid

+silence.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I hope Silver-Leg has found shelter," one of the

+men murmured under his breath.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He should have been here by now," whispered

+another.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then they perceived the usual sound of men

+dismounting, the rattle of chains, the champing of bits,

+peremptory words of command.  Even then they felt

+that they had nothing to fear: these were all sounds

+they had heard before.  The thicket and the darkness

+were their allies; they crouched in silence, but they

+felt that they were safe.  Their ears and senses,

+however, were keenly on the alert: they heard the

+crackling of dried twigs under the heavy footsteps of the

+men, the muttered curses that accompanied the struggle

+against the density of the thicket, the clashing

+of metal tools against dead branches of intervening

+trees.  Still they did not move.  They were not

+afraid&mdash;not yet!  But somehow in the obscurity which held

+them as in a pall their attitude had become more tense,

+their breathing more laboured, and one or two strong

+quivering hands went out instinctively to clutch a

+neighbouring one.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then suddenly Hare-Lip drew in his breath with

+a hissing sound like that of an angry snake.  He

+suppressed an imprecation which had forced itself to

+his lips.  Though the almost imperceptible aperture

+of the burrow he had perceived the flicker of

+lanthorns: and sounds of broken twigs, of trampling

+feet, of moving, advancing humanity appeared

+suddenly to be strangely near.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By Satan!" he hissed almost inaudibly; "they are

+in the clearing!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"They are attacking the thicket," added Mole-Skin

+in a hoarse whisper.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Never before had the scouring posse of police come

+so near to the stronghold of these brigands.  It was

+impossible to see how many of them there were, but

+that they were both numerous and determined could

+not for a moment be disputed.  Voices now became

+more distinct.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"This way!" "No&mdash;that!" "Here, Marcel, where's

+your pick?" "Lend us your knife, Jules Marie; the

+bramble has got into my boots."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Some of the men were joking, others swearing

+lustily.  But there were a great number of them, and

+they were now desperately near.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"They are on us!" came in a husky murmur from

+Hare-Lip.  "They know their way."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We are betrayed!" was the stifled response.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By Silver-Leg!" ejaculated Hare-Lip hoarsely,

+and with such an intensity of vengeful hatred as

+would have made even the autocratic wooden-legged

+chief of this band of brigands quake.  "The accursed

+informer!  By all the demons in hell he shall pay for

+his treachery!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Indeed, there was no longer any doubt that it was

+not mere chance which was guiding the posse of police

+to this secret spot.  They were making their way

+unhesitatingly by the dim light of the dark lanterns

+which their leaders carried before them.  One of the

+men suddenly hit upon the almost imperceptible track,

+which led straight to the burrow.  There was no

+mistaking the call which he gave to his comrades.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I have it now, mates!" he shouted.  "Follow me!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The sharp report of a pistol came by way of a

+reply from the lurking-hole of the Chouans, and the

+man who had just uttered the call to his mates fell

+forward on his face.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Attention, my men!" commanded the officer in

+charge.  "Close the lanterns and put a charge of

+powder into the brigands' den."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Once more the report of a pistol rang out through

+the night.  But the men of the police, though obviously

+scared by the mysterious foe who struck at them

+out of the darkness, were sufficiently disciplined not

+to give ground: they fought their way into line, and

+the next moment a terrific volley of gunfire rent the

+echoes of the wood from end to end.  In front of the

+men now there was a wide clearing, where the

+undergrowth had been repeatedly broken and trampled

+upon.  This they had seen, just before the lanthorns

+were closed, and beyond it the burrow with its thatch

+of heather and its narrow aperture which revealed the

+muzzle of two or three muskets, and through the

+aperture several pairs of glowing eyes and shadowy

+forms vaguely discernible in the gloom.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Up with the lights and charge!" commanded the

+officer.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The lanterns were opened, and three sharp reports

+came in immediate answer from the lair.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+One or two men of the police fell amidst the bed of

+brambles; but the others, maddened by this resistance

+and by the fall of their comrades, rushed forward in

+force.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Dividing their line in the centre, they circled round

+the clearing, attacking the stronghold from two sides.

+The commissary of police, leaving nothing to chance,

+had sent half a company to do the work.  In a few

+seconds the men were all over the burrow, scrambling

+up the thatch, kicking aside the loose walls of dead

+branches, and within two minutes they had trampled

+every fragment of the construction under foot.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But of the gang of Chouans there remained only

+a few traces, and two or three muskets abandoned in

+their hasty flight: they had succeeded in making good

+their escape under cover of the darkness.  The

+sergeant in command of the squad of police ordered the

+debris of the den to be carefully searched.  Very little

+of importance was found beyond a few proofs that the

+robbery of the mail-coach the other night, the murder

+of Maxence, and the abortive burglary in

+Monseigneur's Palace were the work of the same gang.

+One or two watches and pocket-books were subsequently

+identified by the passengers of the coach that

+had been held up; there was the silver watch which

+had belonged to the murdered valet, and a couple of

+books which bore Monseigneur the Bishop of Alençon's

+book-plate.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But of the man with the wooden leg and his rascally

+henchmen, or of the sixty-two hundred francs

+stolen from the coach there was not a sign.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The chief commissary of police swore lustily when

+his men returned to the bridle-path where he had been

+waiting for them, and the sergeant reported to him

+that the rogues had made good their escape.  But

+even his wrath&mdash;violent and wordy as it was&mdash;was as

+nothing to the white heat of anger wherewith M. le

+Procureur Impérial received the news of the dire

+failure of the midnight raid in the Cache-Renard

+woods.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Indeed, he appeared so extraordinarily upset at the

+time that his subsequent illness was directly attributable

+to this cause.  The leech vowed that his august

+patient was suffering from a severe shock to his

+nerves.  Be that as it may, M. de Saint-Tropèze, who

+was usually in such vigorous health, was confined to

+his room for some days after the raid.  It was a

+fortnight and more ere he again took his walks

+abroad, as had been his wont in the past, and his

+friends, when they saw him, could not help but remark

+that something of M. le Procureur's elasticity and

+proud bearing had gone.  He who used to be so

+upright now walked with a decided stoop; his face

+looked at times the colour of ashes; and now and

+again, when he was out in the streets, he would throw

+a look around him almost as if he were afraid.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+On the other hand, the secret agent of His Impérial

+Majesty's Police had received the news of the escape

+of the Chouans with his habitual quietude and equanimity.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He did not make any comment on the commissary's

+report of the affair, nor did he offer the slightest

+remonstrance to M. le Procureur Impérial for having

+permitted the expedition without direct instructions

+from the official representative of the Minister.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Nothing was seen of the little Man in Grey for the

+next two or three weeks: he appeared absorbed in the

+books which M. le préfet so graciously lent him, and

+he did not trouble either the latter, or M. le Procureur,

+or the commissary of police with many visits.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The matter of the highway robbery, as well as

+that of the murdered valet Maxence, appeared to be

+already relegated to the growing list of the mysterious

+crimes perpetrated by those atrocious Chouans, with

+which the police of His Impérial Majesty were

+unable to cope.  The appearance of the enigmatic person

+in grey had had no deterrent effect on the rascals,

+nor was it likely to have any, if he proved as inept as

+the local officials had been in dealing with such flagrant

+and outrageous felony.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+VII

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+And once again the silence of the forest was broken

+in the night by the sound of human creatures on the

+prowl.  Through the undergrowth which lies thickest

+at the Lonrai end of the woods, to the left of the

+intersecting main road, the measured tread of a footfall

+could be faintly perceived&mdash;it was a strange and

+halting footfall, as of a man walking with a stump.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Behind the secular willow, which stands in the

+centre of the small clearing beside the stagnant pool

+in the very heart of this dense portion of the forest,

+a lonely watcher crouched, waiting.  He had lain there

+and waited night after night, and for hours at a

+stretch the surrounding gloom held him in its close

+embrace: his ears and senses were strained to hear

+that uneven footfall, whenever its faint thud broke the

+absolute silence.  To no other sound, no other sight,

+did he pay any attention, or no doubt he would have

+noticed that in the thicket behind him another watcher

+cowered.  The stalker was stalked in his turn: the

+watcher was watched.  Someone else was waiting in

+this dense corner for the man with the wooden

+leg&mdash;a small figure rapped in a dark mantle, a silent,

+furtive creature, more motionless, more noiseless than

+any beast in its lair.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At last, to-night, that faint, uneven thud of a

+wooden stump against the soft carpet of the woods

+reached the straining ears of the two watchers.  Anon

+the feeble flicker of a dark lanthorn was vaguely

+discernible in the undergrowth.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The man who was crouching behind the willow

+drew in his breath with a faint, hissing sound; his

+hand grasped more convulsively the pistol which it

+held.  He was lying flat upon his stomach, like a

+creeping reptile watching for its prey; his eyes were

+fixed upon the tiny flickering light as it slowly drew

+near towards the stagnant pool.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+In the thicket behind him the other watcher also

+lay in wait: his hand, too, closed upon a pistol with a

+firm and determined grip; the dark mantle slid noiselessly

+down from his shoulders.  But he did not move,

+and not a twig that helped to give him cover, quivered

+at his touch.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The next moment a man dressed in a rough blouse

+and coarse breeches and with a woollen cap pulled

+over his shaggy hair came out into the clearing.  He

+walked deliberately up to the willow tree.  In

+addition to the small dark lantern which he held in one

+hand, he carried a spade upon his shoulder.  Presently

+he threw down the spade and then proceeded so to

+arrange the lantern that its light fell full upon one

+particular spot, where the dry moss appeared to have

+been recently disturbed.  The man crouching behind

+the willow watched his every movement; the other

+behind the thicket hardly dared to breathe.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then the newcomer did a very curious thing.  Sitting

+down upon the soft, sodden earth, he stretched

+his wooden stump out before him: it was fastened

+with straps to the leg which was bent at the knee, the

+shin and foot beyond appearing like a thick and

+shapeless mass, swathed with bandages.  The supposed

+maimed man, however, now set to work to undo the

+straps which bound the wooden stump to his leg, then

+he removed the stump, straightened out his knee,

+unwound the few mètres of bandages which concealed

+the shape of his shin and foot, and finally stood up on

+both legs, as straight and hale as nature had originally

+made him.  The watcher behind the willow had viewed

+all his movements with tense attention.  Now he could

+scarcely repress a gasp of mingled astonishment and

+rage, or the vengeful curse which had risen to his lips.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The newcomer took up his spade and, selecting the

+spot where the moss and the earth bore traces of

+having been disturbed, he bent to his task and started

+to dig.  The man behind the tree raised his pistol and

+fired: the other staggered backwards with a groan&mdash;partly

+of terror and partly of pain&mdash;and his left hand

+went up to his right shoulder with a quick, convulsive

+gesture.  But already the assassin, casting his

+still smoking pistol aside, had fallen upon his victim;

+there was a struggle, brief and grim, a smothered call

+for help, a savage exclamation of rage and satisfied

+vengeance, and the wounded man fell at last with a

+final cry of horror, as his enemy's grip fastened

+around his throat.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+For a second or two the murderer stood quite still

+contemplating his work.  With a couple of vigorous

+kicks with his boot he turned the body callously over.

+Then he picked up the lanthorn and allowed the light

+to play on the dead man's face; he gave one cursory

+glance at the straight, marble-like features, and at

+the full, shaggy beard and hair which disfigured the

+face, and another contemptuous one at the wooden

+stump which still lay on the ground close by.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So dies an informer!" he ejaculated with a harsh

+laugh.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He searched for his pistol and having found it he

+tucked it into his belt; then putting his fingers to his

+lips he gave a cry like that of a screech-owl.  The cry

+was answered by a similar one some little distance

+away; a minute or two later another man appeared

+through the undergrowth.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Have you done for him?" queried this stranger

+in a husky whisper.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He is dead," replied the other curtly.  "Come

+nearer, Mole-Skin," he added, "you will see

+something that will amaze you."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mole-Skin did as his mate ordered; he, too, stood

+aghast when Hare-Lip pointed to the wooden stump

+and to the dead man's legs.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was not a bad idea!" said Hare-Lip after a

+while.  "It put the police on a wrong scent all the

+time: while they searched for a man with one leg, he

+just walked about on two.  Silver-Leg was no fool.

+But," he added savagely, "he was a traitor, and now

+he'll neither bully nor betray us again."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What about the money?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We'd best get that now.  Didn't I tell you that

+Silver-Leg would come here sooner or later?  We lost

+nothing by lying in wait for him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Without another word Mole-Skin picked up the

+spade, and in his turn began to dig at the spot where

+Silver-Leg had toiled when the bullet of his betrayed

+comrade laid him low.  There was only the one spade

+and Hare-Lip kept watch while his comrade dug.

+The light from the dark lantern revealed the two

+miscreants at their work.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+While Hare-Lip had thus taken the law into his

+own hands against the informer, the watcher in the

+thicket had not stirred.  But now he, also, began to

+crawl slowly and cautiously out of his hiding-place.

+No snake, or lizard, or crawling, furtive beast could

+have been more noiseless than he was; the moss

+beneath him dulled the sound of every movement, till

+he, too, had reached the willow tree.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The two Chouans were less than thirty paces away

+from him.  Intent upon their work they had been

+oblivious of every other sound.  Now when the

+tracker of his human quarry raised his arm to fire,

+Hare-Lip suddenly turned and at once gave a warning

+call to his mate.  But the call broke upon his lips,

+there came a sharp report, immediately followed by

+another&mdash;the two brigands, illumined by the lanthorn,

+had been an easy target, and the hand which wielded

+the pistol was steady and unerring.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And now stillness more absolute than before reigned

+in the heart of the forest.  Summary justice had been

+meted out to a base informer by the vengeful arm of

+the comrades whom he had betrayed, and to the two

+determined criminals by an equally relentless and

+retributive hand.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The man who had so inexorably accomplished this

+last act of unfaltering justice waited for a moment

+or two until the last lingering echo of the double

+pistol shot had ceased to resound through the woods.

+Then he put two fingers to his lips and gave a

+shrill prolonged whistle; after which he came out

+from behind the willow.  He was small and

+insignificant-looking, with a pale face and colourless eyes.

+He was dressed in grey and a grey cap was pulled

+low down over his forehead.  He went up to where

+the two miscreants whom he had shot were lying, and

+with a practised eye and hand assured himself that

+they were indeed dead.  He turned the light of the

+dark lantern first on the man with the queer-shaped

+lip and then on the latter's companion.  The two

+Chouans had at any rate paid for some of their crimes

+with their lives; it remained for the Almighty Judge

+to pardon or to punish as they deserved.  The third

+man lay, stark and rigid, where a kick from the other

+man had roughly cast him aside.  His eyes, wide

+open and inscrutable, had still around them a strange

+look of authority and pride; the features appeared

+calm and marble-like; the mouth under the obviously

+false beard was tightly closed, as if it strove even in

+death to suppress every sound which might betray

+the secret that had been so jealously guarded throughout

+life.  Near by lay the wooden stump which had

+thrown such a cloud of dust into the eyes of good

+M. Lefèvre and his local police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+With slow deliberation the Man in Grey picked up

+the wooden stump, and so replaced it against the dead

+man's leg that in the feeble light and dense black

+shadows it looked as real as it had done in life&mdash;a

+support for an amputated limb.  A moment or two

+later, the flickering light of a lantern showed through

+the thicket, and soon the lusty voice of the

+commissary of police broke in on the watcher's loneliness.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We heard three distinct shots," explained

+M. Lefèvre, as soon as he reached the clearing and caught

+sight of the secret agent.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Three acts of justice," replied the Man in Grey

+quietly, as he pointed to the bodies of the three

+Chouans.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The man with the wooden leg!" exclaimed the

+commissary in tones wherein astonishment and unmistakable

+elation struggled with a momentary feeling of

+horror.  "You have got him?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes," answered the Man in Grey simply.  "Where

+are your men?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I left them at the junction of the bridle-path, as

+you ordered me to do," growled the commissary

+sullenly, for he still felt sore and aggrieved at the

+peremptory commands which had been given to him by

+the secret agent earlier on that day.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then go back and send half a dozen of them here

+with improvised stretchers to remove the bodies."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then it was you, who&mdash;&mdash;" murmured Lefèvre,

+not knowing, indeed, what to say or do in the face of

+this puzzling and grim emergency.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What else would you have had me do?" rejoined

+the Man in Grey, as, with a steady hand, he removed

+the false hair and beard which disguised the pale,

+aristocratic face of M. de Saint-Tropèze.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monsieur le Procureur Impérial!" ejaculated

+Lefèvre hoarsely.  "I&mdash;I&mdash;don't understand&mdash;you&mdash;you&mdash;have

+killed him&mdash;he&mdash;oh, my God!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The Chouans whom he betrayed killed him, my

+good Lefèvre," replied the Man in Grey quietly.  "He

+was their chief and kept the secret of his anonymity

+even from them.  When he was amongst them and

+led them to their many nefarious deeds he was not

+content to hide his face behind a tangle of false and

+shaggy hair, or to appear in rough clothes and with

+grimy hands.  No!  His artistry in crime went a step

+farther than that; he strapped a wooden leg to his own

+whole one and while you scoured the countryside in

+search of a Chouan with a wooden leg, the latter had

+resumed his personality as the haughty and well-connected

+M. de Saint-Tropèze, Procureur at the tribunal

+of Alençon to His Majesty the Emperor.  Here

+is the stump," added the Man in Grey, as with the

+point of his boot he kicked the wooden stump aside,

+"and there," he concluded, pointing to the two dead

+Chouans, "are the men who wreaked their vengeance

+upon their chief."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But how&mdash;&mdash;" interjected Lefèvre, who was too

+bewildered to speak or even to think coherently, "how

+did you find out&mdash;how&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Later I may tell you," broke in the Man in Grey

+shortly, "now we must see to the removal of the

+bodies.  But remember," he added peremptorily and

+with solemn earnestness, "that everything you have

+seen and heard to-night must remain for ever a secret

+within your breast.  For the honour of our administration,

+for the honour of our newly-founded Empire,

+the dual personality and countless crimes of such a

+highly placed official as M. de Saint-Tropèze must

+never be known to the public.  I saved the hangman's

+work when I killed these two men&mdash;there is no

+one living now, save you and I, who can tell the tale

+of M. de Saint-Tropèze's double entity.  Remember

+that to the public who knew him, to his servants, to

+your men who will carry his body in all respect and

+reverence, he has died here by my side in the execution

+of his duty&mdash;disguised in rough clothes in order

+to help me track these infernal Chouans to their

+lair.  I shall never speak of what I know, and as for

+you&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey paused and, even through the

+gloom, the commissary felt the strength and menace

+of those colourless eyes fixed steadfastly upon him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your oath, Monsieur le Commissaire de Police,"

+concluded the secret agent in firm, commanding tones.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Awed and subdued&mdash;not to say terrified&mdash;the chief

+commissary gave the required oath of absolute

+secrecy.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now go and fetch your men, my good Lefèvre,"

+enjoined the Man in Grey quietly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mechanically the commissary turned to go.  He

+felt as if he were in a dream from which he would

+presently awake.  The man whom he had respected

+and feared, the Procurator of His Majesty the Emperor,

+whose authority the whole countryside acknowledged,

+was identical with that nefarious Chouan with

+the wooden leg whom the entire province loathed and

+feared.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Indeed, the curious enigma of that dual personality

+was enough to addle even a clearer intellect than that

+of the worthy commissary of police.  Guided by the

+light of the lanthorn he carried he made his way back

+through the thicket whence he had come.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Alone in the forest, the Man in Grey watched over

+the dead.  He looked down meditatively on the pale,

+aristocratic face of the man who had lied and schemed

+and planned, robbed and murdered, who had risked

+so much and committed such villainies, for a purpose

+which would henceforth and for ever remain an

+unfathomable mystery.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Was passionate loyalty for the decadent Royalist

+cause at the root of all the crimes perpetrated by this

+man of culture and position&mdash;or was it merely vulgar

+greed, vulgar and insatiable worship of money, that

+drove him to mean and sordid crimes?  To what

+uses did he put the money wrung from peaceable

+citizens?  Did it go to swell the coffers of a hopeless

+Cause, or to contribute to M. de Saint-Tropèze's own

+love of luxury?

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey pondered these things in the

+loneliness and silence of the night.  All such questions

+must henceforth be left unanswered.  For the sake

+of officialdom, of the government of the new Empire,

+the memory of such a man as M. de Saint-Tropèze

+must remain for ever untarnished.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Anon the posse of police under the command of a

+sergeant arrived upon the scene.  They had improvised

+three stretchers; one of these was reverently

+covered with a mantle, upon which they laid the body

+of M. le Procureur Impérial, killed in the discharge

+of his duty whilst aiding to track a gang of desperate

+Chouans.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+VIII

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+In the forenoon of the following day the chief

+commissary of police, having seen M. le Préfet on the

+subject of the arrangements for the public funeral of

+M. de Saint-Tropèze, called at the lodgings of the

+secret agent of His Impérial Majesty's Police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After the usual polite formalities, Lefèvre plunged

+boldly into the subject of his visit.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"How did you find out?" he asked, trying to carry

+off the situation with his accustomed bluff.  "You

+owe me an explanation, you know, Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;Fernand.

+I am chief commissary of this district, and

+by your own statement you stand convicted of having

+killed two men.  Abominable rogues though they

+were, the laws of France do not allow&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I owe you no explanation, my good Lefèvre,"

+interrupted the Man in Grey in his quiet monotone, "as

+you know.  If you would care to take the responsibility

+on yourself of indicting me for the wilful murder

+of those two men, you are of course at liberty to

+do so.  But&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissaire hastened to assure the secret

+emissary of His Majesty that what he had said had only

+been meant as a joke.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Only as a spur," he added affably, "to induce you

+to tell me how you found out the secret of M. de

+Saint-Tropèze."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Quite simply," replied the Man in Grey, "by

+following step by step the series of crimes which

+culminated in your abortive expedition against the

+Chouans.  On the evening of the attack on the coach

+on the 10th of October last, I lay hidden and forgotten

+by the roadside.  The coach had driven away; the

+footpads were making off with their booty.  I

+followed them.  I crawled behind them on my hands and

+knees, till they came to their burrow&mdash;the place where

+you made that foolish and ill-considered attack on

+them the other night.  I heard them quarrelling over

+their loot; I heard enough to guess that sooner or

+later a revolt would break out amongst them and that

+the man whom they called Hare-Lip meant to possess

+himself of a large share of the spoils.  I also heard

+the man with the wooden leg say something about a

+book named 'Corinne' which was to be mentioned to

+'Monseigneur,' and a key which would be sent to

+'Madame' by the intermediary of Red-Poll.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Within two days of this I learned that a man

+who had red hair and was valet to Madame la Marquise

+de Plélan had been murdered, and that a sheet

+of note-paper covered with random numerals was

+found upon his person; at the same time a burglary

+had been committed in the house of Monseigneur

+the Bishop of Alençon and all that had been stolen

+were some books.  At once I recognised the hand of

+Hare-Lip and his gang.  They had obviously stolen

+the book from Monseigneur's library and then murdered

+Red-Poll, in order to possess themselves of the

+cipher, which I felt sure would prove to be the

+indication of the secret hiding-place of the stolen booty.

+It was easy enough to work out the problem of the

+book and the key.  The numerals on the sheet of note-paper

+referred to pages, lines and words in the book&mdash;a

+clumsy enough cipher at best.  It gave me&mdash;just

+as I expected&mdash;clear indications of the very place,

+beside the willow tree and the pool.  Also&mdash;just as

+I anticipated&mdash;Silver-Leg, the autocratic chief, had

+in the meanwhile put his threat into execution and

+punished his rebellious followers by betraying them

+to the police."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Great God!" exclaimed Lefèvre, recollecting the

+anonymous letter which M. le Procureur had handed

+to him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I dare say you recollect this phase of the episode,"

+continued the Man in Grey.  "Your expedition

+against the Chouans nearly upset all my plans.  It

+had the effect of allowing three of them to escape.

+However, let that pass for the moment.  I could not

+help but guess, when I heard of the attack, that

+Hare-Lip and his mates would wish to be revenged on the

+informer.  Their burrow was now known to the police,

+but there was still the hiding-place of the booty,

+to which sooner or later I knew that Silver-Leg must

+return.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You remember the orders I gave you a full month

+ago; to be prepared to go on any day and at an

+instant's notice with a dozen of your men to a certain

+point on the main road at the Lonrai end of the

+wood which I had indicated to you, whenever I sent

+you a peremptory message to do so, and there to wait

+in silence and on the alert until a shrill whistle from

+me brought you to my side.  Well! in this matter

+you did your duty well, and the Minister shall hear

+of it.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"As for me, I was content to bide my time.  With

+the faithful henchman whom you placed at my disposal

+I lay in wait for Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze in

+the Rue St. Blaise during all those weary days and

+nights when he was supposed to be too ill to venture

+out of his house.  At last he could refrain no longer;

+greed or perhaps sheer curiosity, or that wild

+adventurous spirit which made him what he was, drove

+him to lend a deaf ear to the dictates of prudence

+and to don once again the shaggy beard, the rough

+clothes and wooden stump of his lawless and shady

+life.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I had so placed your man that from where he was

+he could not see Monsieur le Procureur, whenever the

+latter came out of his house, nor did he know whom

+or what it was that I was watching; but as soon as I

+saw Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze emerging stealthily

+from his side gate, I dispatched your man to you with

+the peremptory message to go at once to the appointed

+place, and then I started in the wake of my quarry.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You, my good Lefèvre, have no conception what

+it means to track&mdash;unseen and unheard&mdash;one of those

+reckless Chouans who are more alert than any wild

+beast.  But I tracked my man; he came out of his

+house when the night was at its darkest and first made

+his way to that small derelict den which no doubt

+you know and which stands just off the main road, on

+the fringe of the Cache-Renard wood.  This he entered

+and came out about a quarter of an hour later,

+dressed in his Chouan rig-out.  I must own that for

+a few seconds he almost deceived me, so marvellous

+was his disguise; the way he contrived that wooden

+leg was positively amazing.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"After that he plunged into the woods.  But I

+no longer followed him; I knew whither he was going

+and was afraid lest, in the depths and silence of the

+forest, he would hear my footfall and manage to give

+me the slip.  Whilst he worked his way laboriously

+with his wooden stump through the thicket and the

+undergrowth, I struck boldly along the main road,

+and plunged into the wood at the point which had

+been revealed to me by the cipher.  I had explored

+the place many a time during the past month, and had

+no difficulty in finding the stagnant pool and the

+willow tree.  Hare-Lip and his mate were as usual on

+the watch.  No sooner had Silver-Leg appeared on

+the scene than the others meted out to him the full

+measure of their vengeful justice.  But I could not

+allow them to be taken alive.  I did not know how

+much they knew or guessed of their leader's secret, or

+how much they might reveal at their first interrogation.

+The gallows had already claimed them for its

+own; for me they were a facile prey.  I shot them

+both deliberately and will answer to His Majesty's

+Minister of Police alone for my actions."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey paused.  As he completed his

+narrative Lefèvre stared at him, dumbfounded at the

+courage, the determination, the dogged perseverance

+which alone could have brought this amazing

+undertaking to its grim and gruesome issue.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"After this, my good Lefèvre," remarked the secret

+agent more lightly, "we shall have to find out

+something about 'Madame' and quite a good deal about

+'Monseigneur.'"

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap02"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER II

+<br /><br />

+THE SPANIARD

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The man with the wooden leg was still at large,

+and M. le Procureur Impérial had died a hero's death

+whilst helping to capture a gang of desperate Chouans

+in the Cache-Renard woods.  This was the public

+version of the tragic epilogue to those three mysteries,

+which had puzzled and terrified the countryside during

+the early days of October, 1809&mdash;the robbery of the

+mail-coach, the burglary in the Palace of Monseigneur

+the Constitutional Bishop of Alençon, and the murder

+of Mme. Marquise de Plélan's valet, Maxence.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The intelligent section of the public was loud in its

+condemnation of the ineptitude displayed by the police

+in the matter of those abominable crimes, and chief

+commissary Lefèvre, bound by oath&mdash;not to say terror&mdash;to

+hold his tongue as to the real facts of the case,

+grumbled in his beard and muttered curses on the

+accredited representative of the Minister of Police&mdash;ay,

+and on M. le Duc d'Otrante himself.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+On top of all the public unrest and dissatisfaction

+came the outrage at the house of M. de Kerblay, a

+noted advocate of the Paris bar and member of the

+Senate, who owned a small property in the

+neighbourhood of Alençon, where he spent a couple of months

+every year with his wife and family, entertaining a

+few friends during the shooting season.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+In the morning of November the 6th, the neighbourhood

+was horrified to hear that on the previous

+night, shortly after ten o'clock, a party of those

+ruffianly Chouans had made a descent on M. de

+Kerblay's house, Les Ormeaux.  They had demanded

+admittance in the name of the law.  All the servants

+had gone to bed with the exception of Hector, M. de

+Kerblay's valet, and he was so scared that he allowed

+the <i>scélérats</i> to push their way into the house, before

+he had realised who they were.  Ere he could call

+for help he was set upon, gagged, and locked up in his

+pantry.  The Chouans then proceeded noiselessly

+upstairs.  Mme. de Kerblay was already in bed.  The

+Senator was in his dressing-room, half undressed.

+They took him completely by surprise, held a pistol

+to his head, and demanded the immediate payment of

+twenty-five thousand francs.  Should the Senator

+summon his servants, the rogues would shoot him

+and his wife and even his children summarily, if they

+were stopped in their purpose or hindered in their

+escape.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Kerblay was considerably over sixty.  Not

+too robust in health, terrorised and subdued, he

+yielded, and with the muzzle of a pistol held to his

+head and half a dozen swords gleaming around him,

+he produced the keys of his secretaire and handed

+over to the Chouans not only all the money he had in

+the house&mdash;something over twenty thousand francs&mdash;but

+a diamond ring, valued at another twenty thousand,

+which had been given to him by the Emperor

+in recognition of signal services rendered in the

+matter of the affairs of the ex-Empress.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Whereupon the wretches departed as silently as

+they had come, and by the time the hue and cry was

+raised they had disappeared, leaving no clue or trace.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The general consensus of opinion attributed the

+outrage to the man with the wooden leg.  M. Lefèvre,

+chief commissary of police, who knew that that

+particular scoundrel was reposing in the honoured vault

+of the Saint-Tropèze family, was severely nonplussed.

+Since the sinister episode of the dual personality of

+M. de Saint-Tropèze he realised more than ever how

+difficult it was to deal with these Chouans.  Here

+to-day, gone to-morrow, they were veritable masters in

+the art of concealing their identity, and in this quiet

+corner of Normandy it was impossible to shake a man

+by the hand without wondering whether he did not

+perchance belong to that secret gang of malefactors.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Kerblay, more distressed at the loss of his

+ring than of his money, offered a reward of five

+thousand francs for its recovery; but while M. Lefèvre's

+zeal was greatly stimulated thereby, the Man in Grey

+appeared disinclined to move in the matter, and his

+quiet, impassive attitude grated unpleasantly on the

+chief commissary's feelings.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+About a week after the outrage, on a cold, wet

+morning in November, M. Lefèvre made a tempestuous

+irruption into the apartments in the Rue de France

+occupied by the secret agent of the Minister of Police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We hold the ruffians!" he cried, waving his arms

+excitedly.  "That's the best of those scoundrels!

+They are always quarrelling among themselves!  They

+lie and they cheat and betray one another into our

+hands!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey, as was his wont, waited patiently

+until the flood of M. Lefèvre's impassioned eloquence

+had somewhat subsided, then he said quietly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have had the visit of an informer?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes," replied the commissary, as he sank, panting,

+into a chair.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A man you know?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By sight.  Oh, one knows those rogues vaguely.

+One sees them about one day&mdash;they disappear the

+next&mdash;they have their lairs in the most inaccessible

+corners of this cursed country.  Yes!  I know the man

+by sight.  He passed through my hands into the army

+a year ago.  A deserter, of course.  Though his

+appearance does not tally with any of the descriptions

+we have received from the Ministry of War, we know

+that these fellows have a way of altering even their

+features on occasions, and this man has 'deserter'

+written all over his ugly countenance."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well!  And what has he told you?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That he will deliver to us the leader of the gang

+who broke into Monsieur de Kerblay's house the other

+night."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"On conditions, of course."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Of course,"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Immunity for himself?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And a reward?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You did not agree to that, I hope," said the Man

+in Grey sternly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Lefèvre hummed and hawed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There must be no question of bribing these men

+to betray one another," resumed the secret agent

+firmly, "or you'll be falling into one baited trap after

+another."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But there's Monsieur de Kerblay's offer of a

+reward for the recovery of the ring, and in this

+case&mdash;&mdash;" protested Lefèvre sullenly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"In no case," broke in the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then what shall I do with the man?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Promise him a free pardon for himself and

+permission to rejoin his regiment if his information

+proves to be correct.  Keep him in the police-cells,

+and come and report to me directly you have extracted

+from him all he knows, or is willing to tell."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The chief commissary of police was well aware that

+when the Minister's secret agent assumed that quiet

+air of authority, neither argument nor resistance was

+advisable.  He muttered something between his teeth,

+but receiving no further response from the Man in

+Grey he turned abruptly on his heel and stalked out

+of the room, murmuring inaudible things about

+"officiousness" and "incompetence."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The man who had presented himself that morning

+at the commissariat of police offering valuable

+information as to the whereabouts of the leaders of his

+own gang, appeared as the regular type of the

+unkempt, out-at-elbows, down-at-heels, unwashed

+Chouan who had of a truth become the pest and

+terror of the countryside.  He wore a long shaggy beard,

+his hair was matted and tousled, his blouse and

+breeches were in rags, and his bare feet were thrust

+into a pair of heavy leather shoes.  During his brief

+sojourn in the army, or in the course of his subsequent

+lawless life, he had lost one eye, and the terrible gash

+across that part of his face gave his countenance a

+peculiarly sinister expression.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He stood before the commissary of police, twirling

+a woollen cap between his grimy fingers, taciturn,

+sullen and defiant.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I'll say nothing," he repeated for the third time,

+"unless I am paid to speak."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You are amenable to the law, my man," said the

+chief commissary dryly.  "You'll be shot, unless you

+choose to earn a free pardon for yourself by making

+a frank confession of your misdeeds."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And what's a free pardon to me," retorted the

+Chouan roughly, "if I am to starve on it?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You will be allowed to at once rejoin your regiment."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Bah!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The man spat on the ground, by way of expressing

+his contempt at the prospect.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I'd as lief be shot at once," he declared

+emphatically.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Lefèvre could have torn his scanty hair with

+rage.  He was furious with the Chouan and his

+obstinacy, and furious with that tiresome man in the

+grey coat who lorded it over every official in the

+district, and assumed an authority which he ought never

+to have been allowed to wield.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The one-eyed Chouan was taken back to the police-cells,

+and M. Lefèvre gave himself over to his gloomy

+meditations.  Success and a goodly amount of credit&mdash;not

+to mention the five thousand francs' reward for

+the recovery of the ring&mdash;appeared just within his

+reach.  A couple of thousand francs out of the

+municipal funds to that wretched informer, and the chiefs

+of one of the most desperate gangs of Chouans would

+fall into M. Lefèvre's hands, together with no small

+measure of glory for the brilliant capture.  It was

+positively maddening!

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was not till late in the afternoon that the worthy

+commissary had an inspiration&mdash;such a grand one

+that he smacked his high forehead, marvelling it had

+not come to him before.  What were two thousand

+francs out of his own pocket beside the meed of

+praise which would fall to his share, if he succeeded

+in laying one or two of those Chouan leaders by the

+heels?  He need not touch the municipal funds.  He

+had a couple of thousand francs put by and more;

+and, surely, that sum would be a sound investment

+for future advancement and the recognition of his

+services on the part of the Minister himself, in

+addition to which there would be his share in M. de

+Kerblay's reward.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+So M. Lefèvre sent for the one-eyed Chouan and

+once more interrogated him, cajoling and threatening

+alternately, with a view to obtaining gratis the

+information which the man was only prepared to sell.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I'll say nothing," reiterated the Chouan obstinately,

+"unless I am paid to speak."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well!  What will you take?" said the commissary

+at last.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Five thousand francs," replied the man glibly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I'll give you one," rejoined M. Lefèvre.  "But

+mind," he added with uncompromising severity, "you

+remain here in the cells as hostage for your own good

+faith.  If you lie to me, you will be shot&mdash;summarily

+and without trial."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Give me three thousand and I'll speak," said the

+Chouan.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Two thousand," rejoined the commissary, "and

+that is my last word."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+For a second or two the man appeared to hesitate;

+with his one eye he tried to fathom the strength of

+M. le Commissaire's determination.  Then he said

+abruptly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Very well, I'll take two thousand francs.  Give

+me the money now and I'll speak."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Without another superfluous word M. Lefèvre

+counted out twenty one-hundred franc notes, and gave

+them into the Chouan's grimy hand.  He thought it

+best to appear open-handed and to pay cash down;

+the man would be taken straight back to the cells

+presently, and if he played a double game he would

+anyhow forfeit the money together with his life.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now," said Lefèvre as soon as the man had thrust

+the notes into the pocket of his breeches, "tell me who

+is your chief, and where a posse of my police can lay

+hands upon him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The chief of my gang," rejoined the Chouan, "is

+called 'the Spaniard' amongst us; his real name is

+Carrera and he comes from Madrid.  We don't often

+see him, but it was he who led the expedition to the

+house of Monsieur de Kerblay."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What is he like?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A short man with dark, swarthy skin, small features,

+keen, jet-black eyes, no lashes, and very little

+eyebrow, a shock of coal-black hair and a square black

+beard and moustache; he speaks French with a Spanish

+accent."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Very good!  Now tell me where we can find him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"At Chéron's farm on the Chartres road between

+la Mesle and Montagne.  You know it?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I know the farm.  I don't know Chéron.  Well?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The Spaniard has arranged to meet a man there&mdash;a

+German Jew&mdash;while Chéron himself is away from

+home.  The idea is to dispose of the ring."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I understand.  When is the meeting to take place?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To-night!  It is market day at Chartres and

+Chéron will be absent two days.  It was all arranged

+yesterday.  The Spaniard and his gang will sleep at

+the farm; the following morning they will leave for

+Paris, en route some of them, so 'tis said, for Spain."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And the farmer&mdash;Chéron?  What has he to do with

+it all?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing," replied the Chouan curtly.  "He is just

+a fool.  His house stands isolated in a lonely part

+of the country, and his two farm hands are stupid

+louts.  So, whenever the Spaniard wants to meet any

+of his accomplices privately, he selects a day when

+Chéron is from home, and makes use of the farm for

+his own schemes."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You owe him a grudge, I suppose," sneered

+Lefèvre, who had taken rapid notes of all the man

+had told him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No," replied the Chouan slowly, "but those of us

+who helped to work the coup at Monsieur de Kerblay's

+the other night, were each to receive twenty francs as

+our share of the spoils.  It was not enough!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissary of police nodded complacently.

+He was vastly satisfied with the morning's work.  He

+had before now heard vague hints about this Spaniard,

+one of those mysterious and redoubtable Chouan

+leaders, who had given the police of the entire

+province no end of trouble and grave cause for

+uneasiness.  Now by his&mdash;Lefèvre's&mdash;own astuteness he

+stood not only to lay the villain by the heels and earn

+commendation for his zeal from the Minister himself,

+but, if this one-eyed scoundrel spoke the truth, also

+to capture some of his more prominent accomplices,

+not to mention the ring and M. de Kerblay's generous

+reward.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Incidentally he also stood to put a spoke in the

+wheel of that over-masterful and interfering man in

+the grey coat, which would be a triumph not by any

+means to be depreciated.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+So the Chouan was taken back to the cells and the

+chief commissary of police was left free to make his

+arrangements for the night's expedition, without

+referring the matter to the accredited agent of His

+Majesty's Police.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Lefèvre knew that he was taking a grave risk when,

+shortly after eight o'clock on that same evening, he

+ordered a squadron of his police to follow him to

+Chéron's farm on the Chartres road.  At the last

+moment he even had a few misgivings as to the

+wisdom of his action.  If the expedition did not meet

+with the measure of success which he anticipated, and

+the accredited agent of the Minister came to hear of

+it, something exceedingly unpleasant to the

+over-zealous commissary might be the result.  However,

+after a few very brief moments of this unworthy

+hesitation, M. Lefèvre chid himself for his cowardice and

+started on his way.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Since his interview with the one-eyed Chouan he

+had been over to the farm in order to get a thorough

+knowledge of the topography of the buildings and of

+their surroundings.  Disguised as a labourer he had

+hung about the neighbourhood, in the wet and cold

+until he felt quite sure that he could find his way

+anywhere around the place in the dark.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The farm stood a couple of kilomètres or so from

+the road, on the bank of a tiny tributary of the

+Mayenne, surrounded by weeping willows, now stripped

+of their leaves, and flanked by a couple of tumble-down

+heather-thatched sheds.  It was a square building,

+devoid of any outstanding architectural features,

+and looking inexpressibly lonely and forlorn.  There

+was not another human habitation in sight, and the

+wooded heights which dominated the valley appeared

+to shut the inhabitants of the little farm away from

+the rest of mankind.  As he looked at the vast and

+mournful solitude around, Lefèvre easily recognised

+how an astute leader, such as the Spaniard appeared

+to be, would choose it as headquarters for his schemes.

+Whenever the house itself became unsafe the thicket

+of willow and chestnut close by, and the dense

+undergrowth on the heights above, would afford perfect

+shelter for fugitive marauders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was close on ten o'clock of an exceptionally dark

+night when the posse of police, under the command of

+the chief commissary, dismounted at the "Grand

+Duc," a small wayside inn on the Chartres road, and,

+having stabled their horses, started on foot across

+country at the heels of their chief.  The earth was

+sodden with recent rains and the little troop moved

+along in silence, their feet, encased in shoes of soft

+leather, making no sound as they stealthily advanced.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The little rivulet wound its sluggish course

+between flat banks bordered by waste land on either

+side.  Far ahead a tiny light gleamed intermittently,

+like a will-o'-the-wisp, as intervening groups of trees

+alternately screened it and displayed it to view.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After half an hour of heavy walking the commissary

+called a halt.  The massive block of the farmhouse

+stood out like a dense and dark mass in the

+midst of the surrounding gloom.  M. Lefèvre called

+softly to his sergeant.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Steal along, Hippolyte," he whispered, "under

+cover of those willow trees, and when you hear me

+give the first command to open, surround the house

+so that the rascals cannot escape either by the door or

+the windows."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Silently and noiselessly these orders were executed;

+whilst the commissary himself stole up to the house.

+He came to a halt before the front door and paused a

+moment, peering anxiously round about him and

+listening for any sound which might come from

+within.  The house appeared dark and deserted; only

+from one of the windows on the ground floor a feeble

+light filtered through the chinks of an ill-fitting

+shutter, and a mingled murmur of voices seemed to travel

+thence intermittently.  But of this the eager watcher

+could not be sure.  The north-westerly wind, soughing

+through the bare branches of the trees behind him,

+also caused the shutters to creak on their hinges and

+effectually confused every other sound.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The chief commissary then rapped vigorously

+against the door with the hilt of his sword.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Open!" he called peremptorily, "in the name of

+the law!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Already he could hear the sergeant and his men

+stealing out from under the trees; but from the

+stronghold of the Chouans there came no answer to his

+summons; absolute silence reigned inside the farmhouse;

+the dismal creaking of a half-broken shutter

+and the murmur of the wind in the leafless willows

+alone roused the dormant echoes of the old walls.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Lefèvre rapped once more against the massive

+panels.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Open!" he called again, "in the name of the law!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The men following their sergeant had now reached

+the open.  In an instant, from somewhere in the gloom

+behind them, there came the report of two musket

+shots in rapid succession.  Someone was hit, for there

+was the sound of a groan and a curse; but in the

+darkness it was impossible to see who it was.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The men halted irresolute.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Run to the back of the house, some of you!"

+commanded the commissary, "and in Heaven's name do

+not allow a single ruffian to escape."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The men obeyed as quickly as the darkness would

+allow, and again two musket shots rang out from

+among the trees; this time the sergeant fell forward

+on his face.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Corporal Crosnier, are you there?" cried

+Commissary Lefèvre.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Present, my commandant!" was the quick reply.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Take Jean Marie and Dominique and two or three

+others with you, and put up the game that is lurking

+under those willows."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Crosnier obeyed; he called half a dozen men to

+him and marched them up towards the thicket.  The

+cowering enemy lay low; only from time to time shots

+rang out simultaneously out of the darkness.  Sometimes

+they made a hit, but not often&mdash;one or two of

+the men received a stray bullet in their shoulder or

+their leg&mdash;a random shot which came from out of the

+gloom and to which they could not reply, for it was

+impossible to see whence it had come.  Presently even

+that intermittent fire ceased.  It seemed as if the

+thicket had finally swallowed up the lurking quarry.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+In the meantime Lefèvre had ordered two or three

+of his picked men to use the butt-end of their muskets

+against the door.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Batter it in, my men," he commanded, "and arrest

+everyone you find inside the house."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Strangely enough, considering the usually desperate

+tactics of these Chouan gangs when brought

+to bay, no resistance was offered from the interior of

+their stronghold.  Whether the rascals were short of

+ammunition and were saving it for a hand-to-hand

+fight later, or whether they were preparing some bold

+coup, it was impossible to say.  Certain it is that the

+vigorous attacks against the front door were met by

+absolute silence&mdash;so absolute, indeed, as vaguely to

+disconcert the commissary of police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Still the men continued to pound away with their

+muskets against the panels of the door; but the latter

+was extraordinarily massive in comparison with the

+want of solidity of the rest of the house.  It resisted

+every onslaught for some time, until at last it fell in

+with a terrific crash, and Lefèvre, leaving half a dozen

+men on guard outside, took another half-dozen with

+him and entered.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He had picked his men from among those whom

+he knew to be most intrepid, for he had expected a

+desperate resistance on the part of the Chouans; he

+was prepared to be greeted with a volley of musket-fire

+as he and his men crossed the threshold; he was

+prepared for a hand-to-hand fight across that battered

+door.  In fact, M. Lefèvre, chief commissary of

+police, had been prepared for everything excepting the

+death-like stillness which he encountered by way of

+welcome.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Darkness and silence held undisputed sway everywhere.

+The men, with dark lanterns fixed to their

+belts and holding loaded muskets in their hands,

+paused for one moment irresolute.  Then they started

+to make a thorough search of the place; first the

+ground floor, then the entrance hall and staircase,

+then the cellars.  They explored every nook and

+cranny where human quarry might find shelter, but

+there was not a sign, hardly a trace of any Chouans,

+save in one small room on the ground floor which

+certainly appeared as if it had been recently occupied;

+the chairs had been hastily pushed aside, on the centre

+table were half a dozen mugs and two or three jugs,

+one of which was still half filled with wine, a handful

+of ashes smouldered in the hearth, and the lamp which

+hung from the ceiling above was alight.  But for this,

+Lefèvre might have thought that he must have been

+dreaming when he stood by the front door and saw

+the narrow stream of light through the chink of a

+shutter.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Indeed, there was something unspeakably dreary

+and desolate in this dark and empty house, in which

+undoubtedly a gang of malefactors had lately held

+revel; and when the men went upstairs in order to

+explore the floor above, they were, every one of them,

+conscious of the quick sense of unreasoning terror

+when a weird and intermittent sound suddenly reached

+their ear.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The sound came from over their heads&mdash;it was like

+a wail, and was piteous and disconcerting in the extreme.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Like someone groaning," said one of the men in

+a hoarse whisper.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Soon their momentary feeling of dread passed

+away, and two or three of the men had already scaled

+the narrow, ladder-like stairs which led to a loft that

+ran the whole length and breadth of the house under

+the sloping roof.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But here an extraordinary sight met their gaze.

+Huddled up against a large supporting beam were an

+old man, a woman and two young girls.  They had

+been tied together by ropes to the beam.  Each of the

+unfortunates was in acute distress or bodily pain.

+The atmosphere of the place was both stuffy and

+bitterly cold.  Incessant moaning came from the woman,

+sobbing from the girls; the man appeared stunned and

+dazed.  When the light from one of the dark lanterns

+fell upon him, he blinked his eyes and gazed

+vacantly on the men who were already busy with the

+ropes, freeing him and the woman from their bonds.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+They all appeared in the last stage of exhaustion

+and clung to one another for support and warmth,

+when Lefèvre with kindly authority ordered them to

+move.  Fortunately one of the men recollected the jug

+of wine which had been left in the room on the

+ground floor.  He ran to fetch it, and returned very

+soon jug and glasses in hand.  In the meanwhile

+Lefèvre had remained staring at the wretched people

+and trying to extract a few words of explanation from

+them.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+So far he had only been able to elicit the information

+that four members of the farmer Chéron's family,

+his father, his wife and his two daughters stood before

+him in this pitiable plight.  It was only after they

+had drunk a little wine that they were able to speak

+coherently.  In short, jerky sentences and with teeth

+still chattering with cold and terror, the old man tried

+to reply to the commissary's questions.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"How in the world came you to be up here," M. Lefèvre

+asked, "tied like cattle to a beam in your

+son's house?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My son is away at Chartres, Monsieur le

+Commissaire," replied the old man; "he won't return till

+to-morrow.  We should have perished of hunger and

+cold if you had not come to our rescue."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But where are those blackguardly Chouans?  And

+who in the devil's name fired on us from under your

+trees?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Those execrable Chouans took possession of my

+son's house this morning, Monsieur le Commissaire,

+soon after his departure," answered the old man

+dolefully.  "They seized me and my daughter-in-law and

+my two grandchildren, forced us to give up the little

+bit of money which my son had left for our use, stole

+food from the larder and wine from the cellar; and

+when we protested they dragged us up here&mdash;as you

+say&mdash;like cattle, tied us to a beam and left us to perish

+unless my son should chance to come home."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Lefèvre would have liked to say that twenty-four

+hours spent in a draughty loft does not necessarily

+mean starvation, but on the whole he refrained from

+badgering the poor people, who had suffered quite

+enough, with further expostulation.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But what has happened to the Chouans?" he reiterated

+with a hearty curse.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Gone, Monsieur le Commissaire," here interposed

+the woman woefully.  "Gone!  They caroused all day,

+and left about a couple of hours ago; since then the

+house has been as silent as the grave."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Lefèvre said nothing very coherent for the moment;

+he was mentally embracing the Chouans, the lying

+informer and his own folly in one comprehensive

+curse.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But my men were fired on from behind the trees,"

+he urged feebly after a while.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I heard the firing, too, Monsieur le Commissaire,"

+rejoined the old man.  "It terrified us, for the

+Chouans had threatened to shoot us all if they were

+attacked by the police; and these two young girls&mdash;think

+of it, Monsieur le Commissaire&mdash;at the mercy of

+those brutes.  I suppose," he added with a shudder,

+"that while the leaders of the gang made good their

+escape, they left a couple of men behind to cover their

+retreat."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Nothing more could be got out of these poor people.

+They had been set upon quite early in the day

+by the Chouans, and knew little or nothing of what

+had gone on in the house while they were prisoners

+in the loft.  They did not know how many of the

+ruffians there were&mdash;six or eight they thought.  The

+chief was a man with swarthy skin and a long black

+beard, who spoke French with a strange foreign

+accent.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissary of police went nearly mad with

+rage.  He set his best men to search the farm-house

+through and through, in the hope that some of the

+rascals might still be lurking about the place.  But

+the men ransacked the house in vain.  They found

+neither trap-door nor secret panel, nor slinking quarry,

+and after a couple of hours' hunt were forced to own

+themselves defeated.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+M. Lefèvre returned to Alençon with his posse of

+police in the small hours of the morning.  He

+dismissed the men at the commissariat, and sought his

+own lodgings in the Rue Notre Dame, his mind a

+prey to the bitterest feeling of disappointment&mdash;not

+unmixed with misgivings at thought of M. le

+Ministre's agent, should he get wind of the miscarriage.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+To his terror and amazement, no sooner had he

+entered the house than the concierge came out of his

+lodge to tell him that a gentleman was upstairs in his

+rooms, waiting for him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Who is it?" he asked sharply.  "You have no

+right to admit anyone to my rooms at this hour of

+the night."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I could not help myself," retorted the concierge

+sullenly.  "He exhibited some sort of order from the

+Ministry of Police, and was so high-handed and

+peremptory that I dared not refuse."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Filled with vague apprehension M. Lefèvre ran

+quickly up to his rooms.  He was greeted in the

+ante-chamber by the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I was unfortunately too late to catch you before

+you started," said the latter as soon as Lefèvre had

+closed the door.  He spoke in his even monotone&mdash;his

+face was calm and expressionless, but there was something

+about his attitude which jarred unpleasantly on

+the commissary's nerves.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I&mdash;that is&mdash;&mdash;" he stammered, despite his stern

+effort to appear confident and at his ease.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have disobeyed the Minister's orders," interposed

+the secret agent quietly.  "But there is no time

+now to discuss your conduct.  The blunder which you

+have just committed is mayhap beyond repair; in

+which case&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He broke off abruptly and M. Lefèvre felt a cold

+shiver running down his spine.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There was no time to consult you&mdash;&mdash;" he began.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I said that I would not discuss that," interposed

+the Man in Grey quietly.  "Tell me where you have

+been."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To Chéron's farm on the Chartres road," replied

+the commissary sullenly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The informer gave you directions?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That you would find his leader there?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes, the man whom they call 'the Spaniard,' and

+some of his accomplices.  The informer&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The informer escaped from the cells during your

+absence this evening," said the Man in Grey curtly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Malediction!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do not curse, my good man," advised the other

+dryly.  "The rascal's escape may be the means of

+retrieving your blunder, since it gave me the

+knowledge of the whole affair."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But how did it happen?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Surveillance slackened while you went off on your

+wild-goose chase.  Your prisoner used some of the

+money wherewith you had bribed him&mdash;against my

+express command, remember&mdash;to bribe his warder in

+his turn.  Your sergeant-in-charge came to me in his

+distress when he found that his bird had flown."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Lefèvre had no longer the strength to argue or

+even to curse.  He hung his head in silent dejection.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I sent for you," continued the Man in Grey

+mercilessly.  "When I found that you had gone no one

+knew whither, and that you had taken a posse of your

+men with you, I guessed the whole extent of your

+damnable blunder.  I have waited here for you ever

+since.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What can I do now?" murmured Lefèvre gloomily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Collect ten or twelve of the men whom you can

+most confidently trust, and then pick me up at my

+lodgings in the Rue de France.  We'll go back to

+Chéron's farm&mdash;together."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But there is no one there," said Lefèvre with a

+dejected sigh, "only Chéron's father, his wife and two

+daughters."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I know that well enough, you fool," exclaimed the

+Man in Grey, departing for the first time from his

+habitual calm, and starting to pace up and down the

+narrow room like a caged and fretting animal; "and

+that every proof against the villains who robbed

+Monsieur de Kerblay has no doubt vanished whilst you

+were getting the wrong sow by the ear.  To bring the

+crime home to them now will be very difficult.  'Tis

+red-handed we ought to have caught them, with the

+Jew there and the ring and the Spaniard bargaining,

+whereas now&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Suddenly he paused and stood quite still; the anger

+and impatience died out of his face, leaving it pale

+and expressionless as was its wont; only to Lefèvre

+who was watching him with keen anxiety it seemed

+as if for one fraction of a second a curious glitter

+had lit up his colourless eyes.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"In Heaven's name!" he resumed impatiently after

+a while, "let us get to horse, or I may be tempted

+to tell you what I think of your folly."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissary, trounced like a recalcitrant

+schoolboy and not a little terrified at the consequences

+of his blunder, was only too ready to obey.  Within

+half an hour he was in the saddle.  He had Corporal

+Crosnier with him and half a dozen picked men, and

+together they went to the Rue de France where the

+Minister's agent was waiting for them.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+V

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+It was close upon five o'clock of a raw, damp morning

+when the little party drew rein once more at the

+wayside inn on the Chartres road.  The men appeared

+tired out and were grateful for the hot coffee which a

+sleepy ostler hastily prepared for them; but the Man

+in Grey seemed indefatigable.  Wrapped to the chin

+in a long, dark mantle, he had ridden the whole way

+by the side of the commissary, plying him with questions

+the while.  Bit by bit he had extracted from him

+the full history of the futile expedition, the description

+of the house, its situation and structure, and of

+the members of the Chéron family.  Now, whilst

+sipping his coffee, he made Lefèvre give him final and

+minute directions how to reach the farm-house.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Ten minutes later he started on his way&mdash;alone and

+on foot.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Follow me in about five minutes," were his last

+commands to the commissary.  "Then lie low under

+the trees.  When you hear a pistol shot from inside

+the house rush in and seize every man, woman, or

+child whom you find; if you meet with any resistance

+order your men to use their muskets.  Leave the

+Corporal with a strong guard outside the house, both

+back and front, and bid him shoot on sight anyone

+who attempts to escape."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After he had walked on through the darkness for

+a couple of mètres or so, he threw off his mantle and

+hat and kicked off his shoes.  The commissary of

+police, had he been near him now, would of a truth

+have been staggered at his appearance.  He wore a

+pair of ragged breeches and a stained and tattered

+blouse; his hair was unkempt, and his feet and legs

+were bare to the knees.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now for a little bit of luck," he murmured as he

+started to run.  His bare feet squelched through the

+wet earth and spattered him with mud from head to

+foot, and as he ran the perspiration streamed down his

+face and mingled with the grime.  Indeed, it seemed

+as if he took a special delight in tiring himself out, in

+getting breathless and hot, and by his active exercise

+making himself look even dirtier and more disreputable

+than he had been before.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+When he reached the river side and the row of

+willow trees, he halted; the house, he knew, must be

+quite close now on the right, and as he peered into

+the darkness he perceived a tiny streak of light

+glimmering feebly through the gloom some way off.

+Throwing himself flat upon his stomach, he bent his

+ear to the ground; it was attuned to the slightest

+sound, like that of the Indian trackers, and he heard

+at a distance of four hundred mètres behind him the

+measured tramp of Lefèvre's men.  Then he rose to

+his feet and, stealthily as a cat, crept up to the house.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The slender streak of light guided him and, as he

+drew nearer, he heard a confused murmur of voices

+raised in merriment.  The occupants of the house

+were apparently astir; the light came through a

+half-open shutter on the ground floor as did the sound of

+the voices, through which presently there rang a loud

+and prolonged peal of laughter.  The secret agent

+drew a deep sigh of satisfaction; the birds&mdash;thank

+goodness&mdash;had not yet flown.  Noiselessly he

+approached the front door, the battered and broken

+appearance of which bore testimony to Lefèvre's zeal.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A bright patch of light striking through an open

+door on the right illumined a portion of the narrow

+hall beyond, leaving the rest in complete darkness.

+The Man in Grey stepped furtively over the threshold.

+Immediately he was challenged: "Who goes there?"

+and he felt rather than saw a gun levelled at his

+head.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A friend," he murmured timidly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At the instant the challenge had resounded through

+the house the light in the inner room on the right was

+suddenly extinguished; deathly silence had succeeded

+the debauch.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What's your business?" queried a muffled voice

+peremptorily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Before the Man in Grey could reply there was a

+commotion in the inner room as of chairs hastily

+thrust aside, and presently another voice&mdash;one both

+gruff and commanding&mdash;called out: "What is it,

+Pierre?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A dark lantern was flashed about, its light fell

+full on the miserable apparition of the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What do you want?" queried the commanding

+voice out of the partial gloom.  "Speak, or I fire!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A friend!" reiterated the Man in Grey timidly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your name?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nicaise, sir, from Mauger's farm on the Mayenne

+road.  I was asleep under a haystack, when a stranger

+comes to me and shakes me roughly by the shoulder.

+'Run,' he says to me, 'to Chéron's up by the Chartres

+road.  Run as fast as your legs will take you.  Walk

+in boldly; the door is open.  You will find company

+inside the farm.  Tell them the police are coming back

+in force.  Someone will give you a silver franc for

+your pains if you get there in time.'  So I took to

+my heels and ran."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+While he spoke another man and a woman had

+entered.  Their vague forms were faintly discernible

+through the darkness; the light from the lantern still

+struck full on the Man in Grey, who looked the picture

+of woebegone imbecility.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+From the group in the doorway there came a murmur:

+"The police!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A stranger, you say?" queried the man with the

+commanding voice.  "What was he like?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I could not say," replied the secret agent humbly.

+"It was very dark.  But he said I should get a silver

+franc for my pains, and I am a poor man.  I thought

+at first it was a hoax, but when I crossed the meadow

+just now I saw a lot of men in hiding under the willow

+trees."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Malediction!" muttered the man, as he turned,

+undecided, towards his companions.  "Oh, that I had

+that one-eyed traitor in my power!" he added with a

+savage oath.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Did you speak to the men of the police?" asked

+a woman's voice out of the darkness.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No, madame," replied the secret agent.  "They

+did not see me.  I was crawling on my hands and

+knees.  But they are all round the house, and I heard

+one man calling to the sergeant and giving him orders

+to watch the doors and windows lest anyone tried to

+escape."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The group in the doorway was silent; the man who

+had been on guard appeared to have joined them,

+and they all went back into the room and held a

+hurried consultation.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There is nothing for it," said one man, "but to

+resume our former roles as members of the Chéron

+family, and to do it as naturally as before."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"They suspect us now," said another, "or they

+would not be here again so soon."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Even so; but if we play our parts well they can

+only take us back to the commissariat and question

+us; they must release us in the end; they have no

+proof."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+In the meanwhile someone had relighted the lamp.

+There appeared to be a good deal of scurrying and

+scrambling inside the room; the Man in Grey tiptoed

+up to the doorway to see what was going on.  Evidently,

+disguises which had hastily been put aside had

+been resumed; the group stood before him now just

+as Lefèvre had originally described them: the old

+man, the woman, the two young girls; the latter were

+striding about the room and holding their skirts up

+clumsily with both hands, as men are wont to do when

+they don women's clothes; the old man, on whom

+grey locks and well-stencilled wrinkles were the only

+signs of age, was hastily putting these to rights before

+a mirror on the wall.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But it was the woman's doings which compelled

+the attention of the Man in Grey.  She was standing

+on a chair with her back to him, intent on manipulating

+something up the huge open chimney.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It will be quite safe there," she said.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She appeared to be closing some heavy iron door

+which fell in its place with a snap.  Then she turned

+to her companions and slowly descended from the

+chair.  "When the present storm has blown over,"

+she said, "we'll come and fetch it.  Chéron will never

+guess; at any rate, we are sure the police cannot

+discover this most excellent hiding-place."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She was a short, square-built woman, with a dark,

+almost swarthy skin, keen jet-black eyes which

+appeared peculiarly hard and glittering owing to the

+absence of lashes, a firm, thin-lipped mouth, square

+chin, and low forehead crowned by a shock of thick,

+black hair cut short like a boy's.  The secret agent

+kept his eyes fixed upon her while she spoke to her

+friends.  He noted the head so full of character, and

+the strength and determination expressed in every

+line of the face; he marvelled why the features&mdash;especially

+those glittering jet-black eyes&mdash;appeared

+familiar, as something he had known and heard of

+before.  And, suddenly, it all came to him in a flash;

+he remembered the informer's description of the

+leader named "the Spaniard": a dark, swarthy skin,

+jet-black hair, keen dark eyes with no lashes to soften

+their glitter, the beard, the man's attire, the foreign

+accent.  Soh! these marauding Chouans slipped in

+and out of their disguises and changed even their sex

+outwardly as easily as men change their coats; whilst

+the very identity of their leader was more often

+unknown to them than known.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+As the secret agent's practised glance took in during

+these few seconds the whole personality of the woman

+before him, he knew that his surmises&mdash;based on

+intuition and on reasoning&mdash;were correct.  It was

+the Spaniard who stood before him now, but the

+Spaniard was a woman.  And as he gazed on her,

+half in pity because of her sex, and half in admiration

+for her intrepidity, she turned, and their glances met.

+She looked at him across the narrow room, and each

+knew that the other had guessed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The woman never flinched; she held the agent's

+glance and did not utter either word or cry whilst

+with a slow, deliberate movement, she drew a pistol

+from beneath her kerchief.  But he, as quick and

+resourceful, had instantly stepped back into the hall.

+He seized the door, and, with a loud bang, closed it

+to between himself and the Chouans.  Then, with

+lightning rapidity, he pushed the heavy bolt home.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The report of a pistol rang out.  It came from

+inside the room.  The Man in Grey was leaning his

+full weight against the door, wondering whether

+Lefèvre and his men would come to his assistance

+before the trapped Chouans had time to burst the

+panels.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He heard Lefèvre's call outside and the heavy

+tramp of the men.  A few seconds of agonising suspense,

+whilst he literally felt the massive door heaving

+behind him under the furious onslaught of the

+imprisoned Chouans, and the commissary with the men

+of the police burst into the hall.  The door fell in with

+a terrific crash.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Chouans, caught like foxes run to earth,

+offered a desperate resistance.  But the odds were too

+great; after a grim struggle across the threshold,

+which lasted close on ten minutes and left several men

+of the police bleeding or dead upon the floor, the

+gang was captured, securely bound and locked in one

+of the cellars underneath the house, where they were

+left in charge of half a dozen men until such time as

+they could be conveyed to Alençon and thence to

+Bicêtre to await their trial.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+VI

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+It has been impossible, owing to the maze of

+records, to disentangle the subsequent history of three

+of these Chouans.  The Spaniard, however, was, we

+know, kept in prison for over five years until, after

+the Restoration, her friends succeeded in laying her

+petition of release before the King and she was

+granted a free pardon and a small pension from the

+privy purse, "in consideration of the services she had

+rendered to His Majesty and the martyrdom she had

+suffered in his cause."  On the official list of

+pensioners in the year 1816 her name appears as

+"Caroline Mercier, commonly called the Spaniard."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But at Chéron's farm, when all was still, the men

+of the police gone and the prisoners safely under lock

+and key, the Man in Grey and the commissary returned

+to the little room which had been the scene of

+the Chouans' final stand.  A broken chair was lying

+by the side of the tall, open chimney, wherein the

+woman with the swarthy skin and jet-black eyes had

+concealed the stolen treasure.  The accredited agent

+had no difficulty in finding the secret hiding-place;

+about a foot up the chimney an iron door was let into

+the solid wall.  A little manipulation of his deft fingers

+soon released the secret spring, and the metal panel

+glided gently in its grooves.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Kerblay's precious ring and some twenty

+thousand francs in money gladdened the sight of the

+worthy commissary of police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But how did you guess?" he asked of the Man

+in Grey, when, half an hour later, the pair were

+ambling along the road back towards Alençon.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"While you were getting ready for our second

+expedition, my dear Monsieur Lefèvre," replied the Man

+in Grey, "I took the simple precaution of ascertaining

+whether the farmer Chéron had a wife, a father,

+and two daughters.  Your own records at the

+commissariat furnished me with this information.  From

+them I learned that though he had a wife, he had

+no father living, and that he had three grown-up

+sons, long ago started out into the world.  After that,

+everything became very simple."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I suppose," quoth the commissary ruefully, "that

+I ought to have found out about the man Chéron and

+his family before I went off on that fool's errand."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You ought, above all, to have consulted me," was

+the Man in Grey's calm reproof.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap03"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER III

+<br /><br />

+THE MYSTERY OF MARIE VAILLANT

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+After the capture of the Spaniard at Chéron's farm

+on that dark night, M. Lefèvre realised that when

+M. le Duc d'Otrante sent down that insignificant-looking

+little man in the grey coat to help in the hunt after the

+astute but infamous Chouans, he had acted&mdash;as he

+always did&mdash;with foresight and unerring knowledge

+of human nature and human capacity.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Henceforward M. Lefèvre became the faithful

+panegyrist and henchman of the Minister's anonymous

+agent.  He haunted the latter's apartments in the Rue

+de France, he was significantly silent when the Man

+in Grey was sneered and jeered at in the higher

+official circles, and, what is more, when M. Leblanc,

+sous-préfet of Bourg-le-Roi, had such grave misgivings

+about his children's governess, it was the commissary

+who advised him to go for counsel and assistance to

+the mysterious personage who enjoyed the special

+confidence and favour of M. le Duc d'Otrante himself.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Leblanc, who had an inordinate belief in his

+own perspicacity, fought for some time against the

+suggestion; but, after a while, the mystery which

+surrounded Mademoiselle Vaillant reached such a

+bewildering stage, whilst remaining outside the scope of

+police interference, that he finally decided to take his

+friend's advice, and, one morning, about the end of

+November, he presented himself at the lodgings in

+Alençon occupied by the accredited agent of His

+Majesty's Minister of Police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Of a truth M. Leblanc was singularly agitated.

+His usually correct, official attitude had given place

+to a kind of febrile excitement which he was at great

+pains to conceal.  He had just left Madame Leblanc

+in a state of grave anxiety, and he himself, though he

+would not have owned to it for the world, did not

+know what to make of the whole affair.  But he did

+not intend that his own agitation should betray him

+into a loss of dignity in the presence of the little

+upstart from Paris; so, after the formal greetings, he

+sat down and plunged into a maze of conversational

+subjects&mdash;books, the theatres, the war, the victories

+of the Emperor and the rumoured alliance with the

+Austrian Archduchess&mdash;until the Man in Grey's quiet

+monotone broke in on the flow of his eloquence with

+a perfectly polite query:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Has Monsieur le Sous-Préfet, then, honoured me

+with a visit at this early hour for the purpose of

+discussing the politics of the day?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Partly, my good Monsieur Fernand, partly," replied

+the sous-préfet airily.  "I desired that we should

+become more closely acquainted&mdash;and," he added, as

+if with an after-thought, "I desired to put before you

+a small domestic matter which has greatly perturbed

+Madame Leblanc, and which, I confess, does appear

+even to me as something of a mystery."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am entirely at Monsieur le Sous-Préfet's service,"

+rejoined the Man in Grey without the ghost of

+a smile.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh!  I dare say," continued M. Leblanc in that

+offhand manner which had become the rule among

+the officials of the district when dealing with the secret

+agent, "I dare say that when I think the matter over

+I shall be quite able to deal with it myself.  At the

+same time, the facts are certainly mysterious, and I

+doubt not but that they will interest you, even if they

+do not come absolutely within the sphere of your

+province."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+This time the Man in Grey offered no remark.  He

+waited for M. le Sous-Préfet to proceed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"As no doubt you know, Monsieur Fernand," resumed

+M. Leblanc after a slight pause, "I own a small

+house and property near Bourg-le-Roi, some eight

+kilomètres from this city, where my wife and children

+live all the year round and where I spend as much

+of my leisure as I can spare from my onerous duties

+here.  The house is called Les Colombiers.  It is an

+old Manor, which belonged to the Comtes de Mamers,

+a Royalist family who emigrated at the outset of the

+Revolution and whose properties were sold for the

+benefit of the State.  The Mamers have remained&mdash;as

+perhaps you know&mdash;among the irreconcilables.  His

+Majesty the Emperor's clemency did not succeed in

+luring them away from England, where they have

+settled; and I, on the other hand, have continued in

+undisputed possession of a charming domain.  The

+old moated house is of great archæological and

+historical interest.  It stands in the midst of a

+well-timbered park, is well secluded from the road by

+several acres of dense coppice, and it is said that, during

+the religious persecutions instituted by Charles IX at

+the instigation of his abominable mother, Les

+Colombiers was often the refuge of Huguenots, and the

+rallying-point for the followers of the proscribed

+faith.  As I myself," continued M. Leblanc with

+conscious pride, "belong to an old Huguenot family, you

+will readily understand, my good Monsieur Fernand,

+that I feel an additional interest in Les Colombiers."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Pausing for a moment, the sous-préfet readjusted

+the set of his neckcloth, crossed one shapely leg over

+the other and added with an affable air of condescension:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I trust that I am not trespassing upon your

+valuable time, my dear friend, by recounting these

+seemingly irrelevant, but quite necessary details."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"On the contrary, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet,"

+rejoined the Man in Grey quietly, "I am vastly and,

+I may say, respectfully interested."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Thus encouraged, M. Leblanc boldly continued his

+narrative.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My household," he said, "consists, I must tell

+you, of my wife and myself and my two children&mdash;a

+boy and a girl&mdash;Adèle, aged fourteen, and Ernest,

+just over twelve.  I keep a couple of men and two

+maids indoors, and three or four men in the garden.

+Finally, there is my children's governess, Marie

+Vaillant.  She came to us last summer warmly

+recommended by Monseigneur the Constitutional Bishop of

+Alençon, and it is her conduct which of late has so

+gravely disquieted Madame Leblanc and myself.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But you shall judge.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"At first my wife and I had every reason to

+congratulate ourselves on having secured such a

+competent, refined and charming woman to preside over

+the education of our children.  Marie Vaillant was

+gay, pretty and full of spirits.  The children loved

+her, especially Ernest, who set his entire childish

+affections upon his young and attractive governess.

+During the summer lessons were done out of doors,

+and long expeditions were undertaken in the woods,

+whence Ernest and Adèle would return, hot, tired and

+happy.  They had played at being explorers in virgin

+forests, so they told their mother.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was only when the evenings waxed longer," continued

+the sous-préfet, in a tone of growing embarrassment,

+now that he was nearing the climax of his story,

+"that Mademoiselle Vaillant suddenly changed.  She

+developed a curious proclivity for promiscuous

+coquetry."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Coquetry?" broke in the secret agent with a smile.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes!  Marie began to flirt&mdash;shamelessly, openly,

+with every man she came across, visitors, shop-keepers,

+friends and gardeners.  She exercised an almost

+weird fascination over them; one and all would

+anticipate her slightest wish; in fact, the men about the

+house and grounds of Les Colombiers appeared to be

+more her servants than ours.  Moreover, she made

+an absolute fool of our butler, Lavernay&mdash;a

+middle-aged man who ought to have known better.  He has

+not only pursued Mademoiselle Vaillant with his

+attentions but also with his jealousy, until Madame

+Leblanc felt that her whole household was becoming

+the laughing-stock of the neighbourhood."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And have you or Madame Leblanc done anything

+in the matter?" asked the Man in Grey, while M. le

+Sous-Préfet paused to draw breath.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, yes!  Madame spoke to the girl and I trounced

+Lavernay.  Marie was humble and apologetic and

+Lavernay very contrite.  Both promised to be discreet

+and sensible in future.  At the same time I confess

+that I was not at all reassured.  Within a fortnight

+we heard through the gossip of a busybody that Marie

+Vaillant was in the habit of stealing out of the house

+in the evenings, at an hour when respectable people

+should be in bed, and after five minutes' start she was

+usually followed on these peregrinations by the butler.

+There was no doubt about the whole thing: even our

+sergeant of police had witnessed these clandestine

+meetings and had reported the matter to the local

+commissary.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There was nothing for it now but to dismiss the

+flirtatious governess as quickly as possible.  I may

+say that Madame Leblanc, who had been genuinely

+fond of the girl, acquitted herself of the task with

+remarkable tact and gentleness.  Marie Vaillant, indeed,

+belied her name when she received the news of her

+dismissal.  She begged and implored my wife's

+forgiveness, swore by all she could think of that she had

+only erred from ignorance; she had no thought of

+doing wrong; she was innocent of anything but the

+merest flirtation.  Fond of breathing the midnight

+air which was so balmy and sweet in the woods, she

+had lately got into the habit of strolling out when she

+could not sleep and sitting for an hour or so dreaming

+among the trees.  She admitted that once or twice she

+had been followed by Lavernay, had been very angry

+with him, and had seriously rebuked him; but it

+should never, never happen again&mdash;she vowed and

+swore it should not&mdash;if only Madame would forgive

+her and not send her away from Les Colombiers which

+was like a home to her, and from Ernest and Adèle

+whom she loved as if they were her brother and

+sister.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But Madame Leblanc was inexorable.  Perhaps

+she felt that quite so much ignorance of the ways of

+the world and the decorum prescribed to every well

+educated woman was not altogether credible; perhaps

+she thought that the lady did protest too much.

+Certain it is that though she went back on her original

+pronouncement that the girl must leave the house

+within twenty-four hours, she refused to consider the

+question of allowing her to remain permanently.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was finally agreed that Marie Vaillant should

+leave Les Colombiers at the end of the month: but

+that at the slightest transgression or repetition of the

+old offence she would be dismissed with contumely

+and turned out of the house at an hour's notice.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"This happened exactly a fortnight ago," went on

+M. Leblanc, who was at last drawing to the end of

+what had proved a lengthy soliloquy; "and I may tell

+you that since then Mademoiselle Vaillant has grown

+the model of all the proprieties.  Sober, demure,

+well-conducted, she has fulfilled her duties with a

+conscientiousness which is beyond praise.  When those heavy

+rains set in a week ago, outdoor life at once became

+impossible.  Adèle and Ernest took seriously to their

+books and Mademoiselle devoted herself to them in a

+manner which has been absolutely exemplary.  She

+has literally given up her whole time to their welfare,

+not only&mdash;so Madame Leblanc tells me&mdash;by helping

+with their clothes, but she has even taken certain

+menial tasks upon herself which are altogether outside

+her province as a governess.  She has relieved the

+servants by attending to the children's bedroom; she

+had been making their beds and even washing their

+stockings and pocket handkerchiefs.  She asked to be

+allowed to do these things in order to distract her

+mind from the sorrow caused by Madame's displeasure.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Of course, I gave Lavernay a stern scolding; but

+he swore to me that though he had followed

+Mademoiselle during her evening walks, he had done it

+mostly without her knowledge and always without her

+consent; a fit of his former jealousy had seized him,

+but she had reprimanded him very severely and

+forbidden him ever to dog her footsteps again.  After

+that he, too, appeared to turn over a new leaf.  It.

+seemed as if his passion for Marie was beginning to

+burn itself out, and that we could look forward once

+again to the happy and peaceful days of the summer."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+M. le Sous-Préfet had talked uninterruptedly for a

+quarter of an hour; his pompous, somewhat laboured

+diction and his loud voice had put a severe strain upon

+him.  The Man in Grey had been an ideal listener.

+With his eyes fixed on M. Leblanc, he had sat almost

+motionless, not losing a single word of the prolix

+recital, and even now when the sous-préfet

+paused&mdash;obviously somewhat exhausted&mdash;he did not show the

+slightest sign of flagging interest.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now, my good Monsieur Fernand," resumed M. Leblanc,

+with something of his habitual, condescending

+manner, "will you tell me if there is anything in

+what I have just told you&mdash;I fear me at great

+length&mdash;that is not perfectly simple and even stereotyped?

+A young and pretty girl coming into a somewhat

+old-fashioned and dull household and finding a not

+altogether commendable pleasure in turning the heads of

+every susceptible man she meets!  Indiscretions

+follow and the gossips of the neighbourhood are set

+talking.  Admonished by her mistress, the girl is

+almost broken-hearted; she begs for forgiveness and at

+once sets to work to re-establish herself in the good

+graces of her employers.  I dare say you are surprised

+that I should have been at such pains to recount

+to you a series of commonplace occurrences.  But

+what to an ordinary person would appear in the

+natural order of things, strikes me as not altogether

+normal.  I mistrust the girl.  I do not believe in her

+contrition, still less in her reformation.  Moreover,

+what worries me, and worries Madame Leblanc still

+more, is the amazing ascendency which Marie Vaillant

+exorcises over our boy Ernest.  She seems to be

+putting forth her fullest powers of fascination&mdash;I own

+that they are great&mdash;to cementing the child's

+affection for her.  For the last few weeks the boy has

+become strangely nervy, irritable and jealous.  He

+follows Marie wherever she goes, and hangs upon her

+lips when she speaks.  So much so that my wife and

+I look forward now with dread to the day of parting.

+When Marie goes I do verily believe that Ernest,

+who is a very highly-strung child, will fall seriously

+ill with grief."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Again M. Leblanc paused.  A look of genuine alarm

+had overspread his otherwise vapid face.  Clearly he

+was a man deeply attached to his children and, despite

+his fatuous officiousness, was not prepared to take

+any risks where their welfare was concerned.  He

+mopped his face with his handkerchief, and for the

+first time since the beginning of the interview he

+threw a look of almost pathetic appeal on the agent

+of the Minister of Police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Otherwise, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," said the

+latter, meeting that look of appeal with a quiet smile,

+"has nothing occurred to justify your mistrust of

+Mademoiselle Vaillant's good intentions?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing at all," replied M. Leblanc with a

+nervous hesitation which belied his emphatic words,

+"except a vague sense of uneasiness&mdash;the unnatural

+quiet which came so quickly in the wake of the storm

+of a fortnight ago; and, as I say, the extraordinary

+pains which the girl has taken to captivate the boy:

+so much so in fact that, thinking perhaps Marie still

+entertained hopes of our complete forgiveness and

+thought of using the child as an intermediary with

+us to allow her to remain, Madame Leblanc at my

+suggestion spoke yesterday very firmly to the girl, and

+told her that whatever happened our determination

+was irrevocable.  We felt that we could trust her no

+longer and go she must."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And how did Mademoiselle Vaillant take this final

+decision?" asked the police agent.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"With extraordinary self-possession.  Beyond a

+humble 'Very well, Madame,' she never spoke a word

+during the brief interview.  But in the evening, long

+after the children should have been in bed, Anne&mdash;my

+wife's confidential maid&mdash;happened to be in the

+passage outside Mademoiselle's room, the door of

+which was ajar.  She distinctly heard Marie's voice

+raised in almost passionate supplication: 'Ernest, my

+darling little Ernest!' she was saying, 'will you always

+love me as you do now?'  And the child answered

+fervently: 'I will always love you, my darling Marie.

+I would do anything for you&mdash;I would gladly die for

+you&mdash;&mdash;' and so on&mdash;just the sort of <i>exalté</i> nonsense

+which a highly-strung, irresponsible child would talk.

+Anne did not hear any more then, but remained on

+the watch in a dark corner of the passage.  Quite half

+an hour later, if not more, she saw Ernest slipping out

+of the governess's room clad only in his little

+night-gown and slippers and going back to his own room.

+This incident, which Anne reported faithfully to her

+mistress and to me, has caused my wife such anxiety

+that I determined to consult someone whom I could

+trust, and see whether the whole affair struck an

+impartial mind with the same ominous significance

+which it bears for me.  My choice fell upon you, my

+dear Monsieur Fernand," concluded the sous-préfet

+with a return to his former lofty condescension.  "I

+don't like to introduce gossiping neighbours into my

+private affairs and I know enough about you to be

+convinced of your absolute discretion, as well as of

+your undoubted merits."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey accepted M. Leblanc's careless

+affability with the same unconcern that he had

+displayed under the latter's somewhat contemptuous

+patronage.  He said nothing for a moment or two,

+remaining apparently absorbed in his own thoughts.

+Then he turned to his visitor and in a quiet, professional

+manner, which nevertheless carried with it an

+unmistakable air of authority, intimated to him, by

+rising from his chair, that the interview was now at

+an end.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I thank you, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," he said,

+"both for the confidence which you have reposed in

+me, and for your clear exposé of the present situation

+in your household.  For the moment I should advise

+you to leave all your work in the city, which is not

+of national importance, and go straight back to Les

+Colombiers.  Madame Leblanc should not be left to

+face alone any difficulties which may arise.  At the

+same time, should any fresh development occur, I

+beg that you will either send for me or come to me

+at once.  I place myself entirely at your disposal."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He did not hold out his hand, only stood quietly

+beside his desk; but there was no mistaking the

+attitude, or the almost imperceptible inclination of the

+head.  M. Leblanc was dismissed, and he was not

+accustomed to seeing himself and his affairs set aside

+so summarily.  A sharp retort almost escaped him;

+but a glance from those enigmatic eyes checked the

+haughty words upon his lips.  He became suddenly

+and unaccountably embarrassed, seeking for a phrase

+which would disguise the confusion he felt.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My good Monsieur Fernand&mdash;&mdash;" he began haltingly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My time is valuable, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet,"

+interposed the Man in Grey; "and at Les Colombiers

+your son's welfare is perhaps even now at stake."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Leblanc&mdash;awed and subdued despite himself&mdash;had

+no choice but to make as dignified an exit as was

+possible in the circumstances.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+It was barely eight o'clock the next morning when

+M. Leblanc made an excited and noisy irruption into

+the apartments of the secret agent of the Minister of

+Police.  The Man in Grey had risen betimes; had

+brewed himself a cup of coffee and partaken of

+breakfast.  The tray stood on a table beside him, and he

+was at the moment engaged in the perusal of the

+newest copy of the <i>Moniteur</i>.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At sight of his visitor he quietly folded and put

+down his paper.  M. Leblanc had literally staggered

+into the room.  He wore riding breeches and boots

+and his clothes were covered with mud; he had ridden

+hard and fast, and though his face was deathly pale it

+was covered with perspiration.  His lips were quivering

+and his eyes had a look of horror and fear which

+almost resembled madness.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey led him, firmly and gently, to

+a seat.  Without a word he went to a cupboard, took

+out a flask and a mug and forced a few drops of

+brandy down the sous-préfet's throat.  The latter's

+teeth were chattering and, through his trembling lips,

+there came a few hoarsely whispered words:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My son&mdash;my child&mdash;he has gone&mdash;Oh, my God!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After he had drunk the brandy, he became a little

+more composed.  He lay back in his chair, with eyes

+closed, and for a moment it seemed as if he had lost

+consciousness, for his lips were bloodless and his face

+was the colour of dead ashes.  Presently he opened

+his eyes and rested them on the small grey figure

+which stood, quietly expectant, before him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My son," he murmured more distinctly.  "Ernest&mdash;he

+has gone!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Try to tell me coherently what has happened,"

+said the Man in Grey in a quiet tone, which had the

+effect of further soothing M. Leblanc's overstrung

+nerves.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After a great effort of will the unfortunate man was

+able to pull himself together.  He was half demented

+with grief, and it was blind, unreasoning instinct that

+had led him to seek out the one man who might help

+him in his trouble.  With exemplary patience, the

+police agent dragged from the unfortunate man, bit

+by bit, a more or less intelligible account of the

+extraordinary sequence of events which had culminated

+a few hours ago in such a mysterious and appalling

+tragedy.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Matters, it seemed, had been brought to a climax

+through the agency of feminine gossip, and it was

+Ma'ame Margot, the wife of one of the labourers, who

+did the washing for the household at Les Colombiers,

+who precipitated the catastrophe.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Ma'ame Margot had brought the washing home on

+the previous afternoon and stopped to have a cup of

+coffee and a chat in the kitchen of the house.  In

+the course of conversation she drew the attention of

+Anne, Madame Leblanc's maid, to the condition of

+Monsieur Ernest's underclothes.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I have done my best with it," she said, "but I told

+Mademoiselle Vaillant that I was afraid the stains

+would never come out.  She had tried to wash the

+things herself before she thought of sending them to

+me.  Whoever heard," added the worthy soul indignantly,

+"of letting a child of Monsieur Ernest's age go

+running about like that in the wet and the mud?

+Why, he must have been soaked through to his waist

+to get his things in that state."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Later Anne spoke to Mme. Leblanc of what the

+laundrywoman had said.  Madame frowned, greatly

+puzzled.  She had positively forbidden the children

+to go out while the heavy rains lasted.  She sent for

+Ma'ame Margot, who was bold enough to laugh

+outright when Madame told her that she did not

+understand about Monsieur Ernest's things being so stained

+with wet and mud, as the children had not been out

+since the heavy rains had started.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Not been out?" ejaculated Ma'ame Margot, quite

+as puzzled as her lady.  "Why! my man, when he

+was looking after the sick cow the other night, saw

+Monsieur Ernest out with the governess.  It was past

+midnight then and the rain coming down in torrents,

+and my man, he says to me&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Thank you, Ma'ame Margot," broke in Madame

+Leblanc, "that will do."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She waited quietly until the laundrywoman was

+out of the house, then she sent for Mademoiselle

+Vaillant.  This time no prayers, no protestations

+would avail.  The girl must leave the house not later

+than the following morning.  What her object could

+have been in dragging her young pupil with her on

+her nocturnal expeditions Madame Leblanc could not

+of course conjecture; did she take the child with her

+as a chaperon on her meetings with Lavernay, or

+what?  Well, whatever her motive, the girl was not

+a fit person to be in charge of young children and go

+she must, decided Madame definitely.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+This occurred late yesterday afternoon.  Strangely

+enough, Marie Vaillant took her dismissal perfectly

+calmly.  She offered neither explanation nor protest.

+Beyond a humble "Very well, Madame!" she never

+said a word during this final interview with her

+employer, who, outraged and offended at the girl's

+obstinacy and ingratitude, ordered her to pack up her

+things and leave the house early next morning, when

+a carriage would be ready to take her and her effects

+to Alençon.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Early this morning, not two hours ago in fact,

+Anne had come running into Madame Leblanc's room

+with a scared white face, saying that Monsieur Ernest

+was not in his room and was nowhere to be found.

+He appeared to have slipped on the clothes which he

+had worn the previous night, as these were missing

+from their usual place.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Terribly alarmed, M. Leblanc had sent Anne to

+bring Mademoiselle Vaillant to him immediately; but

+Anne returned within a couple of minutes with the

+news that Mademoiselle had also disappeared.  The

+house was scoured from attic to cellar, the gardens

+were searched, and the outdoor labourers started to

+drag the moat.  Madame Leblanc, beside herself with

+dread, had collapsed, half fainting, in the hall, where

+Anne was administering restoratives to her.  Monsieur

+Leblanc had ordered his horse, determined at

+once to inform the police.  He was standing at his

+dressing-room window, putting on his riding clothes

+when he saw Marie Vaillant running as fast as ever

+she could across the garden towards the house.  Her

+dress clung wet and muddy round her legs, her hair

+was streaming down her back, and she held out her

+arms in front of her as she ran.  Indeed, she looked

+more mad than sane, and there was such a look of fear

+and horror in her face and about her whole appearance,

+that the servants&mdash;stupid and scared&mdash;stood by

+gaping like gabies, not attempting to run after her.

+In a moment M. Leblanc&mdash;his mind full of horrible

+foreboding&mdash;had flung out of his dressing-room,

+determined to intercept the woman and to wring from

+her an admission of what she had done with the boy.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He ran down the main staircase, as he had seen

+Marie make straight for the chief entrance hall, but,

+presumably checked in her wild career, the girl had

+suddenly turned off after she had crossed the bridge

+over the moat, and must have dashed into the house

+by one of the side doors, for at the moment that

+M. Leblanc reached the hall he could hear her tearing

+helter-skelter up the uncarpeted service stairs.  No one

+so far had attempted to stop her.  M. Leblanc now

+called loudly to the servants to arrest this mad woman

+in her flight; there was a general scrimmage, but

+before anyone could reach the top landing, Marie had

+darted straight into her employers' bedroom and had

+locked and bolted the heavy door.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You may imagine," concluded the unfortunate

+sous-préfet, who had been at great pains to give his

+narrative some semblance of coherence, "that I was

+the first to bang against the bedroom door and to

+demand admittance of the wretched creature.  At first

+there was no reply, but through the solid panelling

+we could hear a distinct and steady hammering which

+seemed to come from the farther end of the room.

+All the doors in the old house are extraordinarily

+heavy, but the one that gives on my wife's and my

+bedroom is of unusually massive oak with enormous

+locks and bars of iron and huge iron hinges.  I felt

+that it would be futile to try to break it open, and,

+frankly, I was not a little doubtful as to what the

+wretched woman might do if brought to bay.  The

+windows of the bedroom as well as those of the

+dressing-room adjoining give directly on the moat,

+which at this point is over three mètres deep.  Placing

+two of the men-servants on guard outside the door,

+with strict orders not to allow the woman to escape,

+I made my way into the garden and took my stand

+opposite the bedroom windows.  I had the width of

+the moat between me and the house.  The waters

+lapped the solid grey walls and for the first time since

+I have lived at Les Colombiers the thought of the old

+Manor, with its lurking holes for unfortunate

+Huguenots, struck my heart with a sense of coldness

+and gloom.  Up above Marie Vaillant had already

+taken the precaution of fastening the shutters; it was

+impossible to imagine what she could be doing, locked

+up in that room, or why she should refuse to come

+out, unless&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The stricken father closed his eyes as he hinted at

+this awful possibility; a shiver went through him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A ladder&mdash;&mdash;" suggested the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Impossible!" replied M. Leblanc.  "The moat on

+that side is over eight mètres wide.  I had thought

+of that.  I thought of everything; I racked my brains.

+Think of it, sir!  My boy Ernest gone, and his

+whereabouts probably only known to that mad woman up

+there!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your butler Lavernay?" queried the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was when I realised my helplessness that I

+suddenly thought of him," replied the sous-préfet; "but

+no one had seen him.  He too had disappeared."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then suddenly the full force of his misery rushed

+upon him.  He jumped to his feet and seized the police

+agent by the coat sleeve.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I entreat you, Monsieur Fernand," he exclaimed in

+tones of pitiable entreaty, "do not let us waste any

+more time.  We'll call at the commissariat of police

+first and get Lefèvre to follow hard on our heels with

+a posse of police.  I beg of you to come at once!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Gently the Man in Grey disengaged his arm from

+the convulsive grasp of the other.  "By your leave,"

+he said, "we will not call in a posse of police just yet.

+Remember your own fears!  Brought to bay, Marie

+Vaillant, if indeed she has some desperate deed to

+conceal, might jump into the moat and take the secret

+of your boy's whereabouts with her to her grave."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My God, you are right!" moaned the unfortunate

+man.  "What can I do?  In Heaven's name tell me

+what to do."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"For the moment we'll just go quietly to Les

+Colombiers together.  I always keep a horse ready

+saddled for emergencies at the 'Trois Rois' inn close

+by.  Do you get to horse and accompany me thither."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I pray you, sir, do not argue," broke in the police

+agent curtly.  "Every minute has become precious."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And silently M. Leblanc obeyed.  He had all at

+once grown as tractable as a child.  The dominating

+personality of that little Man in Grey had entire

+possession of him now, of his will and understanding.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The first part of the cross-country ride was

+accomplished in silence.  M. Leblanc was in a desperate

+hurry to get on; he pushed his horse along with the

+eagerness of intense anxiety.  For awhile the police

+agent kept up with him in silence, then suddenly he

+called a peremptory "Halt!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your horse will give out, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet,"

+he said.  "Allow him to walk for awhile.

+There are two or three questions I must put to you,

+before we arrive at Les Colombiers."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Leblanc obeyed and set his horse to a walk.

+Of a truth he was more worn-out than his steed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Firstly, tell me what kind of fireplace you have in

+your bedroom," said the other abruptly, and with such

+strange irrelevance that the sous-préfet stared at him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why," he replied submissively, "there is a fine old

+chimney, as there is in every room in the house."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have had a fire in it lately?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, every day.  The weather has been very cold."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And what sort of bed do you sleep in?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"An old-fashioned fourpost bedstead," replied

+M. Leblanc, more and more puzzled at these extraordinary

+questions, "which I believe has been in the house

+for two or three hundred years.  It is the only piece

+of the original furniture left; everything else was sold

+by Monsieur de Mamers' agent before the State

+confiscated the house.  I don't know why the bedstead was

+allowed to remain; probably because it is so

+uncommonly heavy and is also screwed to the floor."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Thank you.  That is interesting," rejoined the

+police agent drily.  "And now, tell me, what is the

+nearest house to yours that is of similar historical

+interest?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"An old sixteenth-century house, you mean?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There is none at Bourg-le-Roi.  If you remember,

+the town itself is comparatively modern, and

+every traveller will tell you that Les Colombiers is the

+only interesting piece of mediæval architecture in the

+neighbourhood.  Of course, there are the ruins at

+Saut-de-Biche."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The ruins at Saut-de-Biche?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes.  In the woods, about half a kilomètre from

+Les Colombiers.  They are supposed to be the remains

+of the old farmhouse belonging to the Manor; but

+only two or three walls are left standing.  A devastating

+fire razed the place to the ground some ten years

+ago; since then the roof has fallen in, and the town

+council of Bourg-le-Roi has been using some of the

+stone for building the new town hall.  The whole

+thing is just a mass of debris and charred wood."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+While the two men were talking the time had gone

+by swiftly enough.  Alençon was soon left far behind;

+ahead, close by, lay the coppice which sheltered Les

+Colombiers.  Some twenty minutes later the two men

+drew rein in the fine old courtyard of the ancient

+Manor.  At a call from M. Leblanc one of his men

+rushed out of the house to hold the horses and to aid

+his master to dismount.  The Man in Grey was

+already on his feet.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What news?" he asked of the man.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The latter shrugged his shoulders.  There was no

+change at Les Colombiers.  The two labourers were

+still on sentry guard outside the bedroom door, whilst

+the indoor servant, with the head gardener, had

+remained down below by the side of the moat, staring

+up at the shuttered windows, and revelling in all the

+horrors which the aspect of the dark waters and of

+the windows above, behind which no doubt the mad

+woman was crouching, helped to conjure up before

+their sluggish minds.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Madame Leblanc was still lying on a couch in the

+hall, prostrate with grief.  No one had caught sight

+of Marie Vaillant within her stronghold, and there

+was no sign either of M. Ernest or of the butler

+Lavernay.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Without protest or opposition on the part of the

+master of the house, the Man in Grey had taken

+command of the small army of scared domestics.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," he said, "before I can

+help you in this matter, I must make a hurried

+inspection of your domain.  I shall require three of

+your men to come with me.  They must come armed

+with a stout joist, with pickaxes and a few heavy

+tools.  You yourself and your women servants must

+remain on guard outside the bedroom door.  Should

+Marie Vaillant attempt a sortie, seize her and, above

+all, see she does not do herself an injury.  Your head

+gardener and indoor man must remain by the moat.

+I presume they can swim."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Swim?" queried M. Leblanc vaguely.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why, yes!  There is still the possibility of the girl

+trying to drown herself and her secret in the moat."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Leblanc promised most earnestly that he would

+obey the police agent's commands to the letter, and

+the Man in Grey, followed by the three labourers who

+carried their picks, a bag of tools and a stout joist,

+started on his way.  Swiftly crossing the bridge over

+the moat, he strode rapidly across the park and

+plunged into the coppice.  Then only did he ask the

+men to precede him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Take me straight to the ruins at Saut-de-Biche,"

+he said.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The men obeyed, not pausing to reflect what could

+be the object of this little man in the grey coat in

+going to look at a pile of broken stone walls, while

+M. le Sous-Préfet was half demented with anxiety and

+a mad woman might either set fire to the whole house

+or do herself some terrible injury.  They walked on in

+silence closely followed by the accredited representative

+of His Impérial Majesty's Minister of Police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Within ten minutes the ruined farmhouse came in

+sight.  It stood in the midst of a wide clearing; the

+woods which stretched all round it were so dense that

+even in mid-winter they screened it from the road.

+There was but little of the original structure left; a

+piece of wall like a tall arm stretching upwards to the

+skies, another forming an angle, some loose pieces of

+stone lying about in the midst of a medley of broken

+and charred wood, cracked tiles and twisted pieces of

+metal.  The whole place had an aspect of unspeakable

+desolation.  All round the ruined walls a forest of

+brambles, dead gorse and broom had sprung up,

+rendering access to the house very difficult.  For a

+moment or two the Man in Grey paused, surveying the

+surroundings with a keen, experienced eye.  At a

+slight distance from him on the right, the gorse and

+bramble had apparently been hacked away in order

+to make a passage practicable to human feet.  Without

+hesitation Fernand, ordering the three men to follow

+him, struck into this narrow track which, as he

+surmised, led straight to the ruins.  He skirted the

+upstanding wall, until an opening in the midst of the

+big masses of stone enabled him to reach what was

+once the interior of the house.  Here progress became

+very difficult; the debris from the fallen roof littered

+the ground and there was grave danger of a hidden

+chasm below, where the cellars may have been.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey peered round him anxiously.

+Presently an exclamation of satisfaction rose to his

+lips.  He called to the men.  A few feet away from

+where he was standing the whole debris seemed to

+have been lately considerably augmented.  Right in

+the midst of a pile of burned wood, tiles and metal,

+a large stone was embedded.  It had evidently been

+very recently detached from the high upstanding wall,

+and had fallen down amidst a shower of the decayed

+mortar, wet earth, and torn lichen and moss, which

+littered the place.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+In obedience to the commands of the Man in Grey,

+the labourers took up their picks, and set to work to

+clear the debris around the fallen stone, the police

+agent standing close by, watching them.  They had

+not done more than bury their tools once in the litter

+of earth and mortar, when their picks encountered

+something soft.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Drop your tools," commanded the Man in Grey.

+"Your hands will suffice to unearth what lies below."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was the body of a man crushed almost past

+recognition by the weight of the fallen masonry.  The

+labourers extricated it from the fragments of wood

+and metal and dragged it into the open.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By his clothes," said one of the men, in answer

+to a peremptory query from the Man in Grey, "I guess

+he must be the butler, Francois Lavernay."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The secret agent made no comment.  Not a line

+of his pale, colourless face betrayed the emotion he

+felt&mdash;the emotion of the sleuth-hound which knows

+that it is on the track of its quarry.  He ordered the

+body to be decorously put on one side and took off his

+own loose mantle to throw over it.  Then he bade the

+men resume their work.  They picked up their tools

+again and tried to clear the rubbish all round the

+fallen stone.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We must move that stone from its place," the

+man in the grey coat had said, and the labourers,

+impelled by that air of assurance and authority which

+emanated from the insignificant little figure, set to

+with a will.  Having cleared the debris, they put

+their shoulders to the stone, helped by the secret agent

+whose strength appeared out of all proportion to his

+slender frame.  By and by the stone became dislodged

+and, with another effort, rolled over on its flat side.

+After that it was easy to move it some three or four

+feet farther on.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That will do!" commanded the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Underneath the stone there now appeared a square

+flat slab of granite embedded into the soil with cement

+and concrete.  One piece of this slab had seemingly

+been cut or chiselled away and then removed, displaying

+a cavity about a foot and a half square.  In the

+centre of the slab was an iron ring to which a rope

+was attached, the other end being lost within the

+cavity.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The labourers were staring at their find open-mouthed;

+but the secret agent was already busy hauling

+up the rope.  The end of it was formed into a

+loop not large enough to pass over a man's shoulders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Just as I thought," he muttered between his teeth.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then he lay down on his stomach and with his

+head just over the small cavity he shouted a loud

+"Hallo!"  From down below there came no answer

+save a dull, resounding echo.  Again and again the

+Man in Grey shouted his loud "Hallo!" into the

+depths, but, eliciting no reply, at last he struggled to

+his feet.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now then, my men," he said, "I am going to

+leave you here to work away at this slab.  It has got to

+be removed within an hour."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The men examined the cement which held the

+heavy stone in its place.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It will take time," one of them said.  "This

+cement is terribly hard; we shall have to chip every

+bit of it away."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You must do your best," said the Man in Grey

+earnestly.  "A human life may depend on your toil.

+You will have no cause to grumble at the reward when

+your work is done.  For reasons which I cannot explain,

+I may not bring any strangers to help you.  So

+work away as hard as you can.  I will return in about

+an hour with Monsieur le Sous-Préfet."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He waited to see the men swing their picks, then

+turned on his heel and started to walk back the way

+he came.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was nearly two hours before the slab of granite

+was finally removed from its place.  M. le Sous-Préfet

+was standing by with the Man in Grey when

+the stone was hoisted up and turned over.  It disclosed

+a large cavity with, at one end of it, a flight of

+stone steps leading downwards.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now then, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet," said the

+police agent quietly, "will you follow me?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Leblanc's face was ghastly in its pallor.  The

+sudden hope held out to him by the Man in Grey had

+completely unnerved him.  "Are you sure&mdash;&mdash;" he

+murmured.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That we shall find Monsieur Ernest down there?"

+broke in the other, as he pointed to the hollow.  "Well,

+Monsieur le Sous-Préfet, I wish I were equally sure

+of a fortune!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He had a lighted lantern in his hand and began

+to descend the stone stairs, closely followed by the

+sous-préfet.  The labourers above were resting after

+their heavy toil.  They could not understand all they

+had seen, and their slow wits would probably never

+grasp the full significance of their strange adventure.

+While in the depths below the Man in Grey, holding

+M. le Sous-Préfet by the arm and swinging the

+lantern in front, was exploring the mediæval

+lurking-holes of the Huguenots, the three labourers were

+calmly munching their bread and cheese.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+V

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The searchers found the boy lying unconscious not

+very far from the stairs.  A dark lantern had fallen

+from his hand and been extinguished.  A large heavy

+box with metal handles stood close behind him; a

+long trail behind the box showed that the plucky child

+had dragged it along by its handle for a considerable

+distance.  How he had managed to do so remained a

+marvel.  Love and enthusiasm had lent the puny

+youngster remarkable strength.  The broken-hearted

+father lifted his unconscious child in his arms.

+Obviously he had only fainted&mdash;probably from fright&mdash;and

+together the little procession now worked its way

+back into the open.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Can you carry your boy home, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet,"

+asked the Man in Grey, "while we attend to

+your unfortunate butler?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But he had no need to ask.  Already M. Leblanc,

+closely hugging his precious burden, was striding

+bravely and manfully through the coppice beyond.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey arrived at Les Colombiers a

+quarter of an hour after the sous-préfet had seen his

+boy snugly laid in his mother's arms.  The child was

+far too weak and too highly strung to give a clear

+account of the events which had landed him alone

+and unconscious inside the disused hiding-place, with

+his only means of exit cut off.  But the first words he

+spoke after he had returned to consciousness were:

+"Tell my darling Marie that I did my best."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Afterwards the Man in Grey graphically recounted

+to the sous-préfet how he came to seek for Ernest

+beneath the ruins of Saut-de-Biche.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I followed Marie Vaillant's machinations in my

+mind," he said, "from the moment that she entered

+your service.  Not a word of your narrative escaped

+me, remember!  Recommended by the Bishop of

+Alençon, I guessed her to be a Royalist who had been

+placed in your house for some purpose connected with

+the Cause.  What that purpose was it became my

+business to learn.  It was a case of putting the

+proverbial two and two together.  There was, on the one

+hand, an old moated Manor, once the refuge of

+persecuted Huguenots and therefore full of secret corners

+and hiding-places, and, on the other, an émigré

+Royalist family who had fled the country, no doubt leaving

+hidden treasures which they could not take away in

+their flight.  Add to these facts a young girl

+recommended by the Bishop of Alençon, one of the most

+inveterate Royalist intriguers in the land, and you

+have as fine a solution of all that has puzzled you,

+Monsieur, as you could wish.  Marie Vaillant had

+been sent to your house by the Royalist faction to

+secure the treasure hidden by the Comte de Mamers

+in one of the lurking-holes of Les Colombiers.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"With this certainty firmly fixed in my mind, I

+was soon able to explain her every action.  The

+open-air life in the summer meant that she could not gain

+access to the hiding-place inside the house and she

+must seek an entrance outside.  This manoeuvre

+suggested to me that the secret place was perhaps a

+subterranean passage which led from some distant

+portion of the domain to the house itself.  There are a

+number of such passages in France, of mediæval

+structure.  Often they run under a moat.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then came the second phase: Marie Vaillant's

+coquetry.  She either could not find or could not open

+the hiding-place; she needed a man's help.  Lavernay,

+your butler, appeared susceptible&mdash;her choice fell on

+him.  Night after night they stole out together in

+order to work away at the obstacle which blocked the

+entrance to the secret passage.  Then they were

+discovered.  Marie was threatened with dismissal, even

+before she had found the hidden treasure.  She

+changed her tactics and inveigled your boy into her

+service.  Why?  Because she and Lavernay were too

+weak and clumsy.  They had only succeeded in disclosing

+one small portion of the entrance to the secret

+lair; a portion not large enough to allow of the passage

+of an adult.  So your boy was cajoled, endeared,

+fascinated.  Highly strung and nervous, he was ready to

+dare all for the sake of the girl whom he loved with

+the ardour of unawakened manhood.  He is dragged

+through the woods and shown the place; he is

+gradually familiarised with the task which lies before him.

+Then once more discovery falls on Marie Vaillant like

+a thunderbolt.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There is only one more night wherein she can

+effect her purpose.  Can you see them&mdash;she and

+Lavernay and your boy&mdash;stealing out at dead of night

+to the ruins; the boy primed in what he has to do,

+lowered by a cord into the secret passage, dark lantern

+in hand?  Truly the heroism of so young a child

+passes belief!  Lavernay and Marie Vaillant wait

+above, straining their ears to hear what is going on

+below.  The underground passage, remember, is over

+half a kilomètre in length.  I explored it as far as I

+could.  It goes under the moat and I imagine has its

+other entrance in your bedroom at Les Colombiers.

+Ernest had to go some way along it ere he discovered

+the box which contained the treasure.  With truly

+superhuman strength he seizes the metal handle and

+drags his burden wearily along.  At last he has

+reached the spot where the cord still dangles from

+above.  He gives the preconcerted signal but receives

+no reply.  Distracted and terror-stricken, he calls

+again and again until the horror of his position causes

+him to lose consciousness.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Above the tragedy is being consummated.

+Loosened by recent heavy rains, a large piece of

+masonry comes crashing down, burying in its fall the

+unfortunate Lavernay and hopelessly blocking the

+entrance to the secret passage.  Picture to yourself

+Marie Vaillant pitting her feeble strength against the

+relentless stone, half-crazed with the thought of the

+child buried alive beneath her feet.  An oath to her

+party binds her to secrecy!  She dares not call for

+help.  Almost demented, blind instinct drives her to

+the one spot whence she might yet be able to render

+assistance to the child&mdash;your bedroom, where I'll

+wager that either inside the chimney or behind the

+head of the old-fashioned bedstead you will find the

+panel which masks the other entrance to the secret

+passage."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey suspended his story and, guided

+by his host, made his way upstairs to the landing

+outside the bedroom door.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Call to the poor woman, Monsieur le Sous-Préfet,"

+he commanded.  "Tell her that the child is safe and

+well.  Perhaps she will come out of her own accord.

+It were a pity to break this magnificent door."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Presently Marie Vaillant, summoned by her employer,

+who assured her repeatedly that Ernest was

+safe and well, was heard to unlock the door and to

+draw the bolts.  Next moment she stood under the

+heavy oak lintel, her face as white as a shroud, her

+eyes staring wildly before her, her gown stained, her

+hands bleeding.  She had bruised herself sorely in

+a vain endeavour to move the massive bedstead which

+concealed the secret entrance to the underground

+passage.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+One glance at M. Leblanc's face assured her that

+all was well with her valiant little helpmeet and that

+the two men before her were moved more by pity than

+by wrath.  She broke down completely, but the violent

+fit of weeping eased her overburdened heart.  Soon

+she became comforted with the kindly assurance that

+she would be allowed to depart in peace.  Even the

+sous-préfet felt that the wretched girl had suffered

+enough through the tortuous intrigues of her fanatic

+loyalty to the cause of her party, whilst the Man in

+Grey saw to it that in the matter of the death of

+Lavernay His Majesty's Police were fully satisfied.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap04"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER IV

+<br /><br />

+THE EMERALDS OF MADEMOISELLE PHILIPPA

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+At first there was a good deal of talk in the

+neighbourhood when the de Romaines returned from

+England and made their home in the tumbledown Lodge

+just outside St. Lô.  The Lodge, surrounded by a

+small garden, marked the boundary of the beautiful

+domain of Torteron, which had been the property of

+the de Romaines and their ancestors for many

+generations.  M. le Comte de Romaine had left France

+with his family at the very outset of the Revolution

+and, in accordance with the decree of February, 1792,

+directed against the Emigrants, his estates were

+confiscated and sold for the benefit of the State.  The

+château of Torteron, being so conveniently situated

+near the town of St. Lô, was converted into a

+general hospital, and the farms and agricultural lands

+were bought up by various local cultivators.  Only

+the little Lodge at the park gates had remained

+unsold, and when the Emigrés were granted a general

+amnesty, the de Romaines obtained  permission to

+settle in it.  Although it was greatly neglected and

+dilapidated, it was weatherproof, and by the

+clemency of the Emperor it was declared to be indisputably

+their own.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le Comte de Romaine, worn out by sorrow and

+the miseries of exile, had died in England.  It was

+Mme. la Comtesse, now a widow, who came back to

+Torteron along with M. le Comte Jacques, her son,

+who had never set foot on his native soil since, as a

+tiny lad, he had been taken by his parents into exile,

+and Mademoiselle Mariette, her daughter, who, born

+in England, had never been in France at all.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+People who had known Madame la Comtesse in

+the past thought her greatly aged, more so in fact

+than her years warranted.  She had gone away in '91

+a young and handsome woman well on the right side

+of thirty, fond of society and show; now, nineteen

+years later, she reappeared the wreck of her former

+self.  Crippled with rheumatism, for ever wrapped

+up in shawls, with weak sight and impaired hearing,

+she at once settled down to a very secluded life at the

+Lodge, waited on only by her daughter, a silent,

+stately girl, who filled the duties of maid of all work,

+companion and nurse to her mother, and her brother.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+On the other hand, young M. le Comte de Romaine

+was a regular "gadabout."  Something of a rogue

+and a ne'er-do-well, he seemed to have no defined

+occupation, and soon not a café or dancing hall in

+St. Lô, but had some story to tell of his escapades and

+merry living.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Moulin, the préfet, had received an order from

+the accredited agent of the Minister of Police to keep

+an eye on the doings of these returned Emigrants,

+but until now their conduct had been above suspicion.

+Mme. la Comtesse and Mlle. Mariette went nowhere

+except now and again to the church of Notre Dame;

+they saw no one; and for the nonce the young Comte

+de Romaine devoted his entire attention to Mademoiselle

+Philippa, the charming dancer who was delighting

+the audiences of St. Lô with her inimitable art,

+and dazzling their eyes with her showy dresses, her

+magnificent equipage and her diamonds.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The préfet, in his latest report to the secret agent,

+had jocularly added that the lovely dancer did not

+appear at all averse from the idea of being styled

+Mme. la Comtesse one of these days, or of regilding

+the faded escutcheon of the de Romaines with her

+plebeian gold.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There certainly was no hint of Chouannerie about

+the doings of any member of the family, no communication

+with any of the well-known Chouan leaders,

+no visits from questionable personages.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Great therefore was the astonishment of M. Moulin

+when, three days later, he received a summons to

+present himself at No. 15 Rue Notre Dame, where

+the agent of His Majesty's Minister of Police had

+arrived less than an hour ago.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am here in strict incognito, my dear Monsieur

+Moulin," said the Man in Grey as soon as he had

+greeted the préfet, "and I have brought three of my

+men with me whom I know I can trust, as I am not

+satisfied that you are carrying out my orders."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your orders, Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;Fernand?" queried

+the préfet blandly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes!  I said my orders," retorted the other quietly.

+"Did I not bid you keep a strict eye on the doings of

+the Romaine family?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But, Monsieur Fernand&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"From now onwards my men and I will watch

+Jacques de Romaine," broke in the secret agent in

+that even tone of his which admitted of no argument.

+"But we cannot have our eyes everywhere.  I must

+leave the women to you."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The old Comtesse only goes to church, and

+Mademoiselle Mariette goes sometimes to market."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So much the better for you.  Your men will have

+an easy time."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I pray you do not argue, my good Monsieur Moulin.

+Mademoiselle Mariette may be out shopping at

+this very moment."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And when the accredited agent said "I pray you,"

+non-compliance was out of the question.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Later in the day the préfet talked the matter over

+with M. Cognard, chief commissary of police, who

+had had similar orders in the matter of the Romaines.

+The two cronies had had their tempers sorely ruffled&mdash;by

+the dictatorial ways of the secret agent, whom they

+hated with all the venom that indolent natures direct

+against an energetic one.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The little busybody," vowed M. Moulin, "sees

+conspirators in every harmless citizen and interferes in

+matters which of a truth have nothing whatever to

+do with him."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Then in the very midst of the complacency of these

+two worthies came the memorable day which, in their

+opinion, was the most turbulent one they had ever

+known during their long and otiose careers.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was the day following the arrival of the secret

+agent at St. Lô, and he had come to the commissariat

+that morning for the sole purpose&mdash;so M. Cognard

+averred&mdash;of making matters uncomfortable for

+everybody, when Mademoiselle de Romaine was

+announced.  Mademoiselle had sent in word that she

+desired to speak with M. le Commissaire immediately,

+and a minute or two later she entered, looking like a

+pale ghost in a worn grey gown, and with a cape

+round her shoulders which was far too thin to keep

+out the cold on this winter's morning.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Cognard, fussy and chivalrous, offered her a

+chair.  She seemed to be in a terrible state of mental

+agitation and on the verge of tears, which, however,

+with characteristic pride she held resolutely in check.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I have come, Monsieur le Commissaire," she

+began in a voice hoarse with emotion, "because my

+mother&mdash;Madame la Comtesse de Romaine&mdash;and I are

+desperately anxious&mdash;we don't know&mdash;we&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She was trembling so that she appeared almost

+unable to speak.  M. Cognard, with great kindness

+and courtesy, poured out a glass of water for her.

+She drank a little of it, and threw him a grateful look,

+after which she seemed more tranquil.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I beg you to compose yourself, Mademoiselle,"

+said the commissaire.  "I am entirely at your service."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It is about my brother, Monsieur le Commissaire,"

+rejoined Mademoiselle more calmly, "Monsieur

+le Comte Jacques de Romaine.  He has disappeared.

+For three days we have seen and heard nothing

+of him&mdash;and my mother fears&mdash;fears&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Her eyes became dilated with that fear which she

+dared not put into words.  M. Cognard interposed at

+once, both decisively and sympathetically.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There is no occasion to fear the worst, Mademoiselle,"

+he said kindly.  "Young men often leave home

+for days without letting their mother and sisters know

+where they are."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ah, but, Monsieur le Commissaire," resumed

+Mademoiselle with a pathetic break in her voice, "the

+circumstances in this case are exceptional.  My mother

+is a great invalid, and though my brother leads rather

+a gay life he is devoted to her and he always would

+come home of nights.  Sometimes," she continued,

+as a slight flush rose to her pale cheeks, "Mademoiselle

+Philippa would drive him home in her barouche

+from the theatre.  This she did on Tuesday night,

+for I heard the carriage draw up at our door.  I saw

+the lights of the lanthorns; I also heard my brother's

+voice bidding Mademoiselle good night and the

+barouche driving off again.  I was in bed, for it was

+long past midnight, and I remember just before I fell

+asleep again thinking how very quietly my dear

+brother must have come in, for I had not heard the

+opening and shutting of the front door, nor his step

+upon the stairs or in his room.  Next morning I saw

+that his bed had not been slept in, and that he had

+not come into the house at all&mdash;as I had imagined&mdash;but

+had driven off again, no doubt, with Mademoiselle

+Philippa.  But we have not seen him since, and&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And&mdash;h'm&mdash;er&mdash;have you communicated with

+Mademoiselle Philippa?" asked the commissary with

+some hesitation.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No, Monsieur," replied Mariette de Romaine

+gravely.  "You are the first stranger whom I have

+consulted.  I thought you would advise me what to

+do."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Exactly, exactly!" rejoined M. Cognard, highly

+gratified at this tribute to his sagacity.  "You may

+rely on me, Mademoiselle, to carry on investigations

+with the utmost discretion.  Perhaps you will furnish

+me with a few details regarding this&mdash;er&mdash;regrettable

+occurrence."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There ensued a lengthy period of questioning and

+cross-questioning.  M. Cognard was impressively

+official.  Mademoiselle de Romaine, obviously wearied,

+told and retold her simple story with exemplary

+patience.  The Man in Grey, ensconced in a dark corner

+of the room, took no part in the proceedings; only

+once did he interpose with an abrupt question:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Are you quite sure, Mademoiselle," he asked, "that

+Monsieur le Comte did not come into the house at all

+before you heard the barouche drive off again?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mariette de Romaine gave a visible start.  Clearly

+she had had no idea until then that anyone else was

+in the room besides herself and the commissary of

+police, and as the quaint, grey-clad figure emerged

+suddenly from out the dark corner, her pale cheeks

+assumed an even more ashen hue.  Nevertheless, she

+replied quite steadily:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I cannot be sure of that, Monsieur," she said;

+"for I was in bed and half asleep, but I am sure my

+brother did not sleep at home that night."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey asked no further questions; he

+had retired into the dark corner of the room, but&mdash;after

+this little episode&mdash;whenever Mariette de Romaine

+looked in that direction, she encountered those

+deep-set, colourless eyes of his fixed intently upon

+her.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After Mademoiselle de Romaine's departure,

+M. Cognard turned somewhat sheepishly to the Man in

+Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It does seem," he said, "that there is something

+queer about those Romaines, after all."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Fortunately," retorted the secret agent, "you have

+complied with my orders, and your men have never

+once lost sight of Mademoiselle or of Madame her

+mother."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Cognard made no reply.  His round face had

+flushed to the very roots of his hair.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Had you not better send at once for this

+dancer&mdash;Philippa?" added the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Of course&mdash;of course&mdash;&mdash;" stammered the

+commissary, much relieved.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Mademoiselle Philippa duly arrived, in the early

+afternoon, in her barouche drawn by two magnificent

+English horses.  She appeared dressed in the latest

+Paris fashion and was greeted by M. Cognard with

+the gallantry due to her beauty and talent.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have sent for me, Monsieur le Commissaire?"

+she asked somewhat tartly, as soon as she had

+settled herself down in as becoming an attitude as the

+office chair would allow.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, Mademoiselle," said the commissary deprecatingly,

+"I did so with deep regret at having to

+trouble you."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well?  And what is it?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I only desired to ask you, Mademoiselle, if you

+have seen the Comte de Romaine recently."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She laughed and shrugged her pretty shoulders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The young scamp!" she said lightly.  "No, I

+haven't seen him for two days.  Why do you ask?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Because the young scamp, as you so pertinently

+call him, has disappeared, and neither his mother nor

+his sister knows what has become of him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Disappeared?" exclaimed Mademoiselle Philippa.

+"With my emeralds!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Her nonchalance and habitual gaiety suddenly left

+her.  She sat bolt upright, her small hands clutching

+the arms of her chair, her face pale and almost

+haggard beneath the delicate layer of rouge.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your emeralds, Mademoiselle?" queried M. Cognard

+in dismay.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My emeralds!" she reiterated with a catch in her

+voice.  "A necklace, tiara and earrings&mdash;a gift to

+me from the Emperor of Russia when I danced

+before him at St. Petersburg.  They are worth the best

+part of a million francs, Monsieur le Commissaire.

+Oh!  Monsieur de Romaine cannot have disappeared&mdash;not

+like that&mdash;and not with my emeralds!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She burst into tears and M. Cognard had much

+ado to re-assure her.  Everything would be done, he

+declared, to trace the young scapegrace.  He could

+not dispose of the emeralds, vowed the commissary,

+without being apprehended and his booty being taken

+from him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He can dispose of them abroad," declared Mademoiselle

+Philippa, who would not be consoled.  "He

+may be on the high seas by now&mdash;the detestable young

+rogue."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But how came Mademoiselle Philippa's priceless

+emeralds in the hands of that detestable young

+rogue?" here interjected a quiet, even voice.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mademoiselle turned upon the Man in Grey like

+a young tiger-cat that has been teased.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What's that to you?" she queried.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He smiled.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Are we not all trying to throw light on a mysterious

+occurrence?" he asked.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monsieur de Romaine wanted to show my emeralds

+to his mother," rejoined Mademoiselle, somewhat

+mollified and not a little shamefaced.  "I had

+promised to be his wife&mdash;Madame la Comtesse had

+approved&mdash;she looked upon me as a daughter&mdash;I had

+been up to her house to see her&mdash;she expressed a wish

+to see my emeralds&mdash;and so on Tuesday I entrusted

+them to Monsieur de Romaine&mdash;and&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Once more her voice broke and she burst into

+tears.  It was a pitiably silly story, of course&mdash;that of

+the clumsy trap set by a fascinating rogue&mdash;the trap

+into which hundreds of thousands of women have

+fallen since the world began, and into which as many

+will fall again so long as human nature does not

+undergo a radical change.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And when you drove Monsieur de Romaine home

+on that Tuesday night," continued the Man in Grey;

+"he had your emeralds in his possession?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes," replied Mademoiselle through her tears.

+"He had them in the inside pocket of his coat.  I took

+leave of him at the Lodge.  He waved his hand to

+me and I drove off.  That is the last I have seen of

+him&mdash;the scamp!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mademoiselle Philippa was evidently taking it for

+granted that Jacques de Romaine had stolen her

+emeralds, and she laughed derisively when M. Cognard

+suggested that mayhap the unfortunate young man

+had been waylaid and robbed and afterwards

+murdered by some malefactor who knew that he had the

+jewels in his possession.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well!" commented the dancer with a shrug of

+her shoulders, "'tis for you, my good Commissaire, to

+find either my emeralds for me or the murdered body

+of Monsieur le Comte de Romaine."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After which parting shot Mademoiselle took her

+departure, leaving an atmosphere of cosmetics and

+the lingering echo of the frou-frou of silken skirts.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The commissary accompanied Mademoiselle Philippa

+to the door.  He was not looking forward with

+unadulterated pleasure to the next half-hour, when

+of a surety that fussy functionary from Paris would

+set the municipal authorities by the ears for the sake

+of an affair which, after all, was not so very

+uncommon in these days&mdash;a handsome rogue, a foolish,

+trusting woman, valuable jewellery.  The whole

+thing was very simple and the capture of the

+miscreant a certainty.  "How was he going to dispose

+of the emeralds," argued M. Cognard to himself,

+"without getting caught?"  As for connecting such

+a mild affair with any of those daring Chouans, the

+idea was preposterous.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But when M. Cognard returned to his office, these

+specious arguments froze upon his lips.  The Man in

+Grey was looking unusually stern and uncompromising.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Let me have your last reports about Mademoiselle

+de Romaine," he said peremptorily.  "What did

+she do all day yesterday?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissary, grumbling in his beard, found the

+necessary papers.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"She only went to church in the morning," he said

+in an injured tone of voice, "with Madame la

+Comtesse.  It was the feast of St. Andrew&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Did either of the women speak to anyone?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Not on the way.  But the church was very

+crowded&mdash;both ladies went to confession&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey uttered an impatient exclamation.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I fear we have lost the emeralds," he said, "but

+in Heaven's name do not let us lose the rogue.  When

+brought to bay he may give up the booty yet."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But, Monsieur Fernand&mdash;&mdash;" protested the commissary.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The other waved aside these protestations with a

+quick gesture of his slender hand.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I know, I know," he said.  "You are not at fault.

+The rascal has been too clever for us, that is all.  But

+we have not done with him yet.  Send over to the

+Lodge at once," added the secret agent firmly, "men

+whom you can trust, and order them to apprehend

+Monsieur le Comte Jacques de Romaine and convey

+him hither at once."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To the Lodge?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes!  Mariette de Romaine lied when she said

+that her brother had not been in the house since

+Tuesday.  He is in the house now.  I had only been in

+St. Lô a few hours, but I had taken up my stand

+outside the Lodge that night, when Mademoiselle

+Philippa's barouche drew up there and Jacques de

+Romaine stepped out of it.  I saw him wave his hand

+and then turn to go into the house.  The next

+moment the door of the Lodge was opened and he

+disappeared within it.  Since then he has not been

+outside the house.  I was there the whole of that

+night with one of my men, two others have been on

+the watch ever since&mdash;one in front, the other at the

+back.  The sister or the mother may have passed the

+emeralds on to a confederate in church yesterday&mdash;we

+don't know.  But this I do know," he concluded

+emphatically, "that Jacques de Romaine is in the

+Lodge at this moment unless the devil has spirited

+him away up the chimney."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There's no devil that will get the better of my

+men," retorted the commissary, carried away despite

+himself by the other's energy and sense of power.

+"We'll have the rogue here within the hour, Monsieur

+Fernand, I pledge you the honour of the

+municipality of St. Lô!  And the emeralds, too," he

+added complacently, "if the robbers have not yet

+disposed of them."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That's brave!" rejoined the Man in Grey in a

+tone of kindly encouragement.  "My own men are

+still on the spot and will lend you a hand.  They

+have at their fingers' ends all that there is to know

+on the subject of secret burrows and hiding-places.

+All that you have to remember is that Jacques de

+Romaine is inside the Lodge and that you must bring

+him here.  Now go and make your arrangements; I

+will be at the Lodge myself within the hour."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+V

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+It was quite dark when the Minister's agent arrived

+at the Lodge.  M. Cognard met him outside the small

+garden gate.  As soon as he caught sight of the slender,

+grey-clad figure he ran to meet it as fast as his

+portliness would allow.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing!" he said breathlessly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"How do you mean&mdash;nothing?" retorted the secret

+agent.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Just what I say," replied the commissaire.  "We

+have searched this tumbledown barrack through and

+through.  The women are there&mdash;in charge of my

+men.  They did not protest; they did not hinder us

+in any way.  But I tell you," added M. Cognard, as

+he mopped his streaming forehead, "there's not a cat

+or a mouse concealed in that place.  We have searched

+every hole and corner."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Bah!" said the Man in Grey with a frown.  "Some

+secret hiding-place has escaped you!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ask your own trusted men," retorted the

+commissaire.  "They have worked with ours."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Have you questioned the women?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes!  They adhere to Mademoiselle's story in

+every point."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do they know that I&mdash;a member of His Majesty's

+secret police force&mdash;saw Jacques de Romaine enter

+this house on Tuesday night, and that I swear he did

+not leave it the whole of that night; whilst my own

+men are equally ready to swear that he has not left it

+since?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"They know that."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And what is their answer?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That we must demand an explanation from the

+man who was lurking round here in the dark when

+Jacques de Romaine had priceless jewels in his

+possession," replied the chief commissary.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The stern features of the Man in Grey relaxed into

+a smile.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The rogues are cleverer than I thought," he said

+simply.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Rogues?" growled M. Cognard.  "I for one do

+not believe that they are rogues.  If Jacques de

+Romaine entered this house on Tuesday night and has

+not left it since, where is he now?  Answer me that,

+Monsieur Fernand!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do you think I have murdered him?" retorted the

+secret agent calmly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then he went into the house.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He found Mme. la Comtesse de Romaine entrenched

+within that barrier of lofty incredulity which she

+had set up the moment that she heard of the grave

+suspicion which rested upon her son.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A Comte de Romaine, Monsieur," she said in her

+thin, cracked voice in answer to every query put to

+her by the Man in Grey, "who is also Seigneur de

+Mazaire and a peer of France, does not steal the jewels

+of a dancer.  If, as that wench asserts, my son had

+her trinkets that night about his person, then

+obviously it is for you who were lurking around my

+house like a thief in the night to give an account of

+what became of him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your son entered this house last Tuesday night,

+Madame," answered Fernand firmly, "and has not

+been out of it since."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then I pray you find him, Sir," was Madame de

+Romaine's rejoinder.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mademoiselle Mariette's attitude was equally

+uncompromising.  She bore every question and

+cross-question unflinchingly.  But when the secret agent

+finally left her in peace to initiate a thorough search

+inside that house which so bafflingly refused to give

+up its secret, she turned to the chief commissary of

+police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Who is that anonymous creature," she queried

+with passionate indignation, "who heaps insults and

+tortures upon my dear mother and me?  Why is he

+not being questioned?  Whose is the hidden hand

+that shields him when retribution should be marking

+him for its own?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Whose indeed?  The commissary of police was at

+his wits' end.  Even the Man in Grey&mdash;resolute,

+systematic and untiring&mdash;failed to discover anything

+suspicious in the Lodge.  It had often been said of him

+that no secret hiding-place, no secret panel or lurking-hole

+could escape his eagle eye, and yet, to-day, after

+three hours' persistent search, he was forced to

+confess he had been baffled.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Either his men had relaxed their vigilance at some

+time since that fateful Tuesday night, and had allowed

+the rogue to escape, or the devil had indeed spirited

+the young Comte de Romaine up the chimney.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Public opinion at once went dead against the

+authorities.  Mademoiselle de Romaine had taken good

+care that the story of the man lurking round the

+Lodge on the night her brother disappeared should be

+known far and wide.  That that man happened to be

+a mysterious and anonymous member of His

+Majesty's secret police did not in any way allay the

+popular feeling.  The worthy citizens of St. Lô

+loudly demanded to know why he was not brought to

+justice.  The préfet, the commissary, the procureur,

+were all bombarded with correspondence.  Indignation

+meetings were held in every parish of the neighbourhood.

+Indeed, so tense had the situation become

+that the chief departmental and municipal officials

+were tendering their resignations wholesale, for their

+position, which already was well-nigh intolerable,

+threatened to become literally dangerous.  Sooner or

+later the public would have to be told that the Man in

+Grey, on whom so grave a suspicion now rested, had

+mysteriously vanished, no one knew whither, and that

+no one dared to interfere with his movements, on

+pain of having to deal with M. le Duc d'Otrante, His

+Majesty's Minister of Police, himself.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+VI

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Towards the end of December Mme. la Comtesse

+de Romaine announced her intention of going abroad.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There is no justice in this country," she had

+declared energetically, "or no power on earth would

+shield my son's murderer from the gallows."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Of Jacques de Romaine there had been no news,

+nor yet of the Man in Grey.  The procureur imperial,

+feeling the sting of Madame's indignation, had been

+over-courteous in the matter of passports, and

+everything was got ready in view of the de Romaines'

+departure.  Madame had decided to go with Mademoiselle

+Mariette to Rome, where she had many friends,

+and the first stage of the long journey had been fixed

+for the 28th, when the two ladies proposed to travel

+by private coach as far as Caen, to sleep there, and

+thus be ready in the early morning for the mail-coach

+which would take them to Paris.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A start was to be made at midday.  In the morning

+Mademoiselle de Romaine went to High Mass at

+Notre Dame, it being the feast of the Holy Innocents.

+The church was very crowded, but Mariette had arrived

+early, and she had placed her <i>prie-dieu</i> behind

+the shelter of one of the pillars, where she sat quite

+quietly, fingering her rosary, while the large congregation

+filed in.  But all the while her thoughts were

+plainly not at her devotions.  Her dark eyes roamed

+restlessly over every face and form that gathered near

+her, and there was in her drawn face something of

+the look of a frightened hare, when it lies low within

+its form, fearful lest it should be seen.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was a bitterly cold morning, and Mariette wore

+a long, full cape, which she kept closely wrapped

+round her shoulders.  Anon a verger came round

+with foot-warmers which he distributed, in exchange

+for a few coppers, to those who asked for them.  One

+of these he brought to Mariette and placed it under

+her feet.  As he did so an imperceptible look of

+understanding passed from her to him.  Then the priests

+followed in, the choir intoned the Introit, the smoke

+of incense rose to the exquisitely carved roof, and

+everyone became absorbed in prayer.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mariette de Romaine, ensconced behind the pillar,

+sat still, until, during the Confiteor, when all heads

+were buried between clasped hands, she stooped and

+apparently rearranged the position of her

+foot-warmer.  Anyone who had been closely watching her

+would have thought that she had lifted it from the

+ground and was hugging it tightly under her cloak.

+No doubt her hands were cold.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Just before the Elevation a man dressed in a rough

+workman's blouse, his bare feet thrust into shabby

+shoes of soft leather, came and knelt beside her.  She

+tried to edge away from him, but the pillar was in the

+way and she could not retreat any farther.  Then

+suddenly she caught the man's glance, and he&mdash;very

+slowly&mdash;put his grimy hand up to the collar of his

+blouse and, just for an instant, turned it back: on

+the reverse side of the collar was sewn a piece of white

+ribbon with a fleur-de-lys roughly embroidered upon

+it&mdash;the device of the exiled Bourbon princes.  A look

+of understanding, immediately followed by one of

+anxious inquiry, spread over Mariette de Romaine's

+face, but the man put a finger to his lips and gave her

+a scarcely perceptible reassuring nod.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After the conclusion of the service and during the

+usual noise and bustle of the departing congregation

+the man drew a little nearer to Mariette and

+whispered hurriedly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do not go yet&mdash;there are police spies outside."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mariette de Romaine was brave, at times even

+reckless, but at this warning her pale cheeks became

+almost livid.  She hugged the bulky thing which she

+held under her cloak almost convulsively to her breast.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What am I to do?" she whispered in response.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Wait here quietly," rejoined the man, "till the

+people have left.  I can take you through the belfry

+and out by a postern gate I know of."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But," she gasped hoarsely, for her throat felt dry

+and parched, "afterwards?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You can come to my lodgings," he replied.  "We'll

+let Madame know&mdash;and then we shall have to think

+what best to do."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Can you find White-Beak?" she asked.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What for?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I could give him the&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hush!" he broke in quickly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I should like Monsieur le Chanoine to keep them

+again; we shall have to make fresh arrangements&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hush!" he reiterated more peremptorily.  "We

+can do nothing for the moment except arrange for

+your safety."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The man spoke with such calm and authority that

+instinctively Mariette felt reassured.  The bustle

+round them, people coming and going, chairs creaking

+against the flagstones, had effectually drowned the

+whispered colloquy.  Now the crowd was thinning:

+the man caught hold of Mariette's cloak, and she,

+obediently, allowed him to lead her.  He seemed to

+know his way about the sacred edifice perfectly, and

+presently, after they had crossed the belfry and gone

+along a flagged corridor, he opened a low door, and

+she found herself in the open in the narrow passage

+behind the east end of the church.  Her guide was

+supporting her by the elbow and she, still hugging

+her precious burden, walked beside him without

+further question.  He led her to a house in a street close

+by, where he appeared to be at home.  After climbing

+three flights of steps, he knocked vigorously at

+a door which was immediately opened by a man also

+dressed in a rough blouse, and ushered Mariette de

+Romaine into an apartment of the type usually

+inhabited by well-to-do artisans.  After crossing a

+narrow hall she entered a sitting-room wherein the first

+sight that greeted her tired eyes was a bunch of

+roughly fashioned artificial white lilies in the centre

+of a large round table.  Fully reassured, though

+thoroughly worn out with the excitement of the past

+few minutes, the girl sank into a chair and threw open

+the fastening of her cloak.  The bulky parcel, cleverly

+contrived to look like a foot-warmer, lay upon her lap.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now we must let Madame la Comtesse know," said

+the man who had been her guide, in a quiet, matter-of-fact

+tone.  "Oh, it will be quite safe," he added, seeing

+a look of terror had spread over Mariette de

+Romaine's face.  "I have a comrade here, Hare's-Foot&mdash;you

+know him, Mademoiselle?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She shook her head.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He is well known in St. Lô," continued the man

+simply.  "Supposed to be harmless.  His real name is

+Pierre Legrand.  The police spies have never

+suspected him&mdash;the fools.  But he is one of us&mdash;and as

+intrepid as he is cunning.  So if you will write a few

+words, Mademoiselle, Hare's-Foot will take them at

+once to Madame la Comtesse."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What shall I say?" asked Mariette, as she took

+up pen and paper which her unknown friend was

+placing before her.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Only that you became faint in church," he suggested,

+"and are at a friend's house.  Then request

+that Madame la Comtesse should come to you at once:

+the bearer of your note will guide her."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Obediently the girl wrote as he advised, the man

+watching her the while.  Had Mariette de Romaine

+looked up she might have seen a strange look in his

+face&mdash;a look that was almost of pity.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The letter was duly signed and sealed and handed

+over to Hare's-Foot&mdash;the man who had opened the

+door of the apartment&mdash;and he at once went away

+with it.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After that perfect quietude reigned in the small

+room.  Mariette leaned her head against the back of

+her chair.  She felt very tired.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Let me relieve you of this," said her companion

+quietly, and without waiting for her acquiescence he

+took the bulky parcel from her and put it on the table.

+Then Mariette de Romaine fell into a light sleep.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+VII

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+She was aroused by the sound of her mother's

+voice.  Madame la Comtesse de Romaine was in her

+turn being ushered into the apartment, and was

+already being put in possession of the facts connected

+with her daughter's letter which had summoned her

+hither.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I guessed at once that something of the sort had

+happened," was Madame's dry and unperturbed

+comment.  "Mariette was not likely to faint while she had

+those emeralds in her charge.  You, my men," she

+added, turning to her two interlocutors, "have done

+well by us.  I don't yet know how you came to render

+us and our King's cause this signal service, but you

+may be sure that it will not go unrewarded.  His

+Majesty himself shall hear of it&mdash;on the faith of a de

+Romaine."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And now, Madame la Comtesse," rejoined the

+man in the rough blouse quietly, "I would suggest

+that Mademoiselle and yourself don a suitable

+disguise, while Hare's-Foot and I arrange for a safe

+conveyance to take you out of St. Lô at once.  We

+have most effectually given the police spies the slip,

+and while they are still searching the city for you

+you will be half way on the road to Caen, and there

+is no reason why the original plans for your journey

+to Rome should be in any way modified."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Perfect!  Perfect!" exclaimed Madame enthusiastically.

+"You are a jewel, my friend."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There was nothing of the senile invalid about her

+now.  She had cast off her shawl and her bonnet, and

+with them the lank, white wig which concealed her

+own dark hair.  The man in the rough blouse smiled

+as he looked on her.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My mate and I have a number of excellent disguises

+in this wardrobe here, Madame la Comtesse,"

+he said, as he pointed to a large piece of furniture

+which stood in a corner of the room, "and all are at

+your service.  I would suggest a peasant's dress for

+Mademoiselle, and," he added significantly, "a man's

+attire for Madame, since she is so very much at home

+in it."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You are right, my man," rejoined Madame lightly.

+"I was perfectly at home in my son's breeches, and

+I shall never cease to regret that Jacques de Romaine

+must remain now as he is&mdash;vanished or dead&mdash;for

+as long as I live."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The two men then took their leave, and the ladies

+proceeded to select suitable disguises.  Silently and

+methodically they proceeded in their task, Mariette

+de Romaine making herself look as like a labourer's

+wench as she could, whilst Mme. la Comtesse slipped

+into a rough suit of coat and breeches with the ease

+born of constant habit.  Her short dark hair she tied

+into a knot at the nape of her neck and placed a

+shabby three-cornered hat jauntily upon it.  Her

+broad, unfeminine figure, her somewhat hard-marked

+features and firm mouth and chin made her look a

+handsome and dashing cavalier.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+When a few moments later the sound of voices in

+the hall proclaimed the return of the men, Mme. la

+Comtesse was standing expectant and triumphant

+facing the door, ready for adventure as she had always

+been, a light of daring and of recklessness in her

+eyes, love of intrigue and of tortuous paths, of dark

+conspiracies and even of unavowable crimes glowing

+in her heart&mdash;all for the sake of a King whom France

+with one voice had ejected from her shores, and a

+régime which the whole of France abhorred.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The door was opened: a woman's cry of joy and

+astonishment rang out.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why Jacques, you young scamp!" exclaimed

+Mademoiselle Philippa who, dressed in a brilliant dark

+green silk, with feathered hat and well-rouged cheeks,

+was standing under the lintel of the narrow door like

+a being from another world.  "Where have you been

+hiding all this while?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But her cry of mingled pleasure and petulance had

+already been followed by a double cry of terror.

+Mme. la Comtesse, white now to the lips, had fallen back

+against the table, to which she clung, whilst Mariette

+de Romaine, wide-eyed like a tracked beast at bay,

+was gazing in horror straight before her, where,

+behind Philippa's flaring skirts, appeared the stern,

+colourless face of a small man in a grey coat.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was for the mean spies of that Corsican upstart,"

+she exclaimed with passionate indignation, "to

+have devised such an abominable trick."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Already the Man in Grey had entered the room.

+Behind him, in the dark, narrow hall, could be seen

+the vague silhouettes of three or four men in plain

+clothes.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Trick for trick, Mademoiselle, and disguise for

+disguise," said the secret agent quietly.  "I prefer

+mine to the one which deceived and defrauded

+Mademoiselle Philippa here of close on a million francs'

+worth of jewels."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A trick?" exclaimed the dancer, who was looking

+the picture of utter confusion and bewilderment.

+"My jewels?&mdash;I don't understand&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Madame la Comtesse de Romaine, otherwise

+Jacques, your fiancé and admirer, Mademoiselle, has

+time to explain.  The private coach which will convey

+her to Rennes will not be here for half an hour.  In

+the meanwhile," he added, as he took up the parcel of

+jewels which still lay upon the table, "you will find

+these at the commissariat of police whenever you care

+to call for them.  Monsieur Cognard will have the

+privilege of returning them to you."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But Mademoiselle Philippa was far too much upset

+to wait for explanations.  At the invitation of the

+Minister's accredited agent, she had followed him

+hither, for he had told her that she would see Jacques

+de Romaine once more.  The disappointment and

+mingled horror and excitement when she realised

+what an amazing trick had been played upon her

+literally swept her off her nimble feet.  It was a month

+or more before she was well enough to fulfill her

+outstanding engagements.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The de Romaines&mdash;mother and daughter&mdash;offered

+no resistance.  Indeed, resistance would have been

+futile, and theirs was not the temperament to allow

+of hysterics or undignified protestations.  Every

+courtesy was shown to them on their way to Rennes,

+where they were tried and condemned to five years'

+imprisonment.  But twelve months later the Impérial

+clemency was exercised in their favour, and they were

+released; after the Restoration they were handsomely

+rewarded for their zeal in the service of the King.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Comte Jacques de Romaine who, as a little

+lad, had been taken over to England, never came to

+France till after Waterloo had been fought and won.

+At the time that his mother impersonated him so

+daringly and with such sinister results, he was serving

+in the Prussian Army.  Mariette de Romaine

+subsequently married the Vicomte de Saint-Vaast.  She

+and her husband emigrated with Charles X in 1830,

+and their son married an Englishwoman, and died in

+a house at Hampstead in the early 'seventies.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap05"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER V

+<br /><br />

+THE BOURBON PRINCE

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+"I don't see how I can be of any assistance to you,

+my good Monsieur Moulin.  I quite agree with you

+that it would be a real calamity if a member of the

+ex-Royal family were to effect a landing in our

+province, but&mdash;&mdash;"  And Monseigneur the Constitutional

+Bishop of Alençon shrugged his shoulders in token

+of his inability to deal with the matter.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He was sitting in a small room of his splendid

+private château, which was situated near Granville.

+Through the tall window on his left, the magnificent

+panorama of the rugged coast of Normandy and of

+the turbulent English Channel beyond was displayed

+in its limitless glory.  The point of Carolles still

+gleamed beneath the last rays of the cold, wintry sun,

+but the jagged Dog's Tooth rocks were already

+wrapped in twilight gloom.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And it is for our people themselves to realise,"

+continued Monseigneur, with his slow, somewhat

+pompous delivery, "how much happier they would be if

+they discarded for ever their misguided allegiance to

+those degenerate Bourbons, and became law-abiding

+citizens like the rest of France."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"They'll have no chance to do that," growled the

+préfet moodily, "once we get one of those Bourbons

+sowing rebellion and discontent all over the place.

+The landing of the Comte d'Artois must be prevented

+at all costs or we shall have the devil to pay.  Those

+Chouans have been difficult enough to deal with, God

+knows, but hitherto their want of organisation, their

+lack of responsible leadership and of co-ordination

+have been our salvation.  With the Comte d'Artois

+at their head, and a deal of fictitious enthusiasm

+aroused by him for the exiled Royal family over the

+water, we shall have bloodshed, misery, and civil war

+rife again in this corner of France."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monsieur le Ministre," rejoined Monseigneur

+blandly, "has plenty of spies here.  Surely, even if

+the Comte d'Artois effect a landing, he cannot escape

+capture at the hands of your well-organised police.

+His death inside your circuit, my dear préfet, would

+be a fine feather in your cap."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, we don't want another martyred Bourbon

+just yet!" retorted the préfet gruffly.  "He'd better

+die in England, or on the high seas rather than in this

+part of Normandy.  We should be accused of murdering

+him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le préfet was distinctly perturbed and irritable.

+A denunciation from some anonymous quarter had

+reached him that morning: a number of rough

+fellows&mdash;marauding Chouans&mdash;had, it appeared, halted at a

+wayside inn somewhere on the Caen road, and openly

+boasted that M. le Comte d'Artois, own brother to

+His Majesty the King, was about to land on the shores

+of France, and that a numerous and enthusiastic army

+was already prepared to rally round his flag, and to

+sweep the upstart Emperor from his throne, and all

+the myrmidons of the mushroom Empire from their

+comfortable seats.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Bishop had listened to the story of the anonymous

+denunciation and to the préfet's wails of woe

+most benignly and untiringly for close upon an hour.

+But he was at last showing signs of growing impatience.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I think, my dear Monsieur Moulin," he said with

+some acerbity, "you must yourself admit that this

+affair in no way concerns me.  Granville is not even

+my official residence.  I came here for a much-needed

+rest and, though my support and advice are always

+at your disposal, I really must leave you and the chief

+commissary of police to deal with these Chouans as

+best you can, and with any Bourbon prince who thinks

+of paying France an unwelcome visit."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He put up his delicate, beringed hand to his

+mouth, politely smothering a yawn.  He appeared

+absent and thoughtful all of a sudden, bored no doubt

+by the fussy man's volubility.  He was gazing out

+of the window, seemingly in rapt contemplation of

+the beautiful picture before him&mdash;the setting sun over

+the Channel, the gorgeous coast scenery, the glowing

+splendour of the winter twilight.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The préfet felt that he was dismissed.  Respect

+for Monseigneur warred with his latent irritability.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I won't intrude any longer," he said ruefully, as

+he prepared to go.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Bishop, much relieved, became at once more

+affable.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I wish I could be of service to you," he said

+benignly; "but from what I hear you have a very able

+man at your elbow in the newly accredited agent of

+His Majesty's Minister.  The préfet of Alençon has

+spoken very highly about him to me, and though he

+was unsuccessful in the matter of the burglary in my

+Palace at Alençon last October, I believe he has

+rendered very able assistance to the chief commissary

+of police in bringing some of those redoubtable

+Chouans to justice."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He may have done that," quoth the préfet drily,

+"but I have not much faith in the little grey fellow

+myself.  The problem confronting us here is a deeper

+one than he can tackle."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A few minutes later the préfet had finally bowed

+himself out of Monseigneur's presence.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Bishop remained seated at his desk, absorbed

+and almost motionless, for some time after his visitor

+had departed.  He appeared to be still wrapped up

+in the contemplation of the sunset.  The hurried

+footsteps of the préfet resounded on the great flagged hall

+below; there had been the usual commotion attendant

+on the departure of a guest: lackeys opening and closing

+the entrance doors, a call for Monsieur le Préfet's

+horse, the clatter of hoofs upon the stone-paved

+courtyard, then nothing more.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The dignified quietude of a well-ordered, richly

+appointed household again reigned in the sumptuous

+château.  After a while, as the shades of evening drew

+in, a footman entered with a lighted lamp, which he

+set upon the table.  But still Monseigneur waited,

+until through the tall window by his side there

+appeared nothing but an impenetrable veil of blackness.

+Then he rose, carefully re-adjusted the crimson

+shade over the lamp and threw a couple of logs upon

+the cheerful fire.  He went up to the window and

+opened it and, stepping out on to the terrace, peered

+intently into the night.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The north-westerly wind was soughing through

+the trees of the park, and not half a kilomètre away

+the breakers were roaring against the Dog's Tooth

+rocks; but, even through these manifold sounds,

+Monseigneur's keen ear had detected a soft and furtive

+footfall upon the terrace steps.  The next moment a

+man emerged out of the gloom.  Breathless and panting,

+he ran rapidly across the intervening forecourt

+and, almost colliding with the Bishop, staggered and

+fell forward into the room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Monseigneur received him in his arms, and with

+a swiftly murmured, "Thank God!" led him to a

+chair beside the hearth.  Then he closed the window,

+drew the heavy damask curtains closely together and

+finally came up to the newcomer who, shivering with

+cold and terror, wet to the skin and scant of breath,

+was stooping to the fire, trying to infuse warmth into

+his numbed fingers.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Someone is on my track," were the first words

+which fell from his quivering lips.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He was a man verging on middle age, short and

+stout of build, with a white, flabby skin and

+prominent, weak-looking eyes.  His clothes had almost

+been torn off his back by the frolic of the gale; he

+was hatless, and his hair, matted and dank, clung

+to his moist forehead.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Bishop had remained standing before him in

+an attitude of profound respect.  "Will your Highness

+deign to come up to my room?" he said.  "Dry

+clothes and a warm bath have been prepared."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I'll go in a moment," replied His Highness.  He

+had still some difficulty in recovering his breath, and

+spoke irritably like a wayward sick child.  "But let

+me tell you at once that our movements have been

+watched from the moment that we set foot on these

+shores.  The crossing was very rough.  The gale is

+raging furiously.  The skipper has put into Avranches.

+He put me off at the Goat's Creek and left me there

+with de Verthamont and du Roy.  As soon as we

+started to come hither we realised that there was

+someone on our track.  We consulted together and

+decided that it would be best to separate.  De

+Verthamont went one way and du Roy another, and I ran

+all the way here."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Was your Highness shadowed after that?" asked

+the Bishop.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I think not.  I heard no one.  But then the wind

+kept up an incessant din."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And did Sébastien meet your Highness?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes!  In the Devil's Bowl.  He followed me at

+a distance as far as your gates.  He thought that he,

+too, had been shadowed all day.  Early this morning

+he reconnoitred as far as Coutances, and there he

+heard that a couple of regiments of cavalry and a

+battery of artillery had arrived from St. Lô."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Bishop made no further comment.  His enthusiasm

+and excitement of a moment ago appeared

+to have fallen away from him; his finely chiselled face

+had become serene and pale; only in his deep-set eyes

+there seemed to smoulder a dull fire, as if with the

+prescience of impending doom.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A moment or two later he persuaded the Comte

+d'Artois to come up to his own private apartments.

+Here a warm bath, dry clothes and a well-cooked

+supper restored to the unfortunate Prince a certain

+measure of courage.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What's to be done?" he asked with a querulous

+tone in his hoarse voice.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"For the moment," replied the Bishop earnestly,

+"I would respectfully beg of your Highness to remain

+in these apartments, which have the infinite advantage

+of a secret hiding-place which no police agent will

+ever discover."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A hiding-place?" muttered the Prince petulantly.

+"I loathe the very idea of lurking behind dusty panels

+like a sick fox."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Bishop did not venture on a reply.  He went

+up to the fine mantelpiece at the opposite end of

+the room, and his hand wandered over the elaborate

+carving which adorned the high wainscoting.  He

+pressed with one finger on a portion of the carving,

+and at once some of the woodwork moved silently

+upon unseen hinges, and disclosed a cavity large

+enough for a man to pass through.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It would only be an hour or so at a time, your

+Highness," he said with respectful apology; "in case

+a posse of police makes a descent upon the house."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He explained to his august visitor the mechanism

+of the secret panel.  M. le Comte d'Artois, weary

+after a long sea journey, fretful and irritable, kept up

+a constant stream of mutterings <i>sotto voce</i>:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You and the party wished me to come.  I never

+thought that it would be safe, and if I have to remain

+in hiding in this rat hole, I might just as well be

+sitting comfortably in England."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Monseigneur, however, never departed for a moment

+from his attitude of almost reverential deference.

+With his own hands he ministered to every

+bodily comfort of the exalted personage who had

+found refuge under his roof and only left him when

+he saw the prince comfortably stretched out upon the

+bed, and was fully assured that he understood the

+working of the secret panel.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then after a deep obeisance he finally bowed himself

+out of the room.  Slowly he descended the dimly

+lighted stairs which led to his study on the floor

+below.  The pallor of his face appeared more marked

+than before.  A vague feeling of anxiety, not

+unmixed with disappointment, caused a deep frown to

+settle between his brows.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The situation, though tense always, had become

+well-nigh desperate now.  With M. le Comte d'Artois

+under his roof and his movements known to a spy

+of the Impérial police, every hour, every minute, had

+become fraught with deadly danger, not only to him

+but to every one of his adherents.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Hundreds of men and women around the neighbourhood

+at this hour were preparing to meet the

+Prince&mdash;the brother of their uncrowned King&mdash;for

+whose sake they were willing to risk their lives.  One

+false move, one act of cowardice or carelessness, and

+the death of a Bourbon prince would once more sully

+the honour of France, whilst countless adherents of

+the Royal cause would again fall victims to their

+hot-headed loyalty.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And as the Bishop re-entered his study he gave a

+short bitter sigh, for memory had swiftly conjured up

+the vision of that unheroic figure which slept

+contentedly in the room above, and on whose energy and

+courage depended the lives of those who still believed

+in him, and who saw in him only the ideal of a

+monarchy, the traditions of old France and of the

+glorious days that were gone.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Monseigneur, on entering the study, saw a man

+standing there waiting for him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Sébastien!" he exclaimed eagerly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The man had the bearing and appearance of a

+good-class domestic servant&mdash;one of those who enjoy

+many privileges as well as the confidence of their

+employer.  But to a keen psychologist it would soon

+become obvious that the sombre, well-cut clothes and

+stiff, conventional demeanour cloaked a more

+vigorous and more individual personality.  The face

+appeared rugged even beneath the solid mask, and the

+eyes had a keen, searching, at times furtive expression

+in them.  They were the eyes of a man accustomed to

+feel danger dogging his footsteps, to hold his life in

+his own hands and to take risks which would make

+the pusillanimous quake.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"How long have you been here?" asked the Bishop

+quickly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Half an hour, Monseigneur.  I did not dare follow

+His Highness too closely.  The town and its

+neighbourhood are bristling with spies.  I have had

+the greatest difficulty throughout the day in giving at

+least two prowlers the slip and drawing them off His

+Highness's tracks."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Monseigneur uttered an exclamation of horror.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I thought I had one at my heels a moment ago,"

+continued Sébastien; "just inside the gates.  Someone,

+I felt, was dogging my footsteps.  I fired a random

+shot into the night, and as luck would have it,

+I brought down my man."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Brought down your man?" exclaimed Monseigneur

+eagerly.  "Then&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Unfortunately it was not a police spy whom I

+shot," said Sébastien carelessly, "but Grand-Cerf, one

+of your keepers."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Monseigneur uttered a cry of horror.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Grand-Cerf!  I had posted him just inside the

+gates to watch for possible prowlers."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I didn't know that, and I shot him," repeated

+Sébastien grimly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You killed him?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Sébastien nodded.  The matter did not appear to

+him to have any importance.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now if it had been that accursed spy&mdash;&mdash;" he

+murmured.  Then he added more earnestly: "You

+will have a posse of police over from Granville

+to-morrow, Monseigneur&mdash;they'll search this house.

+Somehow or other someone has got wind of the

+affair&mdash;I'd stake my life on it."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Let them come," retorted the Bishop shortly.

+"Monsieur le Comte d'Artois will be safe behind the

+secret panel."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Sébastien shrugged his shoulders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"For half an hour, yes!  But if, as I believe, it is

+that confounded grey chap from Paris who has

+shadowed us, then no hiding-place or secret panel

+will screen us from his prying eyes.  It is he who

+tracked down the Spaniard last November, who laid

+Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze low, who thwarted

+Mademoiselle Vaillant.  Oh!" added the old Chouan, "if

+I only had him here between my hands&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+His powerful fingers twitched convulsively.

+Monseigneur shrugged his shoulders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That miserable little Man in Grey," he said drily,

+"has had the luck so far, I own, but it was because

+his wits were only opposed to brute force.  Monsieur

+de Saint-Tropèze was clumsy, the Spaniard reckless,

+the girl Vaillant hysterical.  Now we have to defend

+Monsieur le Comte d'Artois himself&mdash;but not with

+our lives, my good Sébastien&mdash;'tis our wits which

+are going to win the day, right under the very nose

+of the confounded Man in Grey."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+An hour or two later, in a small dingy room in one

+of the most squalid portions of the town, the

+accredited agent of His Impérial Majesty's Minister of

+Police was hastily demolishing the remnants of a

+meagre, cold supper.  He appeared footsore and cold.

+M. Moulin, préfet of St. Lô, sat opposite to him

+at the table.  He seemed gravely agitated and anxious.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We have done all we really could, Monsieur

+Fernand," he said fretfully, "with the material at our

+command.  Monsieur le Duc d'Otrante's spies have

+been very active, and I don't think that we have any

+cause to complain of the results."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well, let's hear the results," said the Man in

+Grey curtly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A sharp retort hovered on the préfet's tongue.  He

+did not like the dictatorial ways of this emissary from

+Paris, and had it not been for M. le Duc d'Otrante's

+express orders, the Minister's secret agent would have

+fared ill at the hands of this hidebound official.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There has been," he resumed with some bitterness,

+"great activity among the Chouans that are

+known to us in this neighbourhood.  Our spies have

+discovered that the Comte d'Artois landed on this

+coast in the early dawn this morning.  Unfortunately,

+they cannot be everywhere, and up to half an hour

+ago we had found no trace of him that we can rely

+on: at the same time we have intercepted a letter&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Pshaw!" ejaculated the Man in Grey impatiently.

+"And did your spies inform you by any chance that

+three strangers were landed by the brig <i>Delphine</i> in

+the Goat's Creek at dawn this morning?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Our informant did not say," remarked the préfet

+drily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I dare say not," rejoined the Man in Grey.  "Nor

+did he tell you, perhaps, that the three strangers were

+met at the Devil's Bowl by Sébastien, who is, if I

+mistake not, confidential valet to the Constitutional

+Bishop of Alençon."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That is false!" broke in Monsieur le Préfet

+emphatically.  "The loyalty of Monseigneur is beyond

+question."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Perhaps," retorted the other with a grim smile.

+"At any rate, Sébastien guided the three strangers

+through intricate passes among the cliffs as far as the

+Dog's Tooth.  Here the party separated: one man

+went one way, another the other.  Sébastien and one

+of the strangers waited about the cliffs until dusk,

+then they made their way along as far as the outskirts

+of Monseigneur's property&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I protest!" ejaculated the préfet hotly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But the Man in Grey put up his slender hand with

+a commanding gesture.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"One moment, I beg," he said quietly.  "The

+stranger lurked about on the outskirts of the park

+until it was quite dark, then he slipped in through

+the gates, with Sébastien close at his heels.  The gates

+were at once drawn to and closed.  The stranger

+disappeared in the night.  A few minutes later the report

+of a musket rang out through the darkness, then the

+soughing of the gale drowned every other sound."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Some thief," exclaimed the préfet gruffly, "lurking

+round the château.  No doubt Sebastian suspected

+him, dogged his footsteps and shot him.  It is all as

+clear as daylight&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So clear, indeed," observed the Man in Grey

+calmly, "that you, Monsieur le Préfet, will at once

+communicate with the chief commissary of police.  I

+want a squadron of mounted men to surround

+Monseigneur's château and a vigorous search made both

+inside and outside the house."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What!  Now?" gasped Monsieur Moulin.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes; now!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But it is past ten o'clock!" he protested.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A better hour could not be found."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But Monseigneur will look upon this as an insult!"

+exclaimed the préfet, who was deadly pale with

+agitation.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"For which we'll apologise if we have wronged

+him," retorted the secret agent quietly.  "Stay!" he

+added, after a moment's reflection.  "I pray you at

+the same time to tell Monsieur le Commissaire that I

+shall require a closed barouche, with a strong pair of

+horses and a mounted guard of half a dozen men, to

+be ready for me in the stable-yard of Monseigneur's

+château.  Is that understood?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was.  To have even thought of disobedience

+would have been madness.  The very way in which

+the Man in Grey uttered his "I pray you" sent a cold

+shiver down M. Moulin's spine, and he still had in

+the inner pocket of his coat the letter written in the

+all-powerful Minister's own hand.  In this letter

+M. le Duc d'Otrante gave orders that his agent was to be

+obeyed&mdash;blindly, implicitly, unquestioningly&mdash;whatever

+he might command, whomsoever he might bid

+to execute his orders.  One look in that pale, colourless

+face sufficed to show that he knew the power

+which had been placed in his hands and would use it

+to punish those who strove to defy his might.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+M. Fantin, commissary of police of Granville, was

+preparing to execute the agent's orders as transmitted

+by the préfet.  The whole matter was unutterably

+distasteful to him.  Monseigneur the Constitutional

+Bishop of Alençon was a prelate of such high

+integrity and proven loyalty, that to put such an insult

+upon him was, in the opinion of the commissary,

+nothing short of an outrage.  He was pacing up and down

+the uncarpeted floor of his office in a state of great

+agitation.  In a corner of the room, beside the small

+iron stove, sat the secret agent of His Majesty's

+Minister.  Calm, unperturbed by the mutterings of

+the commissary, he only exhibited a slight sign of

+impatience when he glanced at the clock and noted

+the rapid flight of time.  The squadron of mounted

+police requisitioned by him was making ready to get

+to horse.  It was then close on eleven o'clock.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A moment later one of the police sergeants entered

+the office with the news that a mounted courier had

+just arrived from the château, with a message from

+Monseigneur to the commissary of police.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I'll see him at once," said the latter, half hoping

+that this fresh incident would even now prevent the

+abominable insult to the Bishop.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What is it, Gustave?" he asked, for he knew the

+man as one of the grooms in Monseigneur's service.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"An attempt at impudent robbery, Monsieur le

+Commissaire," replied the man, "which has resulted

+in a man's death.  Monseigneur has sent me over to

+notify you at once and to ask what he should do in

+the matter."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Fantin threw a look of triumph at the little

+figure in grey that sat huddled beside the iron stove.

+The commissary had also advanced the theory of an

+attempted burglary at the château, and was highly

+elated to see his deductions justified.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A robbery?" he exclaimed.  "How?  When?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"An hour or two ago, Monsieur le Commissaire,"

+replied Gustave.  "Monseigneur will explain.  I know

+nothing of the details except that the rascal overturned

+a lamp.  He was burned to death and nearly set fire

+to the château.  I was sent hither post-haste to see

+Monsieur le Commissaire&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Very good," rejoined the commissary.  "Ride

+straight back to the château and tell Monseigneur that

+I will be there anon."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+As soon as the man had gone, M. Fantin turned

+complacently to the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"As you see, my dear Monsieur Fernand," he

+began, "there is no need to&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"As your squadron is ready, Monsieur le Commissaire,"

+quoth the agent quietly, "'twere a pity not

+to give them the exercise.  And remember the

+barouche," he added sharply, "and the mounted guard.

+Do not on any account leave them behind.  My

+orders are in no way modified."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissary swallowed the retort which was

+hovering on his lips; but he threw a look that was

+almost vicious at the meagre grey-clad figure.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do you accompany us?" he asked with a sneer.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I will meet you at the château," replied the secret

+agent simply.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Half an hour later Monseigneur was making the

+commissary of police welcome at the château.  He

+appeared more upset than he cared to admit by the

+tragedy enacted inside his house.  He was not a

+young man, and his nerves were severely shaken.

+When his visitors entered, he was sitting in a large

+armchair beside the fire in his bedroom; he had a

+glass in his hand, half filled with some sweet-smelling

+restorative.  One of his male servants was in attendance

+upon him, bathing his master's forehead with

+vinegar and water.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Preceded by Sébastien and accompanied by the

+secret agent and two men of the police, M. Fantin

+then went to view the scene of the tragedy.  The

+two men remained on guard outside the dining-room,

+where the drama had taken place.  The room still

+presented a disordered appearance; nothing had been

+touched, Sébastien declared, in view of M. le

+Commissaire's visit.  But the lamp which hung from the

+ceiling had been lighted, and by its light the whole

+extent of what might have been a measureless disaster

+was revealed to M. Fantin's horrified gaze.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+In the centre of the room on the floor, close to

+the large dining-table, there lay a shapeless mass,

+obviously a human body, charred beyond identification.

+Only the lower part, the heavy cloth breeches

+and high leather boots, though badly scorched, were

+still recognisable.  Beside the body, the rich damask

+table-cloth lay in a burned and tangled heap, where

+the wretched man had dragged it down in his fall;

+and a foot or so away was the heavy lamp which had

+caused the conflagration.  It was lying on its side,

+with bowl, shade and chimney broken, just as it had

+rolled out of the man's hand.  A narrow streak of oil

+ran from it to the edge of the mantel-kerb.  The rich

+Oriental carpet was burned in several places, and the

+table itself was severely scorched, while heat and

+smoke had begun their work of destruction everywhere

+on the priceless furniture, until water had rendered

+their work complete.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Sébastien's account of the tragedy was brief and

+clear.  He had had his suspicions aroused during the

+day by seeing an ill-clad ruffian sneaking around the

+park gates, and in the evening, feeling anxious, he

+made a special tour of the château to see that

+everything was safe.  On entering the dining-room he saw

+a man standing beside the open window, through

+which he had evidently just made his way.

+He&mdash;Sébastien&mdash;at once drew his pistol, and the man

+turned to fly; but the aim was good and the man

+appeared to be hit.  He gave a snarl like a wild animal,

+sprang back into the room, apparently with a view

+to throwing himself upon his assailant, when his

+strength failed him.  With one hand he clutched at

+the table, but he tottered and fell, dragging with him

+both the cloth and the table-lamp, which came down

+with a crash on the top of him, scattering the oil all

+over his body.  His clothing at once caught fire, and

+Sébastien, realising the danger to the entire house,

+instantly ran for the buckets of water, which were

+always kept in the passage for the purpose, and

+shouted for assistance.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Within a few moments he and another lackey got

+the fire under, and no great harm was done, save the

+shock to Monseigneur's nerves, damage to valuable

+furniture, and the complete obliteration of the felon's

+identity.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissary of police asked Sébastien a few

+questions for form's sake.  He also took some

+perfunctory notes.  He felt irritable and gravely annoyed

+with the secret agent for having placed him in such

+an awkward position vis-à-vis of Monseigneur.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A squadron of police to investigate a common

+attempt at burglary," he growled savagely, as

+Sébastien finally showed him out of the room.  "We shall

+be the laughing-stock of the countryside!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Sébastien laughed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"'Tis the Chouans who will be pleased, Monsieur

+le Commissaire," he said.  "They have you safely

+occupied to-night and can go about their nefarious

+business unmolested, I am thinking."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey was about to follow, but turned

+for a moment on his heel.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By the way, my good Sébastien," he said, "at

+what time did the tragedy take place which you have

+so graphically described to us?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+For a second or two Sébastien appeared to hesitate.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh," he replied, "somewhere about six or seven

+o'clock, Monsieur.  I couldn't say exactly."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What made you wait so long, then, before you

+sent to Monsieur le Commissaire?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There was a little confusion in the house, Monsieur

+will understand.  Monseigneur had given orders

+at once to send a courier over, but the grooms were at

+their supper, and it took a little time&mdash;we meant to

+send at once&mdash;the delay was unintentional."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am sure it was," broke in the commissary, who

+was still within earshot.  "And now, Monsieur

+Fernand," he added, "I pray you excuse me.  The

+hour is getting late, and I must make my apologies

+to Monseigneur."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"One moment, Monsieur le Commissaire," rejoined

+the Man in Grey.  "Will you not at least question

+the other servants who came to Monsieur Sébastien's

+assistance?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No one came to my assistance," Sébastien assured

+him.  "The whole affair was over in a moment."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But when the shot was fired&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By the time some of the domestics arrived upon

+the scene, I had put out the fire.  Then I locked the

+dining-room door.  I knew Monsieur le Commissaire

+would not wish anything touched."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Quite right!&mdash;quite right!" said M. Fantin

+querulously.  "Now, Monsieur Fernand, will you come?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"One moment, Monsieur le Commissaire," said the

+secret agent, and suddenly his whole manner changed

+to one of commanding authority.  "There will be

+plenty of time for excuses presently.  For the nonce

+you will order your captain to make a thorough

+search of this château and of the grounds around.

+You will question every one of the domestics; and

+remember that I shall be about somewhere&mdash;probably

+unseen&mdash;but present, nevertheless, to see that the

+investigation is minute and thorough.  Sébastien will

+remain in the meanwhile in the custody of these two

+men here, until I have need of him again."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By Heaven!" protested the Commissaire roughly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By Heaven!" retorted the Man in Grey loudly,

+"you'll obey my orders now, Monsieur le Commissaire,

+or I shall send you straight to Monsieur the

+Minister to report upon your own misconduct!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. Fantin, at the threat and at the manner in which

+it was uttered, became as white as a sheet.  But he

+obeyed&mdash;at once and without another word.  Sébastien's

+rugged face had shown no sign of emotion as,

+at a curt word from the secret agent, the two men of

+the police closed up on either side and marched him

+into an adjoining room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissary had taken the threat of the Minister's

+all-powerful agent very much to heart.  His

+men searched the château through and through, just

+as if it had been the stronghold of some irreconcilable

+rebel.  The secret agent himself appeared and disappeared,

+while the search was going on, like some grey

+will-o'-the-wisp&mdash;now in one room, now in another,

+now a passage, now half-way upstairs, just where

+least expected.  The search took over three hours.

+During that time Monseigneur himself sat in his room

+in front of the fire, the very picture of silent and

+offended dignity.  He listened&mdash;motionless and

+dignified&mdash;to the commissary's profuse apologies, only now

+and then accepting the ministrations of the lackey who

+remained with him throughout, bathing his forehead

+with vinegar, or mixing a fresh glass of orange-flower

+water.  Of the grey-clad figure which flittered

+unceremoniously in and out of his private apartments, he

+took no more notice than if he were a fly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+When presently the police actually invaded his own

+bedroom, Monseigneur's attitude remained one of

+unapproachable reserve.  Even when the agent passed

+his hands over the wainscoting and presently found

+the button that worked the secret spring, Monseigneur

+showed neither interest nor emotion.  The

+hiding-place itself was found to be empty; the Man in

+Grey walked into it and out again, in a matter-of-fact,

+impassive manner, as if he were performing a

+mechanical and useless job.  Neither here nor inside the

+house, nor in the grounds, nor in any other hiding-place

+was anyone or anything found to impeach

+Monseigneur's well-known loyalty.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The unfortunate commissary was covered with confusion.

+He would gladly have strangled the meddlesome

+official who had placed him in such an awkward

+position, or even have relieved his feelings by hurling

+anathema upon him.  But the secret agent appeared

+indifferent both to the wrath of M. Fantin and to the

+silent disapprobation of the Bishop.  When he was

+satisfied that the search was done, and well done, he

+took his leave, but not before.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Monseigneur did not vouchsafe him even a look.

+But he was quite affable with M. le Commissaire,

+when the latter finally was allowed to depart.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Have you any further orders, Monsieur Fernand?"

+queried M. Fantin with bitter sarcasm, when

+he had bowed his way out of the presence of the

+outraged prelate.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes," replied the other; "but I will give them to

+you outside.  And stay," he added as the commissary

+turned on his heel, silent with pent-up rage, "take

+Sébastien with you and keep him at the commissariat

+until further orders."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+No chronicler could make a faithful record of all

+that M. Fantin said to himself and to his sergeant

+even whilst he executed these orders punctually.

+Fortunately for his feelings on the way home, the Man in

+Grey did not elect to accompany him.  After he had

+given his final orders he disappeared in the darkness,

+and M. Fantin was only too thankful to be rid of that

+unpleasant presence.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+V

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+In and around the château again reigned that perfect

+silence and orderliness which pertain to an

+aristocratic household.  The squadron of police had long

+since departed: even the sound of their horses' hoofs,

+the clang of metal and rattle of swords and muskets

+had ceased to echo through the night.  For a little

+while longer soft murmurings and stealthy movements

+were still heard inside the house as the servants went

+to bed, and, whilst they undressed, indulged in

+comments and surmises about the curious happenings of

+the night.  Then, even these sounds were stilled.

+Monseigneur, however, did not go to bed.  He had risen

+from the armchair, and in it he had installed the man

+who, for several hours had been diligently ministering

+to him with vinegar and orange-flower water.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your Highness is none the worse for the experience,

+I trust," he said, as he stooped and threw a log

+or two into the blaze.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Tired and anxious," replied the Comte d'Artois

+querulously.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A night's rest will soon restore your Royal

+Highness," rejoined the Bishop with deep respect.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was a dangerous game to play," continued the

+prince peevishly.  "At any moment one of those men

+might have suspected."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was the only possible game to play, your Royal

+Highness," rejoined the Bishop earnestly.  "The

+moment those spies were on your track and mine, the

+search was bound to follow.  Think if the police had

+come here whilst you were in hiding in this room or

+even behind the secret panel!  Nay! 'twas a mercy

+Sébastien shot Grand-Cerf in mistake for a spy.  It

+enabled us to invent that marvellous comedy which so

+effectually hoodwinked not only the police but even

+that astute agent of the Minister himself.  And now,"

+added Monseigneur, as a deep sigh of exultation and

+triumph rose from his breast, "we can work with a

+free hand.  After to-night's work, this house will

+never again be suspected.  We can make it the

+headquarters of your Highness's staff.  It shall be the

+stepping-stone to your royal brother's reconquered

+throne."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The words were scarcely out of his mouth when,

+in an instant, he paused, his whole attitude one of

+rigid and terror-filled expectancy.  Loud and firm

+footsteps had resounded upon the flagged terrace,

+though muffled by the heavy damask curtain which

+hung before the window.  A second or two later the

+footsteps halted, the mullion was struck with something

+that clanked, and a voice called out loudly and

+peremptorily:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Open, in the name of the law!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Comte d'Artois had smothered a cry of horror.

+He clung to his chair with hands that trembled as if

+with ague, his face became deathly white, and he

+stared with wild, wide-open eyes in the direction of

+the window, whence that peremptory call had come.

+He was in a state of acute physical terror bordering on

+collapse.  Monseigneur, however, had not lost his

+presence of mind: "Quick, the secret panel!" he said, and

+already the slender hand was manipulating the hidden

+spring.  The Comte d'Artois tottered to his feet;

+the next moment there was a terrific crash of broken

+glass, the damask curtain was roughly torn aside, and

+the agent stepped into the room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Resistance were futile, Monseigneur," he said

+quietly, for with a rapid movement the Bishop had

+reached the bell-pull.  "I have half a squadron of

+police outside, and six men at my heels."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He came further into the room, and as he did so he

+called to two of his men to stand on either side of

+Monseigneur.  Then he turned to Monsieur le Comte

+d'Artois:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I have a barouche and a mounted guard ready to

+convey your Highness to Avranches, where the brig

+<i>Delphine</i> with her new skipper is at your disposal

+for an immediate return trip to England.  His Majesty

+the Emperor deprecates revenge and bloodshed.  He

+might punish, but he prefers to put the culprit out of

+the way.  If Monsieur le Comte d'Artois will offer no

+resistance, every respect will be shown to his person."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Resistance would, indeed, have been worse than

+useless.  Even Monseigneur replied to his Highness's

+look of appeal with one of resignation.  He picked up

+a mantle which lay upon the bed and silently put it

+round the Prince's shoulders, then he took the hand

+which His Highness held out to him and kissed it

+fervently.  Half a dozen men closed in around the

+Prince, and the latter walked with a firm step over the

+threshold of the window, his footsteps and those of his

+escort soon ceasing to echo through the night.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have won, Monsieur," said the Bishop coldly,

+when he found himself alone with the Man in Grey.

+"I am in your hands."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Did I not say, Monseigneur, that His Majesty

+deprecated revenge?" said the secret agent quietly.

+"You have an estate in the South, a château finer than

+this one, so I'm told.  You are free to go thither for

+an indefinite period, for the benefit of your health."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Exile!" said the Bishop bitterly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do you not deserve worse?" retorted the Man in

+Grey coldly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I nearly outwitted you, though," exclaimed the

+Bishop.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Very nearly, I admit.  Unfortunately for your

+clever comedy, I happened to know that your valet

+Sébastien shot a man just outside your gates early in

+the afternoon.  When he told me the elaborate story

+of the attempted burglary I knew that he lied, and,

+with that knowledge, I was able to destroy the whole

+fabric of your machinations.  As you see, I bided my

+time.  And the moment that you, thinking that you

+were alone with the Comte d'Artois, threw down your

+mask I was ready to strike.  Let me bid you farewell,

+Monseigneur," he added in conclusion, and, without

+a touch of irony.  "You can have twenty-four hours

+to prepare for your journey South, and you will

+remain in your château there awaiting His Majesty's

+pleasure."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The next moment the Man in Grey was gone, even

+as the Bishop's parting words struck upon his

+unheeding ear:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Awaiting the return of His Majesty Louis XVIII,

+by the Grace of God, King of France," Monseigneur

+called out at the top of his voice.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap06"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER VI

+<br /><br />

+THE MYSTERY OF A WOMAN'S HEART

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The letter dropped from Mme. de Plélan's thin,

+white hand.  She looked across at her daughter with

+eyes full of tears.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And now that Monseigneur has gone," she said

+mournfully, "I feel as if I had lost the very mainstay

+of our valiant little party."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The girl sighed, somewhat impatiently.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monseigneur," she said, "would be the first to bid

+you smother your regrets for the past, maman, and to

+concentrate your thoughts on the dangers that still lie

+ahead."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She was busy at a desk that stood open before her,

+glancing at a number of papers, classifying some,

+throwing a great number into the fire which crackled

+cheerfully in the hearth, whilst others she tied together

+and put into a small tin box that stood close to her

+hand.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was kind and gracious of Monseigneur,"

+continued Madame la Marquise dolefully, "to think of

+sending me a courier when he must have been so busy

+with his preparations for his sudden departure.  Oh,

+that departure!" she added, as once again tears of

+wrath as well as of sorrow welled up to her eyes.  "The

+shame of it!  The humiliation as well as the bitter,

+bitter disappointment!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Constance de Plélan made no comment this time

+on her mother's lamentations.  She had apparently

+completed the work on which she had been engaged,

+for now she rose, closed the desk and locking the

+small tin box with a key which she selected from a

+bunch at her belt she took it up under her arm.  Then

+she turned to her mother:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Will you tell me, maman," she said, "just what

+Monseigneur says in his letter?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Constance stood there in the grey light of the

+winter afternoon, with the flicker of the firelight

+playing on her tall, graceful figure, her arm extended,

+holding the metal box, her small head carried with the

+stately dignity of a goddess.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Those devils will be here directly," continued the

+girl; and as she spoke the delicate lines of her face

+were distorted by an expression of intense and

+passionate hatred.  "But we are ready for them.  I have

+only this box to put away in its usual

+hiding-place&mdash;after which, let them come!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mme. de Plélan again took up the letter, the perusal

+of which had caused her so much sorrow.  It had

+arrived by courier a few minutes ago; now, at her

+daughter's request, she began to read it aloud:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"This is what Monseigneur the Bishop writes," she

+said.  "'My dear friend, immediately on receipt of

+this missive, set to work at once to destroy any

+compromising papers you may have in the house.  I have

+no doubt that the posse of police which has just

+ransacked my place will pay you a visit also.  My

+friendship for you is well known, and your name may

+appear in one or two of the letters which those brutes

+have confiscated.  Alas! the landing of Monsieur le

+Comte d'Artois on these shores has ended in disaster.

+The spies of the Corsican upstart were on his track

+from the first.  They followed His Royal Highness

+to my Palace, kidnapped him as if he were a bale of

+goods and shipped him straight back to England.

+My life and liberty are, it seems, to be spared, but I

+have been ordered into exile at my château in the

+Dauphiné.  God guard and preserve you all!  We

+must wait for happier times!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Constance said nothing for a moment or two.  She

+stood staring into the fire, her lips tightly pressed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And all," she mused after a while, speaking slowly

+and dreamily, "through the machinations of that

+extraordinary man, who is said to be a secret agent of

+Bonaparte's most powerful Minister."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A man without a name!" added the Marquise,

+bitter scorn ringing through every word she spoke.

+"A meagre, insignificant creature, grey and colourless

+as his coat."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But clever&mdash;and relentless," said the girl.  "That

+Man in Grey is killing our hopes one by one."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I loathe the brute!" ejaculated Madame fervently.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze is dead," continued

+Constance in the same dreary, monotonous voice.

+"The Spaniard is a prisoner; Marie Vaillant a failure;

+Monseigneur an exile; and still that Man in Grey

+is allowed to live.  Oh, it is monstrous!" she said,

+her whole body suddenly quivering with passion.

+"Monstrous and cowardly!  Are there no men

+amongst us who will rid the King of such a

+pestilential foe?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mme. de Plélan started as if she had been struck.

+She stared at her daughter, trying to fathom all that

+was going on behind that smooth young brow and

+within the depths of those passion-filled eyes.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You mean&mdash;&mdash;?" she murmured.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The girl nodded.  "Why not?" she retorted quite

+calmly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, if we could!" replied Madame.  "But he is

+so cautious, so wary&mdash;and lately he has always had

+two or three spies at his heels."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There are ways&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, as to that, there are a number of our own

+men who would willingly take every risk in order to

+rid us of the brute.  But in cases of that kind," she

+added slowly, "failure always means such terrible

+reprisals&mdash;the death of two or three more of our leaders

+on the guillotine&mdash;and we can ill spare them just

+now."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I did not mean anything so clumsy," explained

+Constance quietly.  "An attempted murder from

+behind a hedge is, as you say, foredoomed to failure.

+From what one knows of the Man in Grey he is not

+likely to fall a victim to such an artless trap."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then what did you mean, Constance?" asked

+Madame coldly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Men have been decoyed before now," replied the

+girl, as she looked her mother straight between the

+eyes; "and have of their own will walked into traps

+from which there was no escape.  The man in the

+grey coat may be surrounded by spies, his precious

+life may be watched over by an army of myrmidons,

+but he is the most astute as well as the most relentless

+enemy of our King&mdash;and what other women have

+done before now, surely we can do again."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mme. la Marquise made no immediate reply.  She

+was gazing almost with awe upon her daughter, who,

+flushed with ardour, quivering with excitement,

+appeared the very embodiment of that reckless patriotism

+which had already sent Charlotte Corday to the

+scaffold.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Constance, in God's name," she murmured, "tell

+me what you mean&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But before the girl could reply, the words died

+upon her lips.  From the other side of the château

+there had come the sound of a great commotion, the

+clatter of horses' hoofs upon the flagged forecourt,

+the clanging of metal, the champing of bits, and finally

+loud and peremptory words of command.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The police!" exclaimed Madame la Marquise in

+a hoarse whisper.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Those devils!" ejaculated the girl with savage

+intensity of hate.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But neither of the women showed the slightest

+sign of fear, or even of agitation.  They were made of

+that firm nerve which is always ready to meet danger

+in whatever form, at whatever hour it may present

+itself.  Conspiracy and intrigue were in their blood.

+They had never become reconciled to the new régime

+that had sent their King and Queen to the guillotine

+and kept their present uncrowned King in exile.  They

+had never bowed their necks to the democratic or the

+military yoke.  They still fought tooth and nail for

+the restoration of a system which they believed was

+based upon divine right&mdash;caring little that that system

+had been rejected by the entire people of France.

+And since they could no longer fight in the open&mdash;for

+their party had dwindled to vanishing-point and

+lacked both men and materials&mdash;they plotted in the

+dark, in secret, but with unswerving loyalty to their

+King and unbounded belief in ultimate victory.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+So now with a posse of police at their gates they

+did not lose their heads.  On the contrary, Madame

+la Marquise de Plélan's attitude became if anything

+more dignified and more calm.  She arranged her silk

+dress in prim folds around her, readjusting the set of

+her lace coif, and took up a piece of knitting

+wherewith she busied her perfectly steady fingers.

+Constance, still carrying the metal box, turned to go out

+of the room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I will return," she said, "when I have disposed of

+this box."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What have you kept in it?" asked Madame rather

+anxiously.  "From what I hear, secret hiding-places

+stand but little chance when that grey-coated ferret

+is about."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Apparently, however, the young girl had not heard

+her mother's query, for even as the usual ominous

+"Open, in the name of the law!" rang out through

+the silence of the château, she had run out of the room

+and was speeding down the long corridor towards her

+own apartments.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey, quiet and perfectly deferential,

+stood before Mme. la Marquise de Plélan and in a

+few words explained the duty that lay before him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By order of His Majesty's Minister of Police,"

+he added firmly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mme. la Marquise waived aside his explanations

+with a quick gesture of her slender, aristocratic hand.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I know, Monsieur, I know," she said calmly.

+"French men and women now are little better than

+slaves.  Their very homes, their privacy, have ceased

+to be sacred in the eyes of the State which should be

+their protector, rather than their tyrant."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A search in a private house in those days was no

+small matter.  Ordered by the Minister of Police or

+his accredited representative, it consisted in a thorough

+and rigid examination of every nook and cranny, of

+every corner wherein compromising papers might be

+hidden.  The high-born gentlemen and ladies, suspected

+of furthering the Cause of the exiled Bourbon

+princes by aiding and abetting the Chouans in their

+nefarious practices, were known to be past masters

+in the art of concealing every proof of their own

+guilt or that of their friends; the women especially,

+who reckoned on a certain amount of chivalry on the

+part of police officers, were the chief custodians of

+the papers and records belonging to those organised

+bands of marauding freebooters.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Madame la Marquise had only thrown one glance

+on the hated enemy when first he entered the room,

+but already she had appraised him in her mind:

+"Relentless in the exercise of duty," she thought.  "Cold

+and dispassionate; no mercy or consideration could

+be expected from him.  If only Constance has burned

+everything that was compromising&mdash;there was the tin

+box and papers which related to the agency at

+Jersey&mdash;and many more records which might mean the

+guillotine for some of us if they were found&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Madame noticed that the moment the agent entered

+the room he cast one rapid look in the direction of

+the hearth, where the fire was half-smothered beneath

+a heap of burned paper.  On this, however, he made

+no comment; only his glance appeared to harden and

+the orders to his men became more peremptory and

+more sharp.  He asked Madame for her keys.  She

+took a bunch from her basket and gave them up to

+him without remark beyond the curt statement:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My daughter has the others."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey opened the desk and the drawers

+of other pieces of furniture in the room, then he left

+his men to do their work.  Madame sat beside the fire,

+quietly knitting.  When she was respectfully asked to

+move she did so with lips tightly pressed, as if

+determined not to give vent to her indignation.  Cushions

+and stuffings of chairs and sofas were searched

+through and through; three men were busy in this

+room, others were dispersed throughout the house.

+They tested the wainscotings and the window recesses;

+they climbed up the chimneys and tapped on the ceilings

+and the walls.  The calm, colourless eyes of the

+Man in Grey appeared to be everywhere.  Even Mme. la

+Marquise felt a hot flush rising to her pale cheeks

+when she encountered that searching gaze, which

+seemed to probe her very thoughts.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"If only Constance would return!" she sighed to

+herself impatiently.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The shades of evening were beginning to draw in.

+The police were now busy in other parts of the house;

+only the secret agent was still in the room.  His

+fingers were wandering over the elaborate carving of

+the wainscoting.  Madame was silent, her ear strained

+to catch the sound of Constance's footfall on the

+corridor outside.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Suddenly she heard the familiar light footstep, and,

+strangely enough, the young girl's voice, clear as a

+bird's and exquisitely trained, singing an old French

+<i>chanson</i>.  The next moment the door was opened and

+Constance stood under the lintel.  She had changed

+her plain morning dress for a clinging gown of soft

+silk, embroidered in tiny, coloured rosebuds; her neck

+and arms were bare, and round her shoulders she had

+wound a diaphanous scarf of old lace.  Her golden

+hair was dressed high in the prevailing fashion of

+the day; her cheeks and lips were slightly rouged,

+her eyes shone with intense excitement.  It was

+obvious that she had been at pains to enhance her great

+personal attraction.  Even the perfume of sweet peas

+which emanated from her was intended to intoxicate,

+and of a truth she presented an altogether adorable

+picture of youth and beauty, as well as of gay and

+childlike spirits.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Madame smothered the exclamation of astonishment

+which at sight of her daughter had risen to her

+lips, whilst the Man in Grey turned from his engrossing

+occupation and was gazing at the exquisite

+apparition in the doorway, offering it that tribute of

+silent admiration which no man&mdash;however hidebound&mdash;will

+ever grudge to a beautiful woman.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ah, Monsieur!" said Constance gaily, as with

+perfect unconcern she stepped into the room and turned

+a pair of appealing blue eyes to the impassive secret

+agent, "I entreat you, come to the rescue!  Your

+sergeant insists that he must turn out all the things in

+my bedroom.  Oh, he is a very worthy man!" she

+added, and a light of saucy mischief began to dance

+in her eyes; "but he&mdash;he tells me that he is not a

+married man, and&mdash;and he is too young&mdash;Monsieur,

+I pray you&mdash;must he look over my things?&mdash;my&mdash;my&mdash;you

+understand?  Why, it is not <i>convenable</i>!  Is it,

+maman?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Constance!" came involuntarily from Madame,

+together with a look of horror and reproach.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Even the Man in Grey appeared slightly embarrassed.

+The young girl ran up to him and suddenly

+linking her hands around his arm tried to drag him

+towards the door.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monsieur," she entreated and, under the charm

+of her gaiety and her girlishness, the icy reserve of

+the police agent already seemed to thaw.  "I can trust

+you&mdash;I don't know if you are married, but&mdash;but I

+feel that you are more respectable than your sergeant&mdash;I

+entreat you, come!  If my&mdash;my&mdash;you understand&mdash;are

+to be turned over by rough masculine hands,

+I feel that I could endure it if those hands were

+yours."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Mademoiselle," protested the Man in Grey, who

+was making somewhat feeble efforts to disengage his

+arm, "I&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, you won't refuse!" she pleaded with tender

+reproach.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Her lovely face was very close to his; the subtle

+scent of sweet peas rose to his nostrils and somewhat

+clouded his usually cool and discerning mind.

+Moreover, no male creature living could have withstood

+for long the appeal of those shimmering blue eyes.

+After all, she was not asking very much.  Only that

+he should himself perform a duty which the clumsy

+sergeant might perhaps not have performed quite

+efficiently.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She was still clinging to his arm, still pleading with

+her eyes.  After a brief hesitation, more assumed than

+real, he assented coldly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am at Mademoiselle's service."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She gave a cry of pleasure, and he followed her

+out of the room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Madame la Marquise was left bewildered, half-thinking

+that she must have been asleep and dreaming

+when she saw that dainty and puzzling apparition

+just now&mdash;Constance, her daughter, putting forth her

+powers of fascination to please that odious and vulgar

+creature!  It was unbelievable!

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Charles, the footman, entered with the lamp.

+Madame did not speak; she was wrapt in moody

+contemplation.  Gradually a strange expression of

+disquietude and then of weird misgiving spread over her

+pale face, and once or twice she put a handkerchief

+to her lips as if to crush a cry.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Gradually the commotion in the house became

+stilled.  A while ago Madame had heard the tramp

+of those hateful police creatures going down the stairs

+in the direction of the offices and servants' quarters;

+then for a time all was still in that part of the château.

+But presently, as Madame sat pondering and listening,

+she heard a sound which&mdash;though familiar and

+reassuring enough&mdash;caused her to jump to her feet in

+an access of abject horror.  Her knees shook under

+her&mdash;she could hardly stand.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My God!" she murmured.  "Not that&mdash;&mdash;  Don't

+let her do that&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+All that the Marquise had heard was the soft strain

+of a spinet and a young girl's pure, fresh voice

+singing an old French ditty.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mme. de Plélan stood rigid, as if turned to stone.

+The dim light of the lamp shone upon her face, which

+was the colour of pure snow.  Then she slowly went

+to the door and out of the room.  She walked along

+the corridor and up the stairs.  Her daughter's rooms

+gave on the landing immediately above.  Madame

+had to cling to the banisters as she went up, or she

+would have fallen.  An icy horror gripped her heart;

+she was only conscious of a wild desire to interfere, to

+place herself at once and by any means athwart those

+schemes taking shape in Constance's turbulent brain.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The door of Mademoiselle de Plélan's boudoir was

+wide open.  Opposite the door was the spinet at which

+the young girl sat, playing and singing.  The light

+from the lamp gleamed through the soft tendrils of

+her golden hair, and the pure lines of her delicate

+profile were silhouetted against the glow.  Not far

+from her stood the agent of His Impérial Majesty's

+Minister of Police, the most bitter enemy her friends

+and kindred had ever known.  Constance was looking

+at him as she sang, and his deep-set eyes, usually

+so colourless, were fixed with a gaze of ardent admiration

+on the beautiful singer.  On a table at his elbow

+was the tin box, with its lid thrown open.  Only a

+few papers remained at the bottom of the box; the

+others he had in his hand.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Mme. de Plélan tottered as if ready to fall.  An

+extraordinary emotion, born of a nameless terror, was

+paralysing her limbs.  In trying to cross the landing

+she felt faint and all but measured her length on the

+ground.  A weak cry escaped her lips.  In an instant

+Constance ceased playing and, seeing her mother,

+ran to her side.  The next moment her arms were

+round Madame's shoulders, and she almost carried

+her back into the room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey had also made a movement as if

+to run to Madame's assistance; then he stood by,

+looking confused and awkward, as men are apt to do

+when women are ill.  However, he helped Constance

+presently to lead Madame to a chair, and the girl

+immediately threw him a grateful look.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Maman is over-fatigued," she said softly.  "She

+has gone through a great deal this afternoon."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Her tone of tender reproach and the glance which

+she cast him from the depths of her blue eyes

+completed the confusion of the Man in Grey.  He

+stammered an apology, feeling that he was an unmitigated

+brute.  At once Constance stretched out her hand to

+him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I did not mean to complain," she said gently.

+"You have been so kind&mdash;so considerate&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Her voice broke in a sob.  The secret agent, deeply

+moved, took her hand and pressed it to his lips.  Then,

+hurriedly, he gathered up the remaining papers out

+of the tin box, slipped them into his pocket and left

+the room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+By and by his firm voice was heard giving orders

+to his men to mount.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But as soon as his slim, grey-clad figure had

+disappeared across the landing, Constance ran to the

+door and closed it with a bang.  For a moment she

+stood quite still, gazing in the direction whence came

+the sound of the enemy's retreating footsteps.  An

+unmistakable look of triumph and satisfaction filled

+her eyes.  The next instant, however, she was down

+on her knees beside her mother, half-sobbing,

+half-laughing, her cheeks flushed even beneath the rouge.

+"There was nothing in the tin box, maman," she

+cried somewhat wildly.  "Only a few worthless

+letters, with nothing in them to compromise any of us

+seriously.  Oh, but I have got him, maman!  I have

+got him as surely as he got Monsieur de Saint-Tropèze.

+In a month from now I shall be able to

+twist him round my little finger&mdash;and then&mdash;and

+then&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But Mme. de Plélan did not hear the girl's strange,

+half-hysterical ravings.  She was lying unconscious,

+her pale face looking ghostlike against the silk cushion

+of her chair.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Less than a month later, on a clear, cold afternoon

+early in February, a woman, wrapped from head to

+foot in a dark mantle, was making her way along the

+main road which cuts straight through the

+Cache-Renard woods between Alençon and Plélan.  She

+came from the direction of the château and walked

+briskly, holding her mantle closely round her

+shoulders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+When she arrived at the clearing where crossroads

+met and intersected the main one, she paused

+for a moment, listened intently for a second or two,

+then struck into the wood along a side track on her

+left.  She followed this track for two hundred mètres

+or so, then suddenly plunged into the thicket.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The undergrowth here was very dense.  Overhead

+the grey light of the late winter's afternoon filtered

+through the branches of the trees, guiding the woman

+on her way.  Suddenly, out of the thicket, a gruff

+voice called out, "Who goes there?" and the woman

+without hesitation replied, "One who has courage and

+courts success."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Immediately a dark form detached itself from out

+the undergrowth.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Is it you, Blue-Heart?" asked the woman sharply.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"At your service, Mademoiselle," said the rough

+voice which first had challenged her.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It is all right," said Mademoiselle.  "Are you

+prepared?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, I am prepared right enough!" retorted the

+man whom she had called Blue-Heart.  "My musket

+has been ready for that vermin this past fortnight.

+I've been here every afternoon," he continued, "since

+first I had my orders."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It couldn't be managed sooner, my friend," answered

+Mademoiselle.  "The fox was wary; he would

+not walk into the trap."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was baited often enough for him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, yes!  He met me in the town.  He walked

+with me through the streets or along the river bank.

+He even came to church with me once or twice," she

+added with a strained laugh.  "But, unlike a beast of

+prey, he would not come out of nights."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Did he suspect you, Mademoiselle?" asked

+Blue-Heart; "or Madame?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, no!" replied the girl.  "Instinctive caution has

+saved him so far; nothing more."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Think you he will come?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am sure," she replied decisively.  "You'll hear

+our voices&mdash;mine you will recognise.  You'll not miss

+him?" she added with a strange quiver in her voice.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Miss him?" retorted the man with a savage oath.

+"Ever since he killed Hare-Lip and Mole-Skin last

+November not a hundred mètres from this very spot,

+I have prayed that a bullet from my musket might

+lay him low."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The girl said nothing more.  The man grasped his

+musket more firmly and cowered into the thicket, and

+she turned and went back towards the cross roads.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At this very moment a man was walking rapidly

+towards the same cross roads, but from the opposite

+direction.  He, too, held his cloak wrapped closely

+up to his chin, for the air was cold.  But soon he

+paused, threw back his mantle and unfolded a scrap

+of paper he had been holding tightly squeezed in his

+hand.  Once again he read the lines which were so

+familiar to him, and when he had finished reading he

+pressed the precious scrap of paper once or twice to

+his lips.  Then he continued on his way.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Some time before he reached the cross roads, he

+saw Constance de Plélan coming towards him.  A

+moment or two later he was by her side, confused and

+shy, hardly able to speak owing to the overwhelming

+sense of happiness.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He tried to take her in his arms, but she evaded

+him, slipping away from him like a mischievous elf of

+the woods.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Let us walk a little," she said.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He was ready to do anything she wished.  His

+calm, reserved demeanour appeared in strange

+contrast to her exuberant vitality.  He hardly could

+believe in the reality of this supreme moment, and he

+moved along beside her like a sleepwalker in a dream.

+He tried to lead the way towards the cross roads.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There is a side-track there," he said, "sheltered

+against the wind and carpeted with moss.  We should

+be more lonely there."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But she demurred and, with a laugh, clung to his

+arm and made him turn back towards the city.  She

+talked at random, almost wildly, about irrelevant

+things, whilst he wished to speak of nothing but of

+his love for her&mdash;born on that afternoon when she had

+sung to him and with her own white hands had given

+him the tin box.  The papers it contained were

+worthless, perhaps; but he had been deeply moved by her

+trust in him and his admiration had quickened into

+love.  Since then he had dreamed of the happy time

+when she would trust him more fully and allow him

+to walk by her side and to sit with her, untrammelled

+by the presence of strangers.  Hitherto she had been

+very shy and reticent, though at times she met him in

+the town when she was up for a day's shopping or to

+see her friends.  Once or twice she had sent him a

+treasured little note, telling him that she would be

+going to church alone.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+These had been happy times, and his love had grown

+in intensity with every meeting.  But still he longed

+to have her all to himself.  Timidly he ventured to

+suggest a walk in the woods or in the park of the

+château.  And this morning the measure of his

+happiness appeared complete.  She sent him word that

+she would walk in the woods as far as the cross roads

+close to the château, and would meet him there in the

+late afternoon.  He was too unsophisticated and

+unversed in the usages of Society to marvel at

+Mademoiselle de Plélan's agreeing to a clandestine meeting

+with a man far beneath her in station and at an hour

+when only flirts were wont to walk abroad.  He was

+far too infatuated by this time to see in this

+unconventional act aught but graciousness on her part.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But now, somehow, he felt disappointed.  She

+insisted on keeping to the main road, where, at this

+hour, there were many passers-by.  The Caen-Alençon

+coach had only just rattled past with much blowing

+of horn and clanging of metal chains.  And there

+was such a beautiful side-track he knew of, if only

+he could induce her to follow him thither!

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The time went by all too quickly.  Constance de

+Plélan appeared anxious to go home.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I have arranged to meet Annette," she said, "my

+mother's maid.  Her mother lives in the cottage on

+the road to Plélan.  Annette has been spending the

+afternoon with her, and we have agreed to walk back

+to the château together.  I would not wish her to see

+you."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And the police agent, smothering a sigh of regret,

+escorted her back as far as the edge of the wood.  He

+would have liked to walk on with her to the château,

+but this she resolutely forbade him to do.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We must not be seen together by Annette," she

+reiterated somewhat tartly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Fernand had not yet earned the right to insist.

+The parting was more disappointing than even the

+meeting had been.  Constance de Plélan now appeared

+desperately anxious to be rid of him.  He tried to take

+her hand, but even this privilege was denied him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The cottage is just round the bend of the road,"

+she said with forced gaiety.  "Annette may appear

+before us at any moment."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Whereupon she turned and left him standing alone

+and disconsolate, his longing eyes watching her graceful

+figure as she moved swiftly along and soon

+disappeared round a sharp bend in the road.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then, with another bitter sigh, he, too, turned on

+his heel and started to walk back through the wood.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Constance de Plélan had walked on very rapidly,

+only looking back now and again to see whether the

+police agent had followed her.  The road was now

+quite lonely; not even a belated passer-by was in sight.

+After a few minutes, the girl halted where a side-track,

+inches deep in mud, struck at right angles and,

+cutting across an intervening meadow, plunged into

+a dense part of the wood at some distance from the

+road.  For a few seconds Constance appeared to

+hesitate; she pressed her trembling hands against her

+heart, which was beating so furiously that she felt sick

+and faint.  Next moment, however, she started to run

+down the side-track as fast as the muddy ooze would

+allow her.  A few minutes later she had reached the

+margin of the wood and, no longer hesitating, boldly

+entered the thicket.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The road along which the police agent was striding

+with his habitual quick and firm step wound in

+and out of thick masses of coppice; the footpath which

+Constance de Plélan followed so unerringly led by a

+direct short cut straight to the thicket where

+Blue-Heart lay in wait.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The shades of evening were falling fast; the

+wintry sunset had long since ceased to glimmer among

+the trees.  Blue-Heart was cowering in his hiding-place,

+grasping his musket and marvelling why Mademoiselle

+had not yet led her quarry into the trap which

+had been so carefully prepared.  The hated police

+agent had not yet come.  But Blue-Heart was patient

+and content to bide his time.  He knew that the

+hatred he felt for the Man in Grey had its counterpart

+in the heart of Constance de Plélan.  The secret

+agent had only been in the province four months,

+and already the Chouans had felt the weight of his

+relentless courage, his astuteness and his power.

+M. le Comte d'Artois, brother and messenger of the

+uncrowned King, had been sent back to England with

+ignominy through the instrumentality of this one man,

+and when Mademoiselle de Plélan had asked for a

+volunteer to lay this powerful enemy low, Blue-Heart

+had offered himself, heart and soul, ready to strike

+and take every risk.  If only the quarry would come,

+Blue-Heart's musket was not likely to err.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Suddenly the Chouan drew in his breath.  His

+whole attitude grew at once more rigid and more

+tense.  Cowering in the thicket, he shouldered his

+musket.  The road stretched out before him, through a

+veil of coppice, for a length of some thirty feet or

+so, and at a distance of less than twenty paces from

+the spot where he crouched, on the alert, holding his

+breath now that his keen ear had detected the sound

+of approaching footsteps.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Soon these footsteps drew nearer and Blue-Heart

+muttered an imprecation: "Malediction!" came

+between his clenched teeth.  "Mademoiselle said that the

+devil would come alone!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But his rough, nervy hands grasped the musket

+with undiminished vigour.  If that hated police agent

+came escorted with a whole posse of his own men,

+Blue-Heart was not going to be done out of his

+vengeance.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then suddenly the footsteps stopped and the melancholy

+call of a screech-owl pierced the silence of the

+night.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"White-Beak!" muttered the crouching Chouan as

+he lowered his musket.  "What is he doing here at

+this hour?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He, too, raised his fingers to his mouth, and the

+cry of a screech-owl rang shrilly through the wood.

+Next moment three or four men pushed their way

+cautiously through the thicket.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well, is it done?" queried the foremost amongst

+them, as soon as he had become conscious of

+Blue-Heart's presence close by.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Done?  No!" growled the latter.  "What have

+you come for?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To lend you a hand," replied White-Beak, "with

+the body of the vermin."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Too soon!  I haven't got him yet."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No hitch, I hope," broke in one of the others.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"None."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then we can give you a hand now as well as later.

+The fox may be armed."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He may," rejoined Blue-Heart.  "Go to the other

+side of the road," he added, "so as to intercept him

+in the rear.  You have your musket?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then you can hold him while I use mine.  It will

+make assurance doubly sure."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+They spoke in whispers scarcely audible above the

+manifold murmurs of the wood.  Now, like creeping,

+furtive beasts of prey, White-Beak and his

+companions crawled on hands and knees through the

+thicket and across the road, and thence under cover

+once more.  The trap was indeed well set for the

+quarry which could not fail to walk into it very

+soon.  Indeed, less than five minutes later there came

+from some little way down the road the sound of a

+measured and firm footfall.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+With rapid steps the hated police agent was drawing

+nearer.  A grim chuckle escaped the lips of the

+old Chouan as he once more shouldered his musket.

+The evening gloom was gradually enfolding the wood

+in its embrace.  On either side of the road the

+miscreants in their hiding-place were peeping through

+the undergrowth, watching for the approach of their

+prey.  Presently they could discern the vague

+outline of his slender figure walking unhesitatingly

+towards them.  Within a few seconds he would be passing

+right in front of them, at a distance of less than

+twenty paces.  Blue-Heart thought that he would

+wait and take no risks and only pull the trigger when

+the victim was quite near, the aim sure, and the fast

+gathering darkness not likely to play him any illusive

+trick.  Not a sound, not the flutter of a dead leaf

+nor the crackling of a twig would have revealed to an

+untrained ear the presence of a band of assassins, and

+for another minute or so the police agent walked

+along, wary and alert as was his wont but as yet

+unsuspicious.  His footstep sounded unhesitating and

+firm.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then suddenly he paused and threw a quick, searching

+look around him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Who goes there?" he called in a loud and firm

+voice.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Hie ear, attuned to the faintest breath which might

+be drawn around him, had warned him, all at once,

+of the danger which awaited him if he continued on

+his path; it had betrayed to his keen consciousness

+the presence of human beings, living, breathing, close

+by&mdash;somewhere in the thicket&mdash;hiding and crouching

+in the darkness; obviously with evil intent.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Next moment something definite stirred in the

+thicket not twenty paces from where he stood; there

+was a faint click which to a trained ear was

+unmistakable.  In a twinkling Fernand had drawn a pistol

+from his pocket, and with a swift and sudden spring,

+he threw himself against a tall beech which bordered

+the road; and here he stood, with his back against

+the massive trunk, pistol in hand and his keen eyes

+searching the darkness around him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There was a moment of tense suspense and of

+absolute silence, and in an instant the Man in Grey

+felt his arm seized from behind, the pistol was

+knocked out of his hand, a rough fist was thrust into

+his face, and he found himself pinioned against the

+tree, whilst a hoarse voice shouted lustily:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You can shoot now, friend Blue-Heart.  No

+chance of missing the vermin in the dark.  We've

+got him tight."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then it all happened in a second.  A musket-shot

+rang through the evening air; its sharp report came

+simultaneously with a loud and piercing cry which

+rang right through and above it.  The cry proceeded

+from a woman's lips; it was immediately followed by

+a violent imprecation from one of the Chouans.  The

+Man in Grey, dazed, bewildered, not understanding,

+had only heard that cry, straight in front of him,

+right from out the thicket whence had come the report

+and flash of the assassin's musket.  The rough hands

+that held him relaxed, and there was a wild confusion

+of cries and oaths and a scrambling and scrimmage

+in the undergrowth behind him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+What had happened within the depths of the

+shadows in front of him he did not know, but at a

+bound he cleared the intervening width of the road,

+and Constance de Plélan fell staggering in his arms.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Constance!" he exclaimed, still mystified by the

+turn of events, "you are hurt!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No, no!" she said in a strange, hoarse whisper.

+"I am not hurt.  Only save yourself&mdash;&mdash;  Go, in God's

+name, ere I forget that I am a woman and again think

+of you only as the enemy of my King."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You have saved my life!" he said, as the horror

+of the situation rose with staggering vividness before

+his mind, "and at risk of your own."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But already she had disengaged herself from his

+arms.  She struggled to her feet and, as he tried to

+assist her, pushed him with amazing strength away

+from her.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Go, I tell you!" she said, and she tried to steady

+her voice, which came feeble and panting from her

+throat.  "The hand that fired the first shot might fire

+another ere I could prevent it&mdash;and the others might

+come back."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I'll not go," he rejoined firmly, "until I am sure

+that you are not hurt."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hush!" she retorted hurriedly.  "I am not hurt,

+I say.  And even if I were, you must go now&mdash;at

+once.  Have I not said that I might repent?  Behind

+that thicket lurks the man whom I employed to kill

+you&mdash;I came back here to gloat over his work.  Yet,

+somehow, when the time came, and I saw you in the

+grip of those assassins, I could not bear to see you

+die&mdash;not like that&mdash;five against one&mdash;it was too

+horrible, too cowardly.  But you must go.  And you and

+I must never meet again, unless indeed you set your

+spies on us to-morrow and send us all to the guillotine."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"How you hate me, Constance!" he protested with

+passionate reproach.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Perhaps I do," she rejoined softly.  "I do not

+know.  But believe me that the guillotine would have

+no terror for me.  I have betrayed a great trust, for

+you are the enemy of my kindred and my King, and

+I ought not to have failed when the choice lay betwixt

+your life and theirs."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She tottered, and he thought she would fall.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You are hurt!" he cried hoarsely.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Even if I were dying," she parried feebly, "I

+would not have you help me now.  If we did not part

+at this hour, perhaps&mdash;who knows?&mdash;I might become

+even a blacker traitor than I am.  You and I,

+Fernand, can have nothing in common.  Our ways must

+for ever lie as far apart as are our ideals.  The man

+who at my bidding would have been your murderer

+will carry me home and minister to my needs.  He

+and I have everything in common&mdash;faith, friendship,

+community of ideals and disappointments of hopes

+and of sorrows.  He is rough, uncultured, a potential

+assassin; but he and I strive for the same Cause and

+weep over the same failures.  In thought he is my

+friend&mdash;you can never be aught but an enemy."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And suddenly, without giving him another look,

+she plunged into the thicket.  For a few seconds only

+it seemed to the Man in Grey that he could see her

+slender form moving among the undergrowth and

+that he heard the crackling of dead twigs beneath her

+feet.  She had gone for comfort and protection to the

+assassin who was still in hiding.  She went to him

+because, as she had said, with those savage Chouans

+she, the irreconcilable Royalist, had everything in

+common.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Whereas with him, the stranger, the plebeian police

+agent, the obscure adherent of the newly-founded

+Empire, she could have nothing to do.  Nay, she had

+actually persuaded an assassin to shoot him&mdash;vilely&mdash;in

+the back, when, at the fateful minute of crisis, a

+thought of womanly compassion had prompted her to

+save him from his doom.  And, on his part, what was

+there for him to do but mourn the only illusion of his

+life?  It served him right for being a visionary and

+a fool!

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And with a bitter sigh of enduring regret, the

+police agent turned on his heel and went back the way

+he came.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap07"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER VII

+<br /><br />

+THE LEAGUE OF KNAVES

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+One of the letters written to the Man in Grey by

+Fouchée, Duc d'Otrante, is preserved in the Archives

+of the Ministry of Police.  It is dated February 17th,

+1810, and contains the following passage:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do not let those official asses meddle with the

+affair, my good Fernand, for they are sure to

+mismanage it completely.  That man de Livardot is an

+astute brigand and a regular daredevil.  To apprehend

+or to deport him would not be of the slightest

+use to us; he has escaped out of three different prisons

+already, and has come back once&mdash;none the worse&mdash;from

+Cayenne.  To murder him from behind a thicket

+would be more useful, but for the fact that he has

+many secrets of that damnable Chouan organisation

+in his keeping, which would be of incalculable value

+to us, if we could get hold of them.  At any rate, see

+what you can do, my dear Fernand.  I rely on your

+skill and discretion.  De Livardot has left England

+for Jersey; he is at St. Helier now.  I'd stake my life

+that he is on his way to France.  The Emperor will

+be at Caen within the next month.  Remember

+Cadoudal and his infernal machine, and for the love of

+Heaven keep an eye on de Livardot!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+For obvious reasons the Man in Grey did not communicate

+the actual contents of the letter to the préfet

+of Caen, M. Laurens, a typical official of not too

+assured loyalty, or to M. Carteret, chief commissary of

+the district.  But both these worthies had had news,

+through police spies, of the arrival of de Livardot in

+Jersey, and were alive to the fact that the wily Chouan

+leader was probably meditating a secret landing on

+the shores of France.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Everyone was on tenter-hooks, with nerves on edge

+at the prospect of the visit of the Emperor, who in

+less than a month would be spending half a day and

+a whole night at the house of Marshal Cormier, lately

+created Duc de Gisors in recognition of magnificent

+services rendered during the last Austrian campaign.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey, as was his wont, listened unmoved

+and in silence to the many expressions of loyal

+fears, anxieties and unswerving resolutions which

+flowed so freely from the lips of the various official

+personages who visited M. le Préfet that morning.

+But when the last caller had departed, and only he and

+the commissary were left to take their leave, he said

+quietly but significantly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I shall leave you a free hand for a few days, Monsieur

+le Préfet.  You have the list of persons on whom

+I have enjoined you and Monsieur le Commissaire

+to keep a watchful eye.  I pray you do not slacken

+your vigilance during my absence."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You are going away, Monsieur Fernand?" queried

+the préfet, who tried to show some concern, even

+though in his heart he could not but rejoice at the

+prospect of being so soon rid of this interfering and

+dictatorial nincompoop from Paris.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am going to meet de Livardot when he lands,"

+replied the Man in Grey simply.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But you don't know where to find him!" exclaimed

+the commissary with a complacent laugh.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I daresay I shall contrive to find that out,"

+rejoined the secret agent with a smile.  "In any case,"

+he added with deliberate solemnity, "remember while

+I am gone to double the number of your spies and

+not to slacken your vigilance either day or night.  The

+most precious life in the whole world will be in your

+keeping for close on twenty-four hours, and France

+will hold you answerable for its safety."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There was something curiously impressive about

+the small, colourless, grey-clad figure while this

+solemn warning crossed his usually silent lips.  Both

+the préfet and the commissary, despite their covert

+antagonism to this obscure personage who had so

+authoritatively been placed above their heads, were

+conscious of a sense of respect and awe.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But you will be back here in time for the Emperor's

+visit, Monsieur Fernand?" rejoined the commissary,

+trying to speak lightly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Such is my intention," replied the secret agent.

+"But we are all going to be at grips with a man who

+is both resourceful and utterly unscrupulous&mdash;and

+one never knows.  If I do not return, you must take

+it that de Livardot has proved the stronger of us two."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But you are not going alone?" interjected the

+préfet, throwing a quick glance at the slender form

+and delicate hands of this mysterious creature who, of

+a truth, appeared more of a dreamer than a man of

+action.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey laughed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The last time," he said carelessly, "that de Livardot

+landed in France, our friend Carteret here had a

+whole squadron of police ready to arrest him&mdash;we all

+know with what results.  Murder, pillage, robbery,

+endless intrigues went on for three whole months,

+after which our crafty brigand disappeared as

+cunningly as he had come.  Well, we are not going to

+repeat that blunder, are we, Monsieur le Préfet?"  He

+added more seriously, "This time I go to meet de

+Livardot&mdash;and I go alone."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The next moment he was gone, leaving the two

+worthies puzzled, wrathful and contemptuous.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And de Livardot will do for you," growled the

+commissary after him with an oath.  "And serve you

+right, too, you interfering, impudent shrimp, you!"

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+In the narrow, sparsely furnished room, dimly

+lighted by tallow candles fixed in pewter sconces, the

+men sat waiting.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was a cold but brilliant night; a small fire

+smouldered in the little iron stove in one corner of the

+room.  The window beyond was open, as was the

+communicating door, and from time to time violent

+gusts of wind would blow the flame of the candles

+about and cause the grease to trickle and splutter upon

+the unpolished table-top.  Every now and again one

+of the men would get up, go through to the other

+room, and, leaning out of the window, peer up and

+down the dark and narrow street.  Then he would

+rejoin his comrades, who sat listlessly round the table,

+sipping wine out of pewter mugs.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I think we had best make up our minds," said one

+of them after a while.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I've feared it all along," said another.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The moment White-Beak returned with the news

+that that accursed grey-coated ferret was lurking in

+the neighbourhood of the Goat's Creek," continued he

+who had first spoken, "I for one&mdash;&mdash;"  He shrugged

+his shoulders, leaving the sentence unfinished.  But

+the others understood.  There was no need to put into

+words the fear that was uppermost in their minds.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+One of the men took up the metal snuffers and with

+studied care cut the wick of the smoking candle.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why White-Beak did not put a bullet through the

+grey fox, I cannot imagine," he said slowly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I would have done so if I could," retorted he who

+was called White-Beak because his lips appeared

+absolutely bloodless; "but he never came within range of

+my gun.  And when I tried to creep closer he

+disappeared."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That cursed spy bears a charmed life," growled

+the other.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Methought de Livardot should have broken the

+spell," here interposed a third.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"De Livardot may have been detained in Jersey,"

+suggested another.  "And the weather in the

+Channel has been very dirty of late."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Bah!  From what I hear, Livardot is not like to

+be detained by bad weather.  By all accounts he is a

+regular daredevil," assented White-Beak with a laugh.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Blue-Heart here says that, even as a lad, he had

+the pluck of Satan."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Tell us some more about him, Blue-Heart," added

+White-Beak.  "The chiefs say we've got to do as he

+tells us, and we've all got a mighty lot at stake now.

+We ought to know something of the man who is going

+to lord it over us.  What is he like?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well," replied Blue-Heart after a moment's

+thought, "I used to see him when he was a lad and

+Monsieur le Chevalier his father lived in the house

+yonder, which now belongs to Marshal Cormier.  It's

+because de Livardot comes from these parts, and

+knows the house so well, that the chiefs are sending

+him over from England to help us in our work."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But if he hasn't seen the place since he was a

+lad&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Even so!  There are plans of the house and&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hush!" broke in White-Beak peremptorily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A sudden silence fell upon them.  From away

+down the narrow street had come the weird and

+mysterious hooting of a screech-owl calling through the

+night.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Blue-Heart jumped to his feet and in a trice was

+over the threshold in the other room.  He strode

+across to the window and, leaning out, peered up and

+down the street.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Before him, about a kilomètre outside the city, the

+pointed roofs and tall chimneys of Les Acacias peeped

+above the low houses opposite.  It was the residence

+of Marshal Cormier, Duc de Gisors, and here the

+Emperor and his suite would sleep on the following

+night.  The wintry moon picked out the metal ornaments

+of the roofs and the crests of the tall, encircling

+trees with shimmering lines of silver.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Blue-Heart uttered a comprehensive curse.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Without de Livardot," he muttered between his

+teeth, "we shall fail!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He was about to close the window, thinking that

+once again his comrades' ears and his own had been

+deceived, when a solitary pedestrian at the far end of

+the street arrested his attention&mdash;a man walking very

+slowly, as if he were infinitely weary.  He wore an

+old-fashioned three-cornered hat, and a voluminous

+mantle was wrapped closely round his shoulders.

+Blue-Heart waited, breathless, while the pedestrian came

+leisurely down the street.  Presently he paused and,

+with nose in the air, studied the outside aspect of the

+houses.  Then he put the fingers of both hands to his

+lips and once more the melancholy call of the

+screech-owl rang out through the night.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Blue-Heart was holding his breath.  His companions

+behind him had jumped to their feet and stood

+in a compact knot in and around the communicating

+doorway.  Blue-Heart with his hand motioned them

+to be still; then he leaned still farther out of the

+window and, in a voice scarcely above a whisper, said, as

+he looked straight down on the passer-by:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The fearful wild-fowl is abroad."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And the other, raising his head, gave reply:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And the wild duck comes with a feather in her mouth."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"De Livardot!" exclaimed the men excitedly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Helter-skelter some of them ran down the stairs to

+greet the leader whom their chiefs were sending to

+command them, whilst the others placed a fresh jar

+of wine, some meat and a hunk of bread upon the

+table.  A moment or two later the stranger entered.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+To those who had so eagerly expected him, de

+Livardot appeared as a short, spare man, prematurely

+grey, with face drawn, eyes sunk and cheeks wan

+with obvious fatigue verging on exhaustion.  He sank

+into a chair beside the iron stove and eagerly drank

+the wine offered him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I have been three weeks on the road," he murmured

+hoarsely; "and haven't tasted food for two

+days."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He dragged his chair to the table and they allowed

+him to eat and drink in peace, after which he felt

+better and answered the inquiring glances of the men

+with an encouraging nod.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That cursed police-spy nearly did for me," he

+said.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We thought something of the sort had happened,"

+muttered Blue-Heart with a savage oath.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The Captain of the <i>Foam</i> put me off at the Goat's

+Creek," continued de Livardot in a steadier voice.

+"Then he left me there to make my way inland, as

+I intended to do.  I knew my way well enough, and

+my intention was to walk by night and to lie hidden

+by day where and how I could.  I had no misgivings,

+but nevertheless my eyes and ears were on the watch

+for spies.  I had climbed to the top of the Dog's

+Tooth; the coast seemed deserted&mdash;not a soul was in

+sight and the night had set in dark and stormy.  I was

+standing on the edge of the cliff and at my feet the

+breakers were dashing themselves against the rocks

+two hundred feet below.  All at once something

+sprang on me from behind a boulder.  The attack

+was so violent and so sudden that, even as I veered

+round and closed with my assailant, I felt I was

+doomed.  He was small and spare like myself, but he

+had unusual strength.  We fought desperately&mdash;both

+of us&mdash;for our lives.  Fortunately," continued de

+Livardot lightly, "I have spent my best years in England,

+where the art of self-defence is at its best.  With

+a dexterous movement which I had learnt from a

+champion wrestler, I slipped out of his grip; the next

+moment he lost his footing.  For a second or two his

+hands clawed the air, and then with a piercing shriek

+he fell, two hundred feet on to the rocks below.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"<i>Et voilà!</i>" concluded the Chouan leader as he

+threw a look of triumph on his breathless hearers.

+"But that accursed spy, whom Satan now hath in his

+keeping, managed to dislocate my knee ere he went

+to join his colleagues in hell, with the result that I

+have been very slow in coming.  Oft times in the last

+three weeks, as I dragged my weary limbs along those

+interminable roads, I feared I would be just too late

+to be in at the death of the Corsican."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Thank God, you are here now!" ejaculated one

+of the men fervently.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"All our work is ready," added Blue-Heart.  "But

+if you hadn't come we shouldn't have known what to

+do&mdash;afterwards."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+De Livardot rose and, holding his mug of wine

+aloft, said firmly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Afterwards we'll proclaim his gracious Majesty

+Louis XVIII, King of France.  We'll assemble here

+and march in triumph to the Hôtel de Ville at the

+break of dawn, with banners flying, singing a Te

+Deum.  Then by the time the city is astir the Fleur-de-Lys

+will be waving above every public building, and

+the worthy bourgeois of Caen will realise that France

+has awakened from her nightmare and that her lawful

+King sits upon his throne again."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He sat down amidst loud applause from the group

+of ill-kempt, unwashed, surly-looking brigands around

+him.  Mugs were re-filled and deep draughts of wine

+drunk to do honour to the toast.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And now to work, my friends!" continued de

+Livardot briskly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To work!" exclaimed White-Beak.  "I thought

+you were dog-tired."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So I was," he replied gaily, "till we drank that

+toast."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He took out a bundle of papers from the pocket of

+his coat and glanced rapidly through them.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I shan't want all these in future," he said.  "And

+the less of this sort of thing one has about one, the

+safer for the rest of us."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He turned to the iron stove which was close to his

+hand and, selecting some of the papers, dropped them

+into the fire one by one, keeping up a running

+comment on their contents the while.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Here goes the list of your names, you fellows,"

+he said.  "Blue-Heart, whom I haven't seen since I

+was five; White-Beak, I knew you at once; Great-Fang,

+Green-Eye&mdash;I recognised you all.  The chiefs

+spoke to me about you.  And here goes our pass-phrase.

+I had such trouble to commit it to memory.

+But now I feel that I shall never forget it again!

+Would you fellows have admitted me if I had made a

+mistake?" he added with a light-hearted laugh.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No," replied Blue-Heart curtly.  Then he said

+more quietly, as if to atone for the bluntness of his

+negative: "Think of all that we have at stake&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I know, of course," rejoined de Livardot earnestly.

+"I only wished to test the measure of your caution.

+And now," he continued, "here is the plan of Les

+Acacias, just as it was in my father's time."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He drew his chair in closer to the table and spread

+the map out before him.  He bent over it, shielding

+his face with his hand.  The flickering light of the

+candles threw into bold relief the grim and sinister

+faces of the Chouans as they pressed eagerly round

+their new leader.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now tell me what you've all done!" said de Livardot.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We followed closely the instructions you sent us

+from Jersey," Blue-Heart explained, as his grimy

+forefinger wandered along the surface of the map.

+"Great-Fang obtained work in the garden of Les

+Acacias and soon located the disused shaft you spoke

+of, quite close to the house.  It had, just as you said,

+been used at one time for lowering wine barrels into

+the cellar.  It was no trouble to Great-Fang, in the

+course of his work, when no one was about, to loosen

+the stone which closed the mouth of the shaft, and

+after that matters were quite easy."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I used to leave the postern gate on the latch,"

+interpolated Great-Fang; "and the others took it in

+turns, two by two, to steal into the grounds by night.

+We very soon found the trap-door at the bottom of

+the shaft which gave directly on the cellars

+underneath the house, and when we had removed that our

+work was practically done."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now we've got two kilogrammes of gunpowder

+stored down there," added the man who as called

+Green-Eye.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We carried it over, keg by keg, of nights,"

+interposed Blue-Heart.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Our time-fuse is set," quoth White-Beak.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Even if you hadn't come, we should have fired it,"

+concluded another.  "We were not going to have our

+work for nothing."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+They all spoke at once, eager to have their say,

+anxious that the leader lately come from England

+should know the share everyone had in the dastardly

+work which was to rid France of her Emperor.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Thank Heaven I am in time, then," concluded de

+Livardot fervently.  "When does the Corsican arrive?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To-morrow afternoon," replied Blue-Heart.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And he sleeps at Les Acacias?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"For the one night."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There is to be a big fête in the evening.  Marshal

+Cormier has issued hundreds of invitations," added

+White-Beak.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nothing could be better!" exclaimed de Livardot.

+"And of course we wait till the guests have departed,

+and everyone in Les Acacias, including the Upstart,

+has gone to bed.  Yours, Blue-Heart," he continued,

+"will be the honour of firing the time-fuse, which will

+send Napoleon Bonaparte to a tea-party among the

+stars.  In the meanwhile all of you men must spend

+the best part of to-morrow in seeking out the friends

+you know of, who are at one with us in this great

+undertaking, and convene them in my name to a meeting

+in this house directly after the event.  In fact,

+the explosion itself shall be the signal by which we'll

+all rally together for that glorious proclamation of

+our lawful King and our triumphal march to the

+Hôtel de Ville.  Is that understood?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Perfectly!" they cried with one accord.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The next half-hour was devoted to the discussion

+and copying out of the names of various personages,

+whom the Chouans suggested as having been chiefly

+concerned in the present affair&mdash;men and women in

+and around the city who were ardent Royalists and

+would not shrink from a direct attack on the man

+whom they deemed a usurper; men and women for

+the most part who had countenanced if not directly

+participated in many of those hideous crimes which

+had already sullied the Cause they professed to

+uphold, and who would see in the base murder of the

+Emperor whom they hated, nothing but an act of

+lofty patriotism.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Wary and cunning, they had hitherto escaped

+apprehension; though many of them were suspected,

+few had ever been confronted with proofs of actual

+conspiracy.  They were wise enough to employ men

+like Blue-Heart or White-Beak to do their dirtiest

+work for them, men who had neither scruples nor

+conscience, and who hid their deeds of darkness

+behind weird masks of anonymity.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was long past midnight ere the party round that

+table was broken up.  De Livardot was the first to

+go; he had given his orders and he knew he would

+be obeyed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You will see nothing of me all day," he said when

+he finally took leave of his comrades.  "I am too well

+known in these parts to dare show my face in the

+open.  At dusk we shall meet here for a final word.

+Until then let our password be as before: 'The

+fearful wild fowl is abroad,' and the counterpass: 'And

+the wild duck comes with a feather in her mouth.'  I

+have not forgotten it this time!" he concluded with

+a hearty laugh, which found its echo in the grim

+chuckle of his men.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The visit of the Emperor had sent Caen wild with

+enthusiasm.  All day the streets leading towards Les

+Acacias were thronged with people eager to keep in

+sight the roofs and chimneys of the house which

+sheltered the Emperor.  The town itself was

+magnificently beflagged, and all day the cheering was both

+constant and deafening.  In the evening there was a

+popular fête with display of fireworks in the grounds

+of the Old Château on the north side of the town,

+whilst the rout given at Les Acacias by the Duc de

+Gisors to the notabilities of the neighbourhood, at

+which His Majesty himself was graciously pleased to

+be present, was the most brilliant affair the province

+had ever known.  People had journeyed from far and

+wide to attend the rout; many who came from a distance

+had taken lodgings in the town for the occasion.

+Never had Caen been so full of strangers of quality.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+On the great night the stream of equipages which

+set down the guests at Les Acacias extended for close

+on a kilomètre from the park gates to the confines of

+the city, and those who were not watching the

+fireworks at the Old Château stood about on the road,

+in spite of the cold, to see the gorgeous liveries, the

+painted coaches and caparisoned horses which were a

+regular feast for the eyes.  For hours the streets were

+thronged.  Only the narrow little Rue aux Juifs on

+the outskirts of the city appeared dark, solitary and

+unfestive.  It consisted for the most part of tumble-down,

+half-derelict houses, the owners of which had

+been out of France for many years.  And to-night,

+when the rest of Caen was out to make merry, only

+one of the low, grim-faced houses showed any sign

+of life.  Here a feeble light shone dimly through the

+cracks of an ill-fitting shutter on one of the floors

+above, and anyone who had taken the trouble to be

+on the watch would have seen dark forms, wrapped

+to the chin, gliding furtively in and out of the door.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But the military, the police and the municipal

+servants were alike engaged in keeping watch over Les

+Acacias, the stately residence which sheltered the most

+precious life in Europe.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The rout was kept up till the small hours of the

+morning.  It was two o'clock before the last equipage

+drove through the monumental gates of Les Acacias,

+and these were finally closed upon the departing

+guests.  But for an hour after that the roads around

+the house were still thronged with people too excited

+to go to bed.  They swarmed around the encircling

+wall, above which they could only see the glimmer of

+lights behind the shuttered windows, and tried to peer

+through the wrought-iron gates, happy to see how

+completely their Emperor trusted them, and that he

+disdained the usual paraphernalia of military guards

+and sentinels&mdash;the relics of bygone times.  The house

+was lighted up; no doubt a number of lackeys would

+be astir keeping watch over the illustrious guest, but

+there was no glimmer of fixed bayonets within the

+gates, no tramp of martial feet up and down the

+circular drive.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Only at three o'clock did the citizens of Caen finally

+decide to go to bed.  By half-past three the approaches

+to Les Acacias, as well as the streets, were at last

+deserted; the houses in the city had closed down their

+lights; only in the distance the house in which the

+Emperor slept was illuminated from within; but it,

+too, now appeared absolutely still.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then suddenly the slumbering city was awakened

+by an awful sound&mdash;a terrific crash which broke the

+window panes of hundreds of houses, and which

+reverberated for many kilomètres around.  Fragments

+of wood and stone and tiles appeared to rain down

+from the skies like death-dealing projectiles, crashing

+through the roofs of some houses on the confines of

+the city and causing much damage, fortunately without

+any loss of life.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There was hardly a citizen inside the town who did

+not immediately jump out of bed, with beating heart

+and blanched cheeks and lips that quivered with

+horror, as he murmured the ominous words:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Les Acacias!  The Emperor!  My God!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Within a few minutes the garrison was astir.  The

+whole sky was now suffused with a weird and lurid

+glow.  In the direction of St. Martin, where stood Les

+Acacias, vivid tongues of flame were seen to leap

+intermittently into the night.  The streets leading

+thither soon became crowded with people, clad in

+promiscuous garments, all running in the one

+direction, and headed by a company of infantry and a

+squadron of cavalry, rushing along with buckets,

+pumps and ladders, in the wake of the hastily summoned

+official fire-brigade.  The confusion threatened

+to grow serious.  The city police were quite unable

+to cope with it, and the military alone were in a

+measure able to enforce some semblance of order.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Only the Rue aux Juifs, with its crazy houses,

+remained as before, silent and comparatively deserted.

+The distant conflagration lit up with a weird glow the

+ramshackle façades which lined the narrow thoroughfare.

+Neither the police, nor the military, nor yet the

+few sight-seers who drifted down the street in search

+of a short cut to the scene of excitement, had a mind

+to notice the sombrely clad passers-by who halted

+outside the door of one of these grim-faced abodes,

+about half-way down the street.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Two men, dressed in rough blouses, and with wide-brimmed

+hats pulled over their eyes, appeared to be

+on guard at the door, and as each person passed from

+the street into the house, one of these men uttered a

+whispered challenge: "The fearful wild fowl is

+abroad."  And instantly was heard the equally

+whispered reply: "And the wild duck comes with a

+feather in her mouth."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After which the gloom beyond appeared to swallow

+up the newcomer.  But a number of these, as they

+went by, added a quick and eager query:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Has he come?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And one of the men invariably replied:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes!  Last night.  Just escaped being murdered

+by one of those accursed spies."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Outside were noise, bustle, wild excitement, made

+up partly of horror, partly and mainly of eager curiosity.

+Folk rushed aimlessly hither and thither: the

+military charged the populace with loud commands to

+make way; the police shouted and used their swords

+to cut a passage through the crowd for the firemen;

+everybody shouted or screamed; some women fainted;

+on everyone's lips was the one agonised query: "The

+Emperor!  Is he dead?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But inside the derelict house in the Rue aux Juifs

+a dignified hush reigned.  The narrow double room

+on the floor above was filled with a throng as

+passionately excited as was the one which shouted itself

+hoarse in the streets; but the men and women assembled

+here only spoke in whispers, even though the

+query which was on everyone's lips was not a whit

+less eager: "De Livardot!  Is he here?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He and Blue-Heart fired the fuse," said White-Beak

+in reply.  "No doubt they are held up by the

+crowd.  They will be here soon."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A score or so of men and women wandered about

+aimlessly from room to room, or sat on the gimcrack

+chairs and the steps of the rickety stairs.  They talked

+in whispers, communicating their excitement to one

+another.  Only now and then a young voice would be

+raised in sudden, half-hysterical laughter.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The shutters were hermetically closed so that no

+sound should filter through.  The usurper was dead,

+but his sycophants were still abroad and his paid

+minions still in power, and the populace was still

+intoxicated with the glamour which Austerlitz and

+Wagram, Jena and Rivoli had cast over the hated

+Corsican's name.  Therefore the conspirators, though

+certain of victory, still went about with bated breath,

+whilst an air of mystery still clung to the shabby,

+tumbledown house in the Rue aux Juifs.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+White-Beak and his mates, who had prepared the

+foul crime which had just achieved its grim culmination,

+stood apart from the rest of the company, in the

+narrow hall below&mdash;at respectful distance from the

+noble ladies and gentlemen who had paid them to do

+their cowardly task.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But, noble and peasant alike, all these Chouans

+to-night&mdash;a veritable league of knaves&mdash;were here

+assembled in order to proclaim their triumphant

+exultation at the cold-blooded murder of the Emperor, and

+to hail the return of their rightful King.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Despite the cold outside, the rooms and staircase

+felt overpoweringly hot.  The tallow candles flickered

+and guttered in their sconces; weariness warring with

+excitement was depicted on every face.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then suddenly a woman's voice rang out buoyantly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why should we wait for de Livardot ere we drink

+the health of His Majesty the King?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why, indeed?" came in lusty response from every side.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The effect of the suggestion was electrical.  In a

+moment mugs and flagons were produced.  The gentlemen

+poured out the wine, whilst everyone crowded

+round the table in the centre of the room.  It seemed

+as if a load of anxiety had been lifted from every

+shoulder; the younger people began to laugh aloud;

+weariness fled as if by magic.  The shutters were

+flung wide open.  Of a truth, what cause was there

+now for fear or mystery.  Perish the last misgivings,

+that unshakable sense of impending doom!  Let there

+be noise and revelry and gaiety!  The usurper is dead!

+Long live the King!  And let every passer-by, an he

+would, pause to hear the rousing, loyal toast:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The usurper is dead.  Long live His Majesty

+Louis XVIII, by the grace of God, King of France!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And the echo of the enthusiastic cry reverberated

+from attic to cellar of the old house.  White-Beak

+and his mates in the hall below joined in the acclamation

+with a rollicking shout.  The veil and gloom of

+doubt had lifted; spirits ran high, laughter rang from

+end to end of the narrow, fusty rooms.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was when these transports of delight were at

+their highest that the street door was suddenly thrown

+open, and Blue-Heart, panting, half-exhausted, with

+shaking knees and trembling hands, staggered into

+the narrow hall and fell headlong in the arms of his

+comrades.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We are betrayed!" he gasped.  "They are on us!

+Sauve qui peut!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We are betrayed!"  The awful, ever-recurring

+cry of the conspirator, of the man who concocts deeds

+of evil under cover of darkness, and who mistrusts

+every hand he grasps!  All these men, accustomed

+as they were to this ever-present danger&mdash;a danger

+which hung over them, even when they felt most

+secure&mdash;paused neither to question nor to reflect; they

+scarcely paused to warn the noble ladies and gentlemen

+above, who were still engaged in toasting the

+triumph of their Cause.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We are betrayed!  Sauve qui peut!" they shouted

+and, not waiting to hear whether the warning were

+heeded, scrambled for the door.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Too late!" gasped Blue-Heart, as with trembling

+hands he strove to detain his struggling mates.  "They

+were on my heels!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"They?  Who?" queried the others hoarsely.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The police!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Bah!  The police!" exclaimed White-Beak in a

+feeble attempt at swagger.  "The Corsican is dead.

+We have no cause to fear his police!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But already a nameless terror, like a pale, mysterious

+ghost, had floated upwards through the house.

+It had reached a small group of young men and

+women gaily chattering at the head of the stairs.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We are betrayed!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Did you hear that?" queried someone, and suddenly

+excitement died away as if stricken down by a

+poisonous breath, and within a second or two the

+whisper was on every lip: "We are betrayed!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Who said it?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The men below!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There was a swift rush for the stairs, while one

+man hastily re-closed the shutters.  Another was

+leaning over the banisters, trying to learn the truth.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"White-Beak!" he called.  "Is that you?  What

+does it mean?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That the police are on us!" was the gruff reply.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The police!" shouted those above.  "Why, the

+Corsican is dead and&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hark!" came peremptorily from the men.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And all the conspirators held their breath, listening.

+The sound was unmistakable; a number of men were

+outside the door.  Quick words of command could

+be heard; the clanging of steel and the snorting and

+pawing of horses.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But the usurper is dead!" glided as a reassuring

+cry from a woman's lips.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He is not dead!" retorted Blue-Heart firmly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Not dead?  But the explosion&mdash;the fire&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+As if to confirm these words, a gigantic sheet of

+flame in the direction of Les Acacias suddenly lit up

+the whole sky again, with such brilliancy that, despite

+the closed shutters, a lurid glow penetrated into the

+house, throwing for a moment into bold relief the

+pale, haggard faces, and illumining them with a light

+which was the colour of blood.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At the same moment, in the distance was heard

+the sound of prolonged cheering.  Louder and louder

+it grew as it seemed to spread to every corner of the

+town, till it became absolutely deafening.  A wild

+medley of sounds filled the air with clamorous din;

+people rushed excitedly to and fro, shouting "Vive

+l'Empereur!" and singing the "Marseillaise."  Horses

+galloped by at breakneck speed; the roll of coach-wheels

+went thundering along the cobblestones; from

+the château close by came the echo of bugle calls.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And in the derelict house of the Rue aux Juifs

+there reigned silence as if of the dead, though well

+nigh two score men and women were there, huddled

+together in one common and agonising fear.  What

+had happened no one could as yet even conjecture;

+all they knew was that Napoleon had escaped by a

+miracle and that the police were at the door.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And de Livardot?  Where is he?" was one of

+the many questions on trembling lips.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But to this query even Blue-Heart could give no

+conclusive reply.  He had been with de Livardot until

+after they had fired the time-fuse together, then de

+Livardot ordered him to go back to the Rue aux Juifs

+and there to wait for him till he arrived, and in the

+meanwhile to tell all the friends to drink and make

+merry.  He&mdash;Blue-Heart&mdash;had walked rapidly for a

+time, then curiosity had mastered him and he waited

+until the terrifying explosion rent the air and gave

+him assurance that his task was indeed accomplished.

+Then he turned back towards the city.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+When he reached the Rue aux Juifs he saw that it

+swarmed with police-spies.  He heard words and

+whispered commands which left no doubt in his mind

+that somehow or other the conspiracy had been

+betrayed, and that a descent on the Chouan meeting-place

+was in contemplation.  At first he made light

+of the affair.  Was not the Corsican dead?  And

+he&mdash;Blue-Heart&mdash;and his friends, were they not

+triumphant?  What cause had they to fear the minions

+of an Empire that was now defunct?  Nevertheless,

+he hung about the street under the shadows of

+doorways, on the <i>qui vive</i>.  Then suddenly the rumour

+spread throughout the town that the Emperor was

+safe.  He had left Marshal Cormier's house along

+with his host and the latter's family and entire staff

+of servants and retainers, directly after the last guest

+had departed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Not a soul was left at Les Acacias when the

+explosion occurred.  Blue-Heart, realising that the plot

+must have been discovered and that the deadliest

+danger now threatened all his friends, contrived to reach

+the door of the meeting-place undetected, and to

+sound the note of warning which, alas! had already

+come too late.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The house was surrounded.  The police were

+swarming everywhere.  The Chouans&mdash;save for a

+few of the gentlemen who wore their swords and one

+or two who carried pistols&mdash;were practically unarmed.

+They put up a certain measure of resistance, however;

+some of the men fired pistol shots through the

+windows, and there was a mêlée on the stairs, in the

+course of which several of the police were wounded;

+but these were armed with swords and muskets, and

+from the first the Chouans knew that they were

+doomed.  After a struggle which lasted less than a

+quarter of an hour, they were forced to surrender;

+they were doing neither themselves, nor their Cause,

+nor the women who were with them, any good by

+senseless resistance.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+When the last of them was disarmed and men and

+women alike were marched as prisoners down the

+stairs, a whisper went round among them which was

+not destined for the ears of their captors:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Thank God," they said, "that at any rate de

+Livardot has escaped!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Blue-Heart and his comrades, who were in the

+fore-front, walking under strong escort&mdash;as they had

+offered by far the most determined and most savage

+hostility&mdash;caught the whisper and, pointing down in

+the hall where a man in a grey mantle and wearing a

+three-cornered hat stood in the midst of a group of

+police officers, one of them said with a grim oath:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Escaped?  Not he!  There he is, like the rest of

+us, already half-way to Bicêtre."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Livardot?  Where?" came in an eager query from

+his fellow prisoners.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Why, there!" said Blue-Heart, once more pointing

+to the man below.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That's not Livardot!" retorted one of the prisoners

+emphatically, whilst the police laughed grimly,

+as at an excellent joke.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Of course it's not de Livardot," added one of the

+women.  "You are dreaming, Blue-Heart.  That's

+that beastly spy, whom we all know to our cost as

+the Man in Grey."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But," stammered Blue-Heart who, bewildered and

+utterly uncomprehending, was staring down before

+him like a man suddenly brought up against a

+measureless abyss; "the police-spy was killed by de

+Livardot on the Dog's Tooth rocks&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At this moment the Man in Grey looked up and

+caught Blue-Heart's glowering eyes and those of his

+mates fixed almost crazedly upon him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nay! friend Blue-Heart," he said quietly&mdash;in the

+weird silence which had fallen upon the throng&mdash;"the

+police-spy, as you call him, arrived safely in the Rue

+aux Juifs, just in time to learn the details of the plot

+which you and these gentlemen and ladies were so

+confidently hatching.  Your friend de Livardot, whom

+I certainly met face to face on the Dog's Tooth rocks,

+is quietly awaiting his friends in Bicêtre."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then, while a string of muttered imprecations fell

+from the lips of the miscreants whom he had so

+cunningly outwitted, he gave the final word of command.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Forward!  March!  The carriages for the ladies

+are in the front; those for the men in the rear.  Guard

+your prisoners well, my men!" he added.  "They

+are as crafty as a tribe of foxes.  Forward now, and

+may God always protect the Emperor!"

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+V

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Napoleon thanked the Man in Grey personally for

+the superb way in which he had not only saved his

+Emperor's life, but had also succeeded in gathering

+so many Chouans into his net.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"How was it done, my good Monsieur Fernand?"

+His Majesty asked graciously.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Quite easily, sire," replied the Man in Grey.

+"Your Majesty's spies in Jersey gave us warning some

+time ago that de Livardot was making preparations

+to embark for France.  My business then was to find

+out where he would land.  This I did by watching

+the best-known Chouans in the district.  One of them

+led me to the Goat's Creek, which I then kept in

+observation.  A week later de Livardot did land there.

+I had him waylaid and arrested, and took possession

+of his papers.  One of these gave me a pass

+phrase and the address in the Rue aux Juifs, another

+was a map of the house and grounds of Les Acacias.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It was not difficult to imagine a connection

+between that map and your Majesty's visit; nor would

+it, I hoped, be difficult to assume the personality of a

+man whom, presumably, they had not seen for years

+(I mean de Livardot), and to learn the whole of the

+plot against your Majesty's life.  At any rate I chose

+to take the risk.  From one or two of the papers I

+had gathered that he was being recommended by

+certain Chouan chiefs to a number of their followers

+who did not know him by sight.  I went to the

+address in the Rue aux Juifs and there obtained full

+details of the infamous plot.  My hope, of course,

+was not only to frustrate that plot, but also to bring

+the conspirators to justice.  This I was able to do

+through your Majesty's gracious co-operation in

+leaving Les Acacias secretly at my suggestion, together

+with your host and retinue; and also through Monsieur

+le Duc de Gisors' lofty patriotism in allowing

+his magnificent mansion to be sacrificed.  The

+explosion I knew was to be the signal for the rallying of

+the <i>infâmes</i> who schemed in secret, while they left

+their humbler followers to do the poisonous work for

+them.  Now the trap has closed on them all and your

+Majesty's clemency alone can save them from the gallows."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap08"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER VIII

+<br /><br />

+THE ARROW POISON

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+When the secret agent of His Majesty's Minister

+of Police selected Hippolyte Darnier to be his

+messenger for the occasion, he knew he had a man whom

+he could trust.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Darnier was married: he was a man of middle

+age, who had served the Republic first, then the

+Consulate and finally the Emperor with unswerving

+loyalty, in circumstances which more often than not

+entailed grave personal risks.  He had always

+extricated himself from difficult and dangerous positions

+with marvellous coolness and acumen, and it was but

+natural that when the autograph letter signed by

+M. de Trévargan&mdash;which implicated the noble Marquis

+and his family in the late abortive conspiracy against

+the life of the Emperor&mdash;had to be sent to M. le

+Duc d'Otrante, the latter's secret agent should choose

+a man of proven courage and address for the purpose.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey took leave of his messenger at

+his lodgings in the Rue de Bras, and at the very last

+moment of the leave-taking gave him the precious

+letter, which Darnier immediately secreted in the

+inside breast pocket of his coat.  Then he was ready for

+the journey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+In those days the Paris diligence started from the

+Hôtel du Portugal in Caen every morning at eight

+o'clock, reaching Lisieux&mdash;the first stage&mdash;at five in

+the afternoon.  Darnier had secured his seat on the

+banquette by the side of the driver, for although the

+day was cold, he felt that he would be safer there

+than huddled up between other passengers in the

+interior, some of whom might be unpleasantly

+light-fingered.  There was a fair number of travellers that

+morning.  An elderly pair of bourgeois on their way

+to Evreux and a well-to-do shopkeeper's wife going to

+Paris to visit her son, who was employed in the new

+aerial telegraphs, had secured the <i>coupé</i> in front.  Two

+or three commercial travellers, a couple of young

+officers on leave from the war, a portly fishwife from

+Caen and a round-cheeked country wench occupied

+the interior.  At the small posting inn of the

+"Mouton Noir," just outside the city, another woman got

+in.  She had no luggage and apparently she had not

+booked her place, for she had to be content with one

+on the narrow back seat of the inside, wedged in

+between the round-faced country wench and the

+fishwife from Caen.  However, the newcomer seemed

+quite satisfied with her surroundings: she sat down

+placidly and, pulling her hood well over her face, took

+up a book and thereafter remained absorbed in reading,

+looking neither to right nor left, and taking no

+part in the vapid conversation, engendered by

+boredom, which was carried on around her.  Her

+fellow-travellers put her down as belonging to some sort of

+religious community, for she wore a voluminous black

+cloak with a hood which only allowed the point of her

+chin to peep out below it.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At Mézidon, where halt was made for dinner,

+everyone trooped into the coffee-room of the "Cheval

+Blanc."  Hippolyte Darnier asked to have his meal

+served in a private room, and as he was provided

+with special credentials bearing the seal of the Ministry

+of Police, his wishes were at once acceded to, and

+he was served both promptly and obsequiously, in a

+small room adjoining the one where the other

+passengers were dining together.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The woman in the black cloak had been the last

+to leave the diligence.  She had remained in her seat,

+immersed in her book till everyone had scrambled out

+of the coach.  Then she, too, got out, and walked very

+slowly in the wake of the jovial party ahead.  But she

+did not appear to be in any hurry to join her

+fellow-travellers, for while they settled down with noise and

+bustle at the well-spread table, she strolled away in

+the direction of the river.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The dinner was over and coffee had been handed

+round when she entered the coffee-room.  The wine

+had been good, and everyone was hilarious.  As she

+closed the door behind her, she was greeted with jovial

+calls.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Here, reverend sister, come and sit down."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You must be famished!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"This roasted gigot is positively excellent!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But the woman paid no heed to these well-meant

+suggestions, beyond a few whispered "Thank you's."  Her

+hood still covered her face, all but the point of

+her chin, after the manner adopted by professed nuns

+of cloistered orders when men are about.  She crossed

+the coffee-room rapidly to the door of the private room

+beyond, where Hippolyte Darnier was having his

+solitary dinner.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The serving-maid tried to stop her.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There's a gentleman in there," she said, "who

+wishes to be alone."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh!" said the woman quietly, "that is quite all

+right.  I am travelling in his company."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+With that she opened the door and went into the

+inner room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There was so much noise going on in the coffee-room

+at the time that no one was able to state positively

+afterwards how Darnier greeted the intruder,

+and whether or no her statement was true that she

+was travelling in his company.  Certain it is that, after

+a quarter of an hour or so, she came out again, as

+quietly, as silently as she had come, re-crossed the

+coffee-room, and went out, leaving this time a curious,

+almost uncanny air of mystery behind her.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I have never been fond of these female <i>callotins</i>

+myself," said one of the young officers after a while.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I cannot stand people who make no noise when

+they walk," asserted the worthy bourgeois of Evreux.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The well-to-do farmer's wife, conscious of undisputed

+respectability, added with some acidity:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Strange that a professed nun should be travelling

+alone in a man's company."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After that comments on the occurrence became

+freer and more ribald, and very soon the absentee had

+not a shred of reputation left in the minds of the

+worthy but intensely bored people congregated around

+the festive board of the "Cheval Blanc."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+At two o'clock the ostler in charge announced that

+the diligence was ready to start.  Jean Baptiste, the

+jocund host of the "Cheval Blanc," was going round

+the table, collecting payment for the good déjeuner

+which had been served to his well-satisfied clients.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What shall I do about the gentleman in there?"

+asked the serving maid, pointing to the door of the

+private room.  "He was asleep the last time I

+went in."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Wake him up," replied Jean Baptiste.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I have done all I could to wake him," answered

+the wench.  "He doesn't seem inclined to move."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He'll have to move," rejoined Jean Baptiste with

+a laugh; "or the diligence will go without him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+With that he strode across to the door of the

+private room, kicked it open with his foot, and called

+out in his lusty voice which, as someone remarked,

+was loud enough to wake the dead:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now then, Monsieur, 'tis time to wake up!  The

+diligence is about to start.  You'll never get to Paris

+at this rate."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The door had remained wide open.  The travellers

+in the coffee-room could see the figure of M. Darnier

+sitting huddled in a chair, and half-leaning

+against the table, like one who is in a drunken sleep.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Give him a good shake, papa Baptiste!" called

+one of the young officers waggishly.  "Your good

+wine has been too much for him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Jean Baptiste stooped and gave the huddled figure

+a good shake.  Then suddenly he uttered a horrified

+"Oh, mon Dieu!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What is it?" queried the travellers anxiously.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The man is dead!"

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Never had the Paris diligence been so late in

+starting from Mézidon; and when finally, with much

+cracking of whip and rattling of chains, it thundered

+along the cobblestones of the Grande Rue, it was

+without its full complement of passengers.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le Commissaire de Police had ordered the

+detention of most of them as witnesses of the

+occurrences which culminated in the death of Hippolyte

+Darnier, who was known to the commissaire as an

+employé on the police staff at Caen.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was no use grumbling.  No one who had seen

+or spoken to the woman in the black cloak could be

+allowed to leave the city until M. le Procureur

+Imperial in Caen had granted them leave to do so.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+In the meanwhile M. le Sous-Préfet, who was quite

+hopelessly out of his depth, interrogated the witnesses

+without eliciting more than a noisy and confused

+account of the events of the past few hours wherein the

+weather, the bad state of the roads, and the good

+wines of the "Cheval Blanc" vied in importance with

+the doings of a so-called mysterious nun, of whom

+nothing had been seen by anybody save the point of

+a chin and a voluminous black cloak and hood.  By

+the time that the sous-préfet had jotted down these

+miscellaneous depositions, it was discovered that the

+mysterious personage in question had disappeared.

+Whereupon search parties were sent abroad in every

+direction, with strict orders to bring any woman who

+was seen wearing any kind of a black cloak forthwith

+before M. le Commissaire, whilst the sous-préfet,

+freely perspiring under the effort, wrote out a detailed

+and wholly unintelligible report of the incidents,

+which he dispatched by mounted courier to his chief

+at Caen.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The search parties, after two or three hours' diligent

+scouring of the neighbourhood, brought back an

+inoffensive farm servant, who was trudging home

+from her milking, wrapped in a black shawl; the

+kitchen wench from the Hôtel de Madrid, who had

+gone out to meet her sweetheart and had borrowed

+her mistress's black cloak for the occasion; and old

+Madame Durand, the caretaker at the church of

+St. Pierre, who always wore a black gown as an outward

+symbol of her official position and responsible calling.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+One lad, more intelligent than the rest, while

+wandering along the tow-path of the river, had espied a

+black cloak and hood floating down-stream until its

+progress was arrested by a clump of rushes.  The lad

+fished for the cloak with a barge-pole and succeeded

+in landing it.  He brought it in triumph to Mézidon,

+where he became the hero of the hour.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Late in the evening M. Laurens, préfet of Caen,

+received his subordinate's report.  At once he

+communicated with M. Carteret, the chief commissary of

+police.  The two, fearing that the officious secret

+agent would keep them out of their beds for the next

+two hours, with God knows what orders to proceed

+to Mézidon in the middle of the night, decided to say

+nothing to him until the morning.  After all, the

+matter was not of such paramount importance.

+Darnier, they argued, had had too much to drink and had

+a fit of apoplexy in an overheated room.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But next morning, when the chief commissary did

+present himself before the Minister's agent with the

+Mézidon report, he for one felt that he would far

+sooner have sacrificed a night's rest than endure the

+icy reprimand and the coolly worded threats wherewith

+the insufferable little man had greeted his news.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"By your culpable negligence," the Minister's agent

+had said in his quiet monotone which made every

+official conscious of some unavowed peccadillo shiver,

+"you have given the murderer an added chance of

+escape."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The murderer!" protested M. Carteret, with a

+feeble attempt at swagger.  "What in the world makes

+you think that Darnier has been murdered?  Why,

+the leech&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Because an ignorant country apothecary finds no

+sign of violence upon a dead body," retorted the Man

+in Grey coldly, "unanswerable logic must not be

+deemed at fault."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But what motive could anyone have for

+murdering poor Darnier?" argued the commissary with a

+shrug of his wide shoulders.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You forget that he was the bearer of an important

+report from me to the Minister," replied the Man in

+Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The commissary gave a long, low whistle.  He certainly

+had forgotten that all-important fact for the

+moment.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And you think," he said, "that the woman in the

+black cloak was an emissary of those cursed Chouans,

+and that she murdered Darnier in order to steal that

+report&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Together with the autograph letter of Monsieur

+le Marquis de Trévargan which implicates him and

+his family in the plot against the Emperor," broke in

+the secret agent.  "I should have thought it was

+self-evident."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He wasted no further argument on the commissary,

+who, bewildered and helpless, solemnly scratched

+his head, as if to extricate therefrom a solution of

+the weird mystery.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+An hour or so later Madame Darnier, the widow of

+the murdered man, called at the prefecture in answer

+to a hurried summons.  As someone must break the

+terrible news to her, the Man in Grey undertook the

+task, speaking as sympathetically and as gently as he

+could.  She was a delicate-looking woman, still in the

+prime of life, and with justified pretensions to good

+looks.  She took the news badly, for, as she explained

+later when she was calmer, she had been devoted to

+her husband and he to her, and they had only been

+married five years.  She had no children, she said, in

+answer to the secret agent's kindly inquiries, and her

+dear husband's death left her practically without

+means of support.  The assurance that His Majesty's

+Minister of Police would provide generously for the

+widow of a man who had died in the service of the

+State gave her some small measure of comfort, and

+when she finally took her leave, she appeared, if not

+more consoled, at any rate more tranquil.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Madame Darnier had been unable to furnish the

+police with any clue which might guide them in their

+investigations.  She was quite sure that her husband

+had no enemies, and whilst she had been aware that

+his work often entailed grave personal risks, she knew

+nothing about the work itself, nor, in this case, had

+he told her anything beyond the fact that he was

+going to Paris and would be absent about ten days.

+She repudiated with indignation the suggestion that

+he had been travelling in the company of some woman

+unknown to herself, and of her own accord threw out

+the suggestion that some of those <i>méchant</i>

+Chouans&mdash;knowing her husband's connection with the

+police&mdash;had not scrupled to slay him.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The Château de Trévargan, situated upon a lonely

+piece of coast midway between the mouths of the

+Orne and the Dives and about ten or a dozen miles

+from Caen, had remained one of the beauty spots of

+the neighbourhood.  Though its owners had

+emigrated at the outbreak of the Revolution and their

+domain had become the property of the State, it had

+been bought nominally by a man named Leclerc, who

+had been the Marquis's agent, and who held it

+thenceforward and administered it with unswerving loyalty,

+in the name of his former master.  Leclerc with his

+wife and family had settled down in the château, and

+together they looked after the house, the park and

+the estate during the Marquis's prolonged absence

+abroad.  They always appeared plentifully supplied

+with money, which no doubt came to them through one

+of the many agencies in Jersey, and when M. le

+Marquis returned to France some five years ago he

+found his house in perfect order; and it is supposed

+that he rewarded his faithful steward generously, for

+the latter retired with his family to a little estate close

+by, where they continued to live in undiminished affluence.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. le Marquis de Trévargan had obviously not

+brought a fortune back from exile; nevertheless, he

+and Madame la Marquise kept up a good deal of style

+at the château.  They also went to Paris and made

+their obeisance to the Emperor at Versailles, and

+hitherto not the slightest suspicion of disloyalty to the

+new régime had attached to them.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The discovery of the outrageous plot against the

+life of the Emperor during the latter's visit to Caen

+the previous month, had left the Trévargans

+unscathed, even though close upon a score of their

+personal friends were implicated in the affair.  It was

+only three weeks later that M. le Marquis learned that

+the one foolish letter he had written in the whole

+course of his cautious career had fallen into the hands

+of the police.  He had written to his friend the Comte

+de Romorantin, urging him to keep aloof from the

+conspirators until he was sure that the Corsican had

+really been sent to Hades.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Madame la Marquise and myself do not intend

+to appear at Caen until we know for certain that the

+coup has been successful.  We have done our share

+in the matter of providing funds, but we prefer to let

+Blue-Heart, White-Beak and the other ruffians do the

+work for us.  We shall be ready to proclaim His

+Majesty King Louis XVIII in the Hôtel de Ville as

+soon as we know that all fear of failure or discovery

+is at an end.  I entreat you to do likewise and to

+destroy this letter as soon as read."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Unfortunately, M. de Romorantin had not destroyed

+the letter.  He had it in his pocket at the very

+moment when the police made the raid on the house

+in the Rue aux Juifs and arrested the Chouan

+conspirators red-handed.  The letter was seized, together

+with every other paper which happened to be in the

+possession of the prisoners, and it was that same

+highly compromising letter which Hippolyte Darnier

+was taking to Paris when he died so mysteriously in

+the private room of the "Cheval Blanc" at Mézidon.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Investigation at the château on the day following

+the discovery of the plot had led to no result.  M. le

+Marquis watched with lofty indifference and disdain

+the turning over of his private papers and belongings

+by the heedless hands of the police.  Except for that

+one letter, he had never committed an indiscretion or

+written an unguarded word in his life.  But there was

+the letter!  And it was this very search which, coming

+as a bolt from the blue, had assured him that he was

+no longer immune from suspicion.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The day following the death of Hippolyte Darnier,

+M. le Marquis de Trévargan received another visit

+from the police, this time in the person of M. Carteret,

+the commissary, whom he knew personally, and who

+came accompanied by a small, insignificant-looking

+personage dressed in grey.  Once more, secure in the

+knowledge that nothing that could in any way

+compromise him existed inside his château, the Marquis

+received his visitors with condescending hauteur.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ah, ça, my good Carteret," he said to the

+commissary somewhat tartly, "when am I and Madame la

+Marquise to be free from this insolent interference?

+Since when are the loyal subjects of His Majesty to

+be treated as if they were criminals?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The worthy M. Carteret felt hot and cold all over.

+He had an enormous regard for M. le Marquis de

+Trévargan and a wholesome terror of the Minister's

+secret agent, and between the two he did not know to

+which saint he should pray for protection.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Loyalty is a matter of degree," here interposed

+the Man in Grey in his usual monotone; "as Monsieur

+le Marquis well knows."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I only know, Monsieur," retorted the Marquis

+haughtily, "that certain aspersions have been cast upon

+my good name, chiefly on the strength of a forged

+letter&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A forged letter, Monsieur le Marquis?" interposed

+the Man in Grey with a smile.  "Monsieur de

+Romorantin has owned to its authenticity."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Monsieur de Romorantin was scared out of his

+wits," rejoined the Marquis, "or he never would have

+been taken in by such a clumsy forgery.  And," he

+added haughtily, "I challenge you to produce it, so

+that at least I might have a chance of proving the

+truth of what I say."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It is just because the letter has been stolen,"

+stammered M. Carteret, "and the messenger murdered

+that we are here to-day, Monsieur le Marquis."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+While he spoke a door at the farther end of the

+room opened, and a tall, handsome woman appeared

+upon the threshold.  When the commissary finished

+speaking, she broke into a ringing laugh.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"A pretty story indeed!" she said harshly.  "A

+monstrous accusation hurled at Monsieur le Marquis

+de Trévargan!  And when he demands to be confronted

+with proofs of his guilt, these proofs are said

+to be destroyed, whilst a vague hint of murder goes

+to swell the iniquitous charge.  A pretty pass,

+indeed!" she continued, as with stately steps she

+advanced into the room.  "Fortunately His Majesty has

+some friendship for Monsieur le Marquis and myself,

+and we can appeal to him to punish those who have

+put this affront upon us."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your pardon, Madame la Marquise," answered

+the Man in Grey, as soon as she had finished her

+impassioned tirade.  "Monsieur le Commissaire said that

+the letter had been stolen; he did not say that it had

+been destroyed."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+An almost imperceptible shadow seemed to pass

+as in a flash over the Marquise's handsome face; but

+the very next second she shrugged her handsome

+shoulders and said flippantly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The same thing, my good man."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I trust not, Madame la Marquise," rejoined the

+Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, we all know," here interrupted M. le Marquis

+with a sneer, "that in your unavowable profession,

+Monsieur, you are bound to send a certain number

+of unfortunates to what you call justice, whether

+they are guilty or not, or you would lose your highly

+lucrative employment.  Isn't that so?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Our employment, Monsieur le Marquis," replied

+the Man in Grey imperturbably, "is not likely to find

+favour in your sight."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Well!" rejoined Madame with a harsh laugh,

+"so long as you don't trump up a charge of murder

+against some poor innocent this time&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Murder, Madame la Marquise!" queried the secret

+agent with a look of mild astonishment in his

+colourless eyes.  "Who spoke of murder?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I thought," parried the Marquise airily, "that some

+spy or other of yours was murdered and robbed of

+the forged letter, which was supposed to convict

+Monsieur le Marquis de Trévargan and myself of

+disloyalty."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"One of our men was certainly robbed of a letter

+written by Monsieur le Marquis de Trévargan to

+Monsieur de Romorantin on the eve of the conspiracy

+against the Emperor," said the Man in Grey, "but I

+am happy to say that he is alive at the present moment&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A terrific crash of broken china drowned the rest

+of his speech.  The table against which Madame la

+Marquise had been leaning fell over, scattering

+precious <i>bibelots</i> in every direction.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"How clumsy of me!" exclaimed Madame in some

+confusion, whilst the commissary of police, agitated

+and obsequious, crawled about on his hands and knees,

+trying to collect the fragments of priceless china

+which littered the carpet.  "Do not trouble, I pray

+you, Monsieur le Commissaire," said the Marquise

+with affable condescension.  "The servant will clear

+away the rubbish."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She sank into a chair, as if tired out with the

+interminable interview, and put her aristocratic hand up

+to her mouth, smothering a yawn.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"As you were saying, Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;&mdash;" she

+drawled wearily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I was not saying anything, Madame la Marquise,"

+rejoined the Man in Grey, smiling.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Your spy or messenger, whatever he was&mdash;&mdash;"

+interposed the Marquis impatiently.  "You were

+saying something about him."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh! nothing that would interest Monsieur le

+Marquis," replied the secret agent.  "He was stabbed

+in the hand with a pin steeped in a deadly arrow

+poison, which in ordinary circumstances would have

+killed him in less than five minutes.  Fortunately for

+him the assassin was either inexperienced or clumsy,

+or perhaps the poison had become stale by keeping.

+At any rate, poor Hippolyte Darnier was nearly

+killed&mdash;but not quite.  He is still very ill&mdash;half

+paralysed; but the leech assures me that he will recover."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+This time there was no mistaking the shadow

+which once more passed across the Marquise's handsome

+face, whilst for the space of a second or two the

+somewhat high colour of her cheeks changed to a

+leaden hue.  The Marquis instinctively came forward

+a few steps, obtruding his stately figure between the

+police agent and his wife.  Next moment, however,

+Madame had regained her composure.  She rose from

+her chair, tall, dignified, unspeakably haughty.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So much the better for your friend, Monsieur&mdash;er&mdash;I

+forget your name," she said coldly.  "And

+now," she added as she walked majestically towards

+the door, "if you or Monsieur le Commissaire have

+any more senseless questions to ask, you must be

+content with the information Monsieur le Marquis

+condescends to give you.  I confess to being weary

+of this folly."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She pushed open the door and sailed out of the

+room, as arrogant as any Queen of the old régime

+dismissing an importunate courtier.  Then the door

+fell to behind her and her firm step soon died away

+along the marble corridor.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The commissary of police was pining to take his

+leave, and much to his relief the Man in Grey put no

+further questions to M. le Marquis, and after a few

+seconds declared himself ready to go.  M. de Trévargan

+was quite pleasant to poor M. Carteret, who obviously

+greatly disapproved of this intrusion on the

+privacy of the stately château.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The man is a veritable pest!" he contrived to whisper

+in the Marquis's ear, behind the back of the secret

+agent.  "I would wish to assure Monsieur le Marquis&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do not trouble to do that, my good Monsieur

+Carteret," interrupted M. de Trévargan impatiently.

+"Your assurances are unnecessary.  You were obeying

+orders: and the man, I suppose, was fulfilling

+what he believed to be his duty."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Somewhat comforted, the commissary went downstairs

+in the wake of the Man in Grey, who was waiting

+for him in the vast entrance hall below, and was

+gazing in rapt admiration at the pictures and statuary

+which would not have shamed a royal residence.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It is a rare treat," he was saying to the pompous

+majordomo who was waiting to usher the visitors out,

+"for art-lovers to have the opportunity of seeing these

+priceless treasures.  Are they not sometimes shown to

+the public?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, no, Monsieur," replied the majordomo

+sententiously.  "As Monsieur and Madame de Trévargan

+are in residence, it would not be seemly to allow

+strangers to wander about the château."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ah!" said the Man in Grey, "then my sister was

+lucky indeed.  She saw all these beautiful pictures

+and statues yesterday!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yesterday, Monsieur?" queried the man, as

+haughtily as his master and mistress would have

+done.  "I do not understand."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It's quite simple," rejoined the secret agent.  "My

+sister is the intimate friend of one of the maids here,

+and yesterday, as Madame la Marquise was away

+all day, this friend smuggled my sister into this part

+of the château and showed her all these marvellous

+art treasures&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"This would be a pretty story, Monsieur," here

+broke in the majordomo impatiently, "if it were based

+on some semblance of truth.  Madame la Marquise

+did not happen to be away all day yesterday."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But surely&mdash;&mdash;" protested the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Madame la Marquise was indeed very much at

+home," continued the other with becoming sternness,

+"seeing that she entertained the children of the

+Convent School here to déjeuner at midday and games

+all the afternoon."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The secret agent now appeared overwhelmed with

+confusion at his stupid blunder.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am very sorry," he murmured haltingly.

+"There's some mistake on my part&mdash;I understood my

+sister to say that she was here yesterday&mdash;it must

+have been some other day&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Very likely!" retorted the majordomo with a

+sneer; and giving the plebeian police agent the

+supercilious stare which so much impertinence deserved, he

+finally closed the monumental doors of the château

+upon the unwelcome visitors.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Another snub!" remarked the commissary of police

+as he descended the steps beside his silent

+colleague.  "And why you trumped up that story about

+your sister and a maid, I cannot imagine!" he added

+with withering contempt.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But the Man in Grey apparently did not hear him,

+He was murmuring under his breath:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Clever enough to have secured an alibi!  I might

+have guessed it!  And such an actress!  But, then,

+how in Heaven's name was it done?  How?  And by whom?"

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+V

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey had allowed the commissary of

+police to return to Caen, but he seemed to find it

+impossible to tear himself away from the neighbourhood

+of Trévargan.  He felt that the lordly château held a

+grim secret within its walls, and he could not rest

+until he had wrung it from them.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+All day he hung about the approaches of the park

+and, as soon as night fell, managed to creep into

+the depths of the shrubberies before the gates were

+closed.  Here he remained on the watch, peering

+through the thicket at the stately pile, the windows of

+which soon became lighted from within, one by one.

+What he expected to see he could not have told you,

+but Night is the great guardian of dark mysteries and

+unavowable deeds, and the secret agent hoped that the

+gloom would mayhap give him the key to that riddle

+which had baffled him in broad light of day.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+From where he was crouching he commanded a

+view both of the front of the house and of the path

+which led to the back.  He had been lying in wait for

+nearly two hours, and a neighbouring church clock

+had just struck ten, when through the darkness he

+perceived the figure of a woman, wrapped in a cloak,

+walking quickly towards the château.  At first he

+thought it might be one of the maids returning from

+a walk, but as the figure passed close to him,

+something vaguely familiar in the poise of the head and

+the shape of the cloak, caused him suddenly to crawl

+out of his hiding-place as noiselessly as he could, and

+to follow the woman until a bend in the avenue

+afforded him the opportunity which he sought.  In one

+second he had taken off his mantle and, springing on

+her from behind, he caught her in his arms and threw

+the mantle over her head, smothering the cry which

+had risen to her lips.  Though he was short and slight,

+he had uncommon strength, and the woman was small

+and slender.  He lifted her off the ground and carried

+her along the avenue and down a side-path, until he

+had reached a secluded portion of the park.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Here he laid his burden down and unwound the

+mantle which was stifling her.  Then he turned the

+light of his dark lantern upon her.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Madame Darnier!" he murmured.  "Just as I thought!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then, as the woman was still lying there almost

+unconscious, he threw back her cloak and looked at her

+hands.  There was nothing in them.  He felt for the

+pockets in her cloak and in her dress; his hands

+wandered over the folds of her gown; his ears, attuned

+to the slightest sound, listened for the crackling that

+would reveal the presence of papers concealed about

+her person.  But there was nothing, and he frowned

+in deep puzzlement as he encountered her large,

+melancholy eyes, which were following his every

+movement with the look of a trapped animal watching its

+captor.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What are you doing here in Trévargan?" he asked

+sternly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Help me to get up," she replied almost fiercely,

+"and I may tell you."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+More puzzled than before, he raised her to her feet.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You remember me?" he asked.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Of course," she replied.  "How could I forget

+the man who first held the cup of such bitter sorrow

+to my lips?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Someone had to tell you," he rejoined more gently,

+"and your husband was in my employ."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And died in your employ," she answered roughly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Will you believe me," he retorted, "that, had I

+known of the terrible risk which he was running, I

+would have undertaken the errand myself?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes," she said dully, "I know that you are not a

+coward."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Will you tell me why you are here?" he reiterated

+firmly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She looked round her, right into the gloom in the

+direction where the lights of the château glimmered

+feebly through the trees.  Then, turning to the Man

+in Grey, she said calmly:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"There was a suspicion gnawing at my heart.  I

+came to see if I could confirm it, or lull it for ever to

+rest."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You suspect the Trévargans of having had a hand

+in the outrage against your husband?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Don't you?" she retorted.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He made no reply and even through the darkness

+she could see that he appeared deeply buried in

+thought.  He had turned off the light of his lantern,

+and by the dim light of the moon, partly hidden

+behind a veil of clouds, they could only distinguish one

+another's outline against the dense background of the

+shrubberies.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Will you allow me to escort you home?" he asked

+abruptly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She nodded in assent, and he, knowing the way,

+guided her along the less frequented paths of the park

+till he came to a locked postern gate.  Asking her to

+wait a moment and, drawing a small tool from his

+pocket, he coolly picked the lock, and a moment or

+two later he and Mme. Darnier were walking rapidly

+down the main road in the direction of the city.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+VI

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Next morning, when the Man in Grey arrived at

+the commissariat of police, he was greeted with sneers

+and acid reproaches by M. Carteret and M. le Préfet.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I must say," said the latter with becoming

+pomposity, "that your attitude with regard to Monsieur

+and Madame de Trévargan is exceedingly reprehensible.

+You have placed my colleague and myself in

+a very awkward position.  Monsieur le Marquis is one

+of the most influential, as he has always been one of

+the most loyal, personages in the province, and I have

+no doubt that he will visit his displeasure upon us

+both, though, Heaven knows! we have done nothing

+but follow your foolish lead in the matter."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I pray you have patience, my good Monsieur

+Laurens," said the Man in Grey with unruffled calm.

+"The matter to which you refer is on the point of

+reaching its culmination."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I was alluding to the affair of Hippolyte

+Darnier," said the préfet.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So was I," retorted the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Are you about to discover who murdered him?"

+queried M. Carteret, with a touch of taunt.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes," replied the secret agent.  "With the help

+of Madame Darnier, whom I have summoned hither."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The préfet shrugged his shoulders with marked

+impatience.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And I must ask you," added the Man in Grey

+in his blandest tones which admitted of no argument,

+"not to interfere in anything I may say to Madame

+Darnier in the course of our interview; to express no

+surprise and, above all, not to attempt to contradict.

+And you know, Monsieur Laurens, and you, too,

+Monsieur le Commissaire," he added sternly, "that when

+I give an order I intend it to be obeyed."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Hardly had this peremptory command fallen from

+his lips than Madame Darnier was announced.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She came in, looking even more fragile and more

+delicate in her deep mourning than she had done

+before.  Her large, melancholy eyes sought, as if

+appealingly, those of the three men who had half-risen

+to greet her.  The Man in Grey offered her a chair,

+into which she sank.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You sent for me, Monsieur?" she asked, as she

+pressed a black-bordered handkerchief to her

+quivering lips.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Only to give you the best of news, Madame," the

+secret agent said cheerily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The best of news?" she murmured.  "I do not

+understand."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"My friend Hippolyte Darnier," he exclaimed,

+"your husband, Madame, is out of danger&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+She rose suddenly, as if some hidden spring had

+projected her to her feet, and stood rigid and tense,

+her cheeks the colour of yellow wax, her eyes so

+dilated that they seemed as black as coal.  The préfet

+and the commissaire had, indeed, the greatest difficulty

+to maintain the attitude of impassivity which the

+Minister's agent had so rigidly prescribed.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Out of danger," murmured Mme. Darnier after a

+while.  "What do you mean?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No wonder you are overcome with emotion,

+Madame," rejoined the secret agent.  "I myself did

+not dare breathe a word to you of my hopes at

+Trévargan last night, for I had not had the leech's final

+pronouncement.  But I have had hopes all along.  We

+transported your dear husband's inanimate body to

+my lodgings after his&mdash;er&mdash;accident the other day.

+He was totally unconscious; it almost seemed as if

+<i>rigor mortis</i> had already set in.  But I suppose the

+deadly arrow poison, which a murderous hand had

+injected with the aid of a pin, was either stale or

+ineffectual.  Certain it is that my dear friend Darnier

+rallied, that he is alive at this moment, and that I

+shall have the pleasure of conducting you to his

+bedside immediately."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+While he spoke the Man in Grey had kept his

+eyes fixed steadily upon the woman.  She was still

+standing as rigid as before and clinging with one

+hand to the back of the chair, whilst with the other

+she continued to press her handkerchief to her lips.

+Nor could the other two men detach their eyes from

+her face, which appeared like a petrified presentation

+of abject and nameless horror.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Darnier," continued the Man in Grey relentlessly,

+"is slowly regaining consciousness now.  The leech

+desires that the first sight which greets his eyes should

+be that of his beloved wife.  Come, Madame, it is a

+short walk to my lodgings.  Let me conduct you&mdash;&mdash;  Ah!"

+he suddenly exclaimed, as with his usual agility

+he literally threw himself upon the staggering woman.

+"Drop that, now!  Drop it, I say!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But he was too late.  Madame Darnier had fallen

+back into her chair.  From a deep scratch across her

+hand drops of blood were oozing freely.  The

+commissaire and the préfet were gazing, horror-stricken

+and helpless, upon her face, which was slowly becoming

+distorted.  A curious, jerky quiver shook her

+limbs from time to time.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"She has killed herself with the same poison wherewith

+she sent her unfortunate husband to his death,"

+said the secret agent quietly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To his death?" gasped the préfet.  "Then the

+story of Hippolyte Darnier's recovery&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Was false," broke in the Man in Grey.  "It was

+a trap set to wring an avowal from the murderer.

+And we must own," he added earnestly, "that the

+avowal has been both full and conclusive."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He threw his mantle over the wretched woman,

+who was already past help.  But he dispatched one

+of the servants of the prefecture for the nearest

+leech.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But what made you guess&mdash;&mdash;?" queried the

+commissary, who was gasping with astonishment.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The fact that Madame Darnier was the daughter

+of the man Leclerc, who for years devoted himself to

+the fortunes of the Trévargans.  He and his family

+are devoted heart and soul to the Marquis and his

+cause.  The daughter has proved herself a fanatic, a

+madwoman, I should say.  She killed her husband

+to save the family she loved."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But those accursed Trévargans&mdash;&mdash;" said the

+préfet.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Their punishment will not long be delayed.  I

+sent a copy of the compromising letter to the

+Minister&mdash;the original is still in my keeping."

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<p><a id="chap09"></a></p>

+

+<h3>

+CHAPTER IX

+<br /><br />

+THE LAST ADVENTURE

+</h3>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+I

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The riders put their horses to a walk.  It was getting

+late in the afternoon, and the sun, crimson and

+cheerless, was setting in a sea of slate-coloured mist.

+A blustering wind from the south-west blew intermittent

+rain showers into the faces of the two solitary

+wayfarers.  They had ridden hard all day&mdash;a matter

+of over thirty miles from Evreux&mdash;and one of them,

+at any rate, a middle-aged, stoutish, official-looking

+personage, showed signs both of fatigue and of

+growing ill-temper.  The other, younger, more slender,

+dressed in colourless grey from head to foot, his

+mantle slung lightly from his shoulders, his keen eyes

+fixed straight before him, appeared moved by impatience

+rather than by the wind or the lateness of the

+hour.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The rain and the rapidly falling dusk covered the

+distant hills and the valley beyond with a mantle of

+gloom.  To right and left of the road the coppice,

+still dressed in winter garb, already was wrapped in

+the mysteries of the night.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I shall not be sorry to see the lights of Mantes,"

+said M. Gault, the commissary of police of Evreux, to

+his companion.  "I am getting saddle-sore, and this

+abominable damp has got into my bones."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The other sighed with obvious impatience.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I would like to push on to Paris to-night," he

+said.  "The moon will be up directly, and I believe

+the rain-clouds will clear.  In any case the night will

+not be very dark, and I know every inch of the way."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Another six hours or more in the saddle!"

+growled the commissaire.  "No, thank you!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I thought you were anxious about those escaped

+prisoners of yours," observed the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So I am," retorted M. Gault.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And that you desired Monsieur le Ministre to

+hear of the escape through your lips, before rumour

+hath played havoc with the event," continued the

+other tartly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"So I do&mdash;so I do!" grunted the commissary.

+"But those damned Chouans only got away last night

+from Evreux, where they should never have been

+brought.  They were apprehended at Caen; the outrage,

+which you were able to avert, had been planned

+and was discovered at Caen; the knaves should have

+been tried and hanged at Caen.  Instead of which,"

+continued M. Gault wrathfully, "they were marched

+to Evreux, on their way to Paris.  At Evreux we had

+neither the facilities nor the personnel to guard such

+a <i>rusé</i> gang adequately&mdash;they gave us the slip&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And," interrupted the Man in Grey, in his iciest

+manner, "the men who planned to murder the

+Emperor are now at large, free to concoct a further

+outrage, which, this time, may prove successful!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Through no fault of mine!" protested the commissary.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That will be for the Minister to decide," concluded

+the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But even this thinly-veiled threat failed to instil

+new vigour into M. Gault.  Alarmed at the possible

+effects upon his future career of what might be deemed

+official negligence, he had wished to place his excuses

+personally before His Majesty's Minister of Police,

+ere the latter could hear through outside sources that

+the desperate gang of malefactors who had planned

+the affair of the infernal machine against the

+Emperor's life had escaped from Evreux, and that such

+astute and reckless criminals as Blue-Heart and

+White-Beak were again at large.  In spite of M. Gault's

+anxiety, however, to be the first to gain the

+Minister's ear, his whole middle-aged, over-indulged

+person protested against any prolongation of what had

+become torturing fatigue.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You are young, Monsieur Fernand," he added

+dolefully.  "You do not realise&mdash;&mdash;  Malediction!

+What was that?" he ejaculated, as his horse gave a

+sudden jump to one side and nearly unseated him.

+The animal had shied at something not at present

+visible to its rider.  It was still retreating, with ears

+set back, nostrils quivering, its body trembling with

+fright, so that M. Gault had the greatest difficulty

+alike to keep his seat and soothe the poor beast.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I wonder what the brute shied at," he said.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But already the Man in Grey had dismounted.  He

+led his horse across the road, and then to a spot where,

+on the farther side of the intervening ditch, a large,

+dark mass lay huddled, only vaguely discernible in

+the gloom.  He peered with anxious eyes into the

+darkness; then he called to the commissary.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I pray you hold my horse, Monsieur Gault," he

+said peremptorily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What is it?" queried the latter as&mdash;still with some

+difficulty&mdash;he brought his horse alongside the other

+and gathered up the reins which Fernand had thrown

+to him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That is just what I wish to ascertain," replied the

+Minister's agent simply.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He jumped lightly over the ditch and approached

+the huddled mass.  This proved to be the body of a

+young man with fair hair and beard, dressed in rough

+peasant's clothes.  The linen blouse he wore was

+smeared round about his shoulders with stains of a

+dull crimson colour, whilst the dead leaves beneath

+him were soiled in the same way.  In a moment,

+Fernand had passed his slim, experienced hand over the

+face of the man, over his body and his feet, which

+were bare.  These were cold and rigid, but the stains

+upon the blouse and upon the bed of dead leaves were

+yet dank to the touch.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What is it?" queried the commissary again, more

+impatiently.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Murder!" replied the Man in Grey laconically.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The high roads are not safe," remarked M. Gault

+sententiously.  "And even in this district, where those

+<i>satané</i> Chouans do not ply their nefarious trade, the

+police seem unable to ensure the safety of peaceable

+travellers."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He gave an involuntary shiver and gazed anxiously

+behind him.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I pray you, Monsieur Fernand," he said, "do not

+let us linger here.  This is an affair for the local

+police, and we must get to Mantes before dark."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You need not linger, Monsieur le Commissaire,"

+rejoined the Man in Grey.  "I pray you, tie my horse

+to the nearest tree and continue your journey, if you

+have a mind."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+He had risen to his feet and appeared to be examining

+the ground closely all round the spot where lay

+the body of the murdered man.  M. Gault uttered one

+of his favourite oaths.  Indeed, he had no mind to

+continue his journey alone, with those murdering

+footpads lurking in the woods and the road to Mantes

+lonely and unsafe.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"What are you looking for now, Monsieur Fernand?"

+he queried sharply.  "Surely, the police of

+Mantes can deal with the affair.  Are you looking for

+traces of the miscreants?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No," replied the other, "I am looking for the

+murdered man's boots."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The murdered man's boots!" exclaimed the

+commissary crossly.  "Why, the fellow is just a rough

+peasant, and no doubt he walked barefoot."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No doubt," agreed the Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Nevertheless, he continued his search and even

+plunged into the thicket, only to emerge therefrom in

+a minute or two, as the darkness made it impossible

+to distinguish anything that might be hidden in the

+undergrowth.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I don't know why you should be so obstinate

+about those boots!" growled the commissary.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But to this remark the Man in Grey vouchsafed no

+reply.  He had resumed his mount and was already

+in the saddle.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am going on to Paris," he said briefly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Poor M. Gault heaved a doleful sigh.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To Paris!" he ejaculated pitiably.  "But I&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You'll stay at Mantes," enjoined the Minister's

+agent emphatically, "and there await my orders or

+those of Monsieur le Ministre.  You are on no

+account to leave your post," he added sternly, "on pain

+of instant dismissal and degradation."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+With that he put his horse to a sharp trot, heedless

+whether the unfortunate commissary followed him or

+not.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+II

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+The Man in Grey was sitting, travel-stained and

+weary, in the dressing-room of M. le Duc d'Otrante,

+Minister of Police to His Impérial Majesty.  He had

+ridden all night, only halting now and again to give

+his horse a rest, as he could not get a change of

+mount during the whole distance between Mantes&mdash;where

+he had obtained a fresh horse, and where he

+left M. Gault comfortably installed in the best hotel

+of the place&mdash;and Paris, where he arrived an hour

+after daybreak, stiff, aching in every limb, scarcely

+able to tumble out of the saddle.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But he would not wait even to change his clothes

+or get a little rest.  Within a quarter of an hour of

+his arrival in the capital he was knocking at the

+monumental gateway of M. le Duc's magnificent palace.

+Obviously he was a privileged person as far as access

+to the all-powerful Minister was concerned, for no

+sooner had his name been mentioned to M. le Duc's

+confidential valet than he was ushered into the great

+man's presence.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The police agent had the power of concise and

+rapid diction.  Within a very few minutes the Minister

+was in possession of all the facts connected with

+the mysterious murder of the unknown person on

+the highway to Mantes.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The man's clothes were rougher and more shabby

+than his physical condition suggested," Fernand

+remarked in conclusion.  "His hands were not those of

+a peasant; his feet were quite clean though the roads

+were muddy.  Clearly, then, his boots had been taken

+off by the murderers, presumably in the hope that

+some valuables might have been concealed inside

+them.  At once my mind jumped to thoughts of a

+written message&mdash;sent by you, Monsieur le Ministre,

+perhaps.  At any rate, I left old Gault at Mantes and

+rode another sixty kilomètres to ascertain as quickly

+as possible what my conjectures were worth."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Describe the man to me," said the Minister.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Age under thirty," replied Fernand; "short,

+square beard, fair hair slightly curled&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Hector Duroy," broke in the Minister.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Then he was your messenger?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Yes!  He started for Evreux early yesterday

+morning.  I wished him to meet you there."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"To tell me what, Monsieur le Ministre?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That the Emperor left Versailles incognito yesterday

+in response to the usual request from the

+ex-Empress.  You know how he literally flies to do her

+behests."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Alas!" said the Man in Grey with something of

+a sigh.  "But I don't understand," he added inquiringly,

+"if the Emperor has gone to Malmaison&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Not to Malmaison this time," interposed M. le

+Duc.  "The ex-Empress is at Chartres, staying at the

+Hôtel National, and she desired the Emperor to go

+to her there.  This time she seems to have pleaded

+family imbroglios.  She is always ready with a

+pretext whenever she desires to see him; and with him,

+as you know, her slightest whim is law.  Enough that

+he set out for Chartres this morning, in the strictest

+incognito, accompanied only by one of his

+valets&mdash;Gerbier, I think.  Fortunately he apprised me

+yesterday of his project.  I begged him to let me send an

+escort to guard him, but&mdash;well! you know what he is.

+The future Empress is already on her way to France;

+the Emperor, naturally, guards very jealously the

+secret of his continued visits to Josephine.  Curtly

+enough he forbade me to interfere.  But, knowing

+you to be at Evreux, I sent a courier to you, telling

+you what had occurred and suggesting that perhaps

+you could send a posse across to Chartres to keep

+watch quietly and discreetly while the Emperor was

+there.  He will be there to-night, of course,"

+concluded the Minister with a weary sigh, "and no doubt

+he will return to-morrow.  But these incognito visits

+of his are always a terror to me, and this time&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"This time," concluded Fernand as the Minister

+paused, hardly daring to put into words all the

+anxiety which he felt, "the courier whom you dispatched

+to me was waylaid and murdered, and your message,

+which, I imagine, gave some details of the Emperor's

+movements, is in the hands of a band of Chouans."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Chouans?" exclaimed the Minister.  "What makes

+you think&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Some of the rascals whom we arrested at Caen in

+connection with the affair of the infernal machine, and

+who were being conveyed to Paris in accordance with

+your instructions, escaped from Evreux prison the

+night before last.  The commissary of police and I

+were on our way to report the matter to you when we

+came across the body of the murdered man in the

+woods outside Mantes."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Malediction!" ejaculated the Duc d'Otrante; and

+though during his arduous service he had been faced

+with many and varied dangers which threatened at

+different times the life of his Impérial master, his

+cheeks became almost livid now, when the vista of

+horrible possibilities was thus suddenly conjured up

+before his mind.  Then he continued more calmly:

+"Which of the villains have escaped, did you say?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The Marquis de Trévargan, for one," replied the

+Man in Grey.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And the Marquise?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"No.  We had not arrested her yet.  She was not

+directly named in the affair, and we can always lay

+our hands on her, if occasion demands."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Anyone else?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Those two villains they call Blue-Heart and

+White-Beak, the most daring and infamous

+scoundrels in the whole crowd."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"One of them was paid by Mademoiselle de Plélan

+to murder you," remarked the Minister drily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+To this, however, the Man in Grey made no reply;

+only his cheeks&mdash;always colourless&mdash;became a shade

+more ashen in hue.  M. le Duc d'Otrante, who knew

+something and guessed a great deal of this single

+romantic episode in the life of his faithful agent, smiled

+somewhat maliciously.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The last we heard of the Plélans, mother and

+daughter," he said, "was that Madame had joined

+some relatives in the south, but that the beautiful

+Constance had remained at Evreux.  She is a niece,

+remember, of Monsieur de Trévargan, and France

+does not hold another conspirator quite so astute and

+so daring as either of these two.  De Trévargan is a

+model of caution and Constance de Plélan is recklessness

+personified; but both will stake their all for the

+Cause of those degenerate Bourbons&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And both are at large," added the Man in Grey

+somewhat impatiently; "while the Emperor is

+travelling without escort upon the high roads."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Do you suppose that Constance de Plélan had

+anything to do with the escape of the Chouan

+prisoners at Evreux?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I imagine that she was the prime mover," replied

+Fernand calmly; and even the Minister's sharp, probing

+eyes failed to detect the slightest sign of emotion

+in the grave face of the police agent at this significant

+mention of Constance de Plélan's name in connection

+with the recent Chouan affair.  "No doubt she

+gave Monsieur de Trévargan and his gang all the help

+they required from outside, and shelter afterwards.

+But time is getting on, Monsieur le Ministre," he

+continued eagerly, "and the Emperor, you say, is on his

+way&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He left Versailles at six o'clock this morning,"

+rejoined the Minister.  "He will be at Chartres by

+nightfall."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"He will never reach Chartres," announced the

+Man in Grey, "if&mdash;as I believe&mdash;Blue-Heart and his

+gang waylay him on the road."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That is just what is in my mind," assented the

+Minister with a shudder.  "It is close on seven o'clock

+now, and I can have a posse of police on the way

+within half an hour; but whether they can reach the

+Emperor in time to be of service is very doubtful.

+According to arrangement, he will have left Versailles

+an hour ago.  He is travelling in his private

+<i>berline</i>, harnessed with his four bays, which, as you

+know, fly over the ground with almost unbelievable

+swiftness.  He will get relays on the way and proceed

+with undiminished speed.  Our men have not the

+horses wherewith to cover the ground at such a rate."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Let me have a horse out of your stables, Monsieur

+le Ministre," rejoined the Man in Grey.  "I'll

+cover the ground fast enough."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You, Fernand!" exclaimed M. le Duc.  "What

+can you do&mdash;by yourself?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I don't know.  I can always take short cuts and

+gain ground that way.  I know every inch of the

+district.  I can overtake the Emperor's <i>berline</i> and warn

+him that assassins are on his track.  He has a

+postilion, I presume, and Gerbier is with him, you say.

+Well! with the coachman, we should be four of us

+to divert a musket-shot from the most precious life

+in France."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"But, my good Fernand," argued the Minister, "I

+cannot even tell you which road the Emperor has

+taken.  As you know, he can either go by the main

+Paris&mdash;Chartres road&mdash;which, of course, is the more

+direct, but also the more public&mdash;or he can go by way

+of Houdan and&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Both roads converge at Maintenon, and I can

+intercept him there by cutting across fields and

+meadows, if you will give me your swiftest horse,

+Monsieur le Ministre.  If you don't know which road

+the Emperor is taking," he continued with unanswerable

+logic, "the Chouans do not know it either.  They

+also would have to waylay him somewhere past

+Maintenon."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Unless they are in full force and patrol both

+roads&mdash;&mdash;" suggested the Minister.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"They would hardly have had time to make such

+elaborate arrangements.  Moreover, both roads are

+very open and moderately frequented.  It is only after

+Malmaison that the single road strikes through the

+woods and becomes very lonely, especially at

+nightfall.  A horse, Monsieur le Ministre!" entreated the

+Man in Grey, his keen, deep-set eyes glowing with

+ardour and enthusiasm.  "A horse!  Ten years of my

+life for the swiftest horse in your stables!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Minister said nothing more.  He, too, was a

+man of energy and of action; he, too, at this hour,

+was filled with passionate fervour for the Cause which

+he was destined so soon to betray, and he knew how

+to appreciate the ardent spirit which irradiated the

+entire personality of this insignificant little Man in

+Grey.  At once he rang the bell and gave the necessary

+orders.  Within twenty minutes Fernand was again

+in the saddle.  Fatigue and weariness both had fallen

+from him like a discarded mantle.  He had no time

+to feel tired now.  Ahead, the <i>berline</i> harnessed with

+the four swift bays was thundering down the Chartres

+road, and the most valuable life in France was

+threatened by a band of assassins, shrewd enough to

+have planned a desperate <i>coup</i>.  Somewhere on the

+broad highway the murderers were lurking, and the

+Emperor&mdash;unguarded, unsuspecting&mdash;might even at

+this hour be falling into their hands.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+On!  On, Fernand!  The four splendid bays from

+the Impérial stables have two hours' start of you!

+In the streets of Paris, the life of the great city is

+running its usual course.  Men are hurrying to business,

+women to their marketing, soldiers or officials

+to their duties.  One and all pause for an instant as

+the hoofs of a powerful grey strike showers of glowing

+sparks from out the stones of the pavements, and

+a horse and rider thunder past at breakneck speed

+on the way to Versailles.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+III

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+Just before the main Paris-Chartres road plunges

+into the woods, about a kilomètre from Maintenon,

+where two narrow roads which lead, the one to

+Houdan and the other to Dreux, branch off from the

+diligence route, there stood in this year of grace 1810 an

+isolated inn by the wayside.  The house itself was

+ugly enough; square and devoid of any engaging

+architectural features, it was built of mottled brick,

+but it nestled at the cross roads on the margin of the

+wood and was flanked by oak and chestnut coppice,

+interspersed here and there with a stately beech or

+sycamore, and its dilapidated sign bore the alluring

+legend, "The Farmer's Paradise."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Paris-Chartres road with its intermittent

+traffic provided the "Paradise" with a few customers&mdash;with

+some, at least, who were not to be scared by

+the uninviting appearance of the house and its not too

+enviable reputation.  Wayfarers, coming from Houdan

+or from Dreux on their way to Chartres, were

+forced to halt here in order to pick up the diligence,

+and would sometimes turn into the squalid inn for a

+cup of that tepid, acid fluid which Alain Gorot, the

+landlord, so grandiloquently termed "steaming nectar."  But

+during the greater part of the day the place

+appeared deserted.  The light-fingered gentry&mdash;footpads

+and vagabonds&mdash;who were its chief customers,

+were wont to use it as a meeting-place at night, but

+during the day they preferred the shelter of the

+woods, for the police were mostly always at their

+heels.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+On this cold winter's afternoon, however, quite a

+goodly company was gathered in the coffee-room.  A

+log fire blazed in the open hearth and lent a semblance

+of cheeriness and comfort to the bare, ugly room, in

+which the fumes of rank tobacco and wet, steaming

+clothes vied with the odour of stale food and wine

+to create an almost insufferable atmosphere.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The Paris-Chartres diligence had gone by an hour

+ago, and had picked up one solitary passenger at the

+cross roads.  Soon after that a hired chaise, coming

+from Dreux, had driven up to the "Farmers

+Paradise."  A lady and a gentleman had alighted from

+it and gone into the house, while the driver sought

+shelter for his horse in the tumbledown barn at the

+back of the house and a warm corner for himself in

+the kitchen.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It was then three o'clock in the afternoon, and the

+roads and country around appeared desolate and still.

+M. le Marquis de Trévargan sat with his niece,

+Constance de Plélan, at a trestle-table in a corner of the

+coffee-room.  It was they who had driven over from

+Dreux in the hired chaise.  The landlord had served

+them with soup which, though unpalatable in other

+ways, was, at any rate, hot and therefore very

+welcome after the long, cold journey in the narrow,

+rickety chaise.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Three or four men&mdash;ill-clad, travel-stained and

+unwashed&mdash;were assembled in the opposite corner of the

+room, talking in whispers, and near the door a couple

+of farm labourers were settling accounts with mine

+host, whilst a third, seemingly overcome by papa

+Gorot's "nectar," was sprawling across the table with

+arms outstretched and face buried between them&mdash;fast

+asleep.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Gorot, having settled with the two labourers, shook

+this lout vigorously by the shoulder.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now, then," he shouted roughly.  "Up you get!

+You cannot stay here all night, you know!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The sleeper raised a puckered, imbecile face to the

+disturber of his peace.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Can't I?" he said slowly with the deliberateness

+of the drunkard.  And his head fell down again with

+a thud upon his arm.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Gorot swore lustily.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Out you get!" he shouted into the man's ear.

+"You drunken oaf&mdash;I'll put you out if you don't

+go!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Once more the sleeper raised his head and stared

+with dim, bleary eyes at his host.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I am not drunk," he said thickly and with comical

+solemnity.  "I am not nearly so drunk as you think

+I am."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We'll soon see about that," retorted Gorot.

+"Here!" he added, turning to the three ruffians at

+the farther end of the room.  "One of you give me a

+hand.  We'll put this lout the other side of the door."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+There was more than one volunteer for the diverting

+job.  One of the men without more ado seized the

+sleeper under the armpits.  Gorot took hold of his

+legs, and together they carried him out of the room

+and deposited him in the passage, where he rolled

+over contentedly and settled down to sleep in the angle

+of the door even whilst he continued to mutter thickly:

+"I am not nearly so drunk as you think I am."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+When the landlord returned to the coffee-room he

+was summarily ordered out again by M. de Trévargan,

+and he, nothing loth, accustomed as he was to his

+house being used for every kind of secret

+machinations and nameless plottings, shuffled out

+complacently&mdash;unastonished and incurious&mdash;and retired

+to the purlieus of the kitchen, leaving his customers

+to settle their own affairs without interference from

+himself.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+IV

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+As soon as the door had closed on Alain Gorot,

+M. de Trévargan turned to the crowd of ill-clad loafers

+in the corner.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Now that we are rid of that fellow at last," he

+said with marked impatience, "tell me just what you

+have done."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We carried out your orders," replied one of the

+men, a grim-looking giant, bearded and shaggy like

+a frowsy cat.  "We strewed more than a kilo of nails,

+bits of broken glass and pieces of flint across both

+the roads, at a distance of about a kilomètre from

+here, and then we covered up the lot with a thin layer

+of earth."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The others chuckled contentedly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"When the <i>sacré</i> Corsican comes along in his fine

+chaise," said one of them with a coarse laugh, "he'll

+have two or three spanking bays dead lame as soon

+as they have pranced across our beautiful carpet."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Trévargan turned to his niece.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We couldn't think of a better plan," he said, "as

+we could only muster one musket among us, and that

+one we owe to your kindness and foresight."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Constance de Plélan did not reply at once.  She

+took up an old and dilapidated musket from the nook

+behind her and examined it with deft fingers and a

+critical eye.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"It will serve," she said coldly after a while.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Serve?  Of course it will serve," rejoined M. de

+Trévargan lightly.  "What say you, Blue-Heart?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That I wish you would let me have it, Monsieur

+le Marquis," answered the old Chouan.  "I'd guarantee

+that I would not miss the accursed Corsican."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And I'll not miss him either," said M. de Trévargan,

+as he rose from the table and stood before

+his ruffianly followers the very embodiment of power

+and determination.  "And I myself desire to have the

+honour of ridding France of that pestilential vermin."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"And now 'tis time we went," he added authoritatively.

+"Two of you go up the Paris road&mdash;and two

+up the Dreux road.  Take cover in the thicket, and as

+soon as one of you perceives the rumble of wheels in

+the distance, give the signal.  We'll all be on the

+watch for it and hurry to the spot ere the first of the

+bays goes lame."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+M. de Trévargan then once more turned to his niece.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"If we succeed, Constance," he said, and with

+sudden impulse he took her hand and kissed it almost

+reverently, "the glory of it will be yours."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"I only did my duty," she replied coldly.  "I am

+thankful that I happened to be at Evreux, just when

+you wanted me most."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Nay, dear child," he rejoined earnestly.  "You

+must not belittle the services you have rendered to me

+and to the King.  If you had not known how to bribe

+our warders at Evreux, and how to send us word and

+succour, we could not have effected our escape.  If

+you had not given us shelter we must certainly have

+been recaptured.  If you had not conveyed me hither,

+I&mdash;in my indifferent state of health&mdash;could never have

+followed the others across country; and if you had

+not found that old musket for us, we could not have

+done for the Corsican at this hour, when God Himself

+is delivering him into our hands.  That is so, is it

+not, my men?" he concluded, turning to his followers.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Ay!  Ay!" they replied unanimously.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"God grant you may succeed!" said Constance de

+Plélan, as she gently disengaged her hand from his.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"We cannot fail," he declared firmly.  "One or

+more of the Corsican's horses must go dead lame over

+the carpet of nails and broken glass and flint.  The

+carriage must then halt, and the coachman and postilion

+will get down to see to the injured beasts.  That

+will be our opportunity.  Blue-Heart and the others

+will fall on the men and I shall hold Napoleon at the

+end of my musket, and though it may be old, I know

+how to shoot straight and my aim is not likely to err.

+And now let us get on," he added peremptorily.  "The

+Corsican's carriage cannot be far off."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Constance, without another word, handed him his

+hat and mantle.  The latter he fastened securely

+round his shoulders, leaving his arms free for action.

+Then he turned to pick up the musket Blue-Heart

+and White-Beak were ready to follow.  They and the

+two others strode towards the door, with backs bent

+and an eager, furtive look on their bearded faces, like

+feline creatures on the hunt.  Constance de Plélan

+was standing in the middle of the room and her eyes

+were on the door, when it was suddenly thrown open.

+The figure of the drunken labourer appeared, clear-cut

+against the dark passage beyond.  In an instant

+he had stepped into the room, closed the door to

+behind him, and was now standing with his back to

+it and holding a loaded pistol in his right hand.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It all happened so quickly that neither M. de

+Trévargan nor any of the others had time to realise

+what had occurred; and for an instant they stood

+as if rooted to the spot, staring at the unexpected

+apparition.  Only Constance de Plélan understood what

+the presence of this man, here and at this hour,

+portended.  She was gazing at him with fixed, dilated

+pupils, and her cheeks had become livid.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You!" came in a hoarse murmur through her

+bloodless lips.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Next moment, however, M. de Trévargan had

+recovered his presence of mind.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Out of the way, you lout!" he cried roughly.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And he stretched out his hand to grasp the musket,

+still believing that this was merely a drunken boor

+who was feeling quarrelsome and who could easily be

+scared away.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"If you touch that musket, Monsieur le Marquis,"

+said the man at the door quietly, "I fire."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Then only did de Trévargan, in his turn, look

+steadily at him.  As in a flash, remembrance came to

+him.  He recognised that pale, colourless face, those

+deep-set grey eyes which once before&mdash;at the Château

+de Trévargan&mdash;had probed his very soul and wrested

+from him the secret of Darnier's assassination.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"That accursed police agent!" he muttered between

+his teeth.  "A moi, Blue-Heart.  Let him fire and be

+damned to him!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But even Blue-Heart and White-Beak, those desperate

+and reckless Chouans, who were always prepared

+to take any and every risk, and who counted

+life more cheaply than they did the toss of a coin,

+paused, awestruck, ere they obeyed; for the Man in

+Grey, with one of those swift and sudden movements

+which were peculiar to him, had taken one step

+forward, seized Constance de Plélan by the wrist,

+dragged her to him against the door, and was even

+now holding the pistol to her side.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"One movement from any of you," he said with

+the same icy calm; "one word, one step, one gesture,

+and by the living God, I swear that I will kill her

+before your eyes!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Absolute, death-like silence ensued.  M. de

+Trévargan and the four Chouans stood there, paralysed

+and rigid.  To say that they did not stir, that they

+did not breathe one word or utter as much as a sigh,

+would but ill express the complete stillness which fell

+upon them, as if some hidden and awful petrifying

+hand had suddenly turned them into stone.  Constance

+de Plélan had not stirred either.  She also

+stood, motionless as a statue, her hand held firmly in

+a steel-like grasp, the muzzle of the pistol against

+her breast.  Fearlessly, almost defiantly, she gazed

+straight into the eyes of this man who had so reverently

+worshipped her and whom she had so nearly

+learned to love.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"From my soul," he whispered, so low that even

+she could scarcely hear, "I crave your pardon.  From

+my soul I worship you still.  But I would not love

+you half so dearly, Constance, did I not love my

+Emperor and France more dearly still."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"You coward!" came after a moment or two of

+tense suspense, from the parched lips of M. de

+Trévargan.  "Would you seize upon a woman&mdash;&mdash;?"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"The Emperor's life or hers," broke in the Man in

+Grey coldly.  "You give me no other choice.  What

+I do, I do, and am answerable for my actions to God

+alone.  So down on your knees every one of you!"

+he added firmly.  "Now!  At once!  Another

+movement, another word, and I fire!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Fire then, in the name of Satan, your friend!"

+cried Constance de Plélan loudly.  "Oncle Armand,

+do not hesitate.  Blue-Heart, seize this miscreant!

+Let him kill me first; but after that you will be five

+against one, and you can at last rid us of this deadly

+foe!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Down on your knees!" came in a tone of frigid

+calm from the police agent.  "If, ere I count three, I

+do not see you kneel&mdash;I fire!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And even before the words were out of his mouth,

+the five Chouans dropped on their knees, helpless

+before this relentless threat which deprived them of

+every vestige of will-power.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"Oh, that I had not stayed Blue-Heart's hand that

+day in the woods!" cried Constance de Plélan with a

+sigh of fierce regret.  "He had you then, as you have

+us now&mdash;&mdash;"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"As he and the others would have the Emperor,"

+rejoined the Man in Grey.  "If I allowed my heart to

+stay my hand."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+And that relentless hand of his tightened its grip

+on Constance de Plélan's wrist, till she felt sick and

+faint and fell back against the door.  She felt the

+muzzle of the pistol against her side: the hand which

+held it neither swerved nor quaked.  The keen, grey

+eyes which had once radiated the light of his ineffable

+love for her held no pity or remorse in them now:

+they were watching for the slightest movement on the

+part of the five Chouans.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Slowly the afternoon light faded into dusk.  The

+figures of the Chouans now appeared like dark and

+rigid ghosts in the twilight.  The ticking of the old

+clock in the ingle-nook alone broke the deathlike

+silence of the room.  Minute sped after minute while

+the conspirators remained as if under the ban of some

+evil fairy, who was keeping them in an enchanted

+castle in a dreamless trance from which perhaps they

+would never wake again.  Minute sped after minute,

+and they lost count of time, of place, of very existence.

+They only appeared alive through the one sense of

+hearing, which had for them become preternaturally

+acute.  In the house, too, every sound was hushed.

+The landlord and his servants had received their

+orders from the accredited agent of His Majesty's

+Minister of Police, and they were not likely to risk life

+and liberty by disobedience.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Outside, the air was damp and still, so still that

+through the open casement there could be heard&mdash;very

+far away&mdash;the rumble of carriage wheels and the

+patter of horses' hoofs on the muddy road.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+It seemed as if an electrical wave went right

+through the room at the sound, and the police agent's

+grip tightened on Constance's wrist.  A slight tremor

+appeared to animate those five marble-like statues who

+were kneeling on the floor.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+The carriage was drawing nearer: it was less than

+a hundred mètres away.  The clang of hoofs upon the

+road, the rattle of metal chains, the shouts of the

+postilion, could already be distinctly heard.  Then

+suddenly the carriage had come to stop.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+A bitter groan went right through the room, like

+the wail of condemned spirits in torment.  But not

+one of the Chouans moved.  How could they when

+a woman's life was the price that would have to be

+paid now for the success of their scheme.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Only a heartrending cry rose from Constance de

+Plélan's lips:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"In Heaven's name, Oncle Armand," she entreated,

+"let the man fire!  Think you I should not be glad to

+die?  Blue-Heart, has your courage forsaken you?

+What is one life when there is so much at stake?

+O God!" she added in a fervent prayer, "give them

+the strength to forget everything save their duty to

+our King!"

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But not a sound&mdash;not a movement came in response

+to her passionate appeal.  Through the open

+casement a confused murmur of voices could be

+distinctly heard some distance away, up the side-road

+which ran from Dreux.  The Emperor's carriage was

+obviously being held up.  One, if not more, of the

+spanking bays had gone dead lame while trotting

+across Blue-Heart's well-laid carpet.  The rough,

+stained hands of the Chouans opened and closed till

+their thick knuckles cracked in an agony of impotence.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /></p>

+

+<h4>

+V

+</h4>

+

+<p>

+How long the torture of this well-nigh intolerable

+suspense lasted not one of those present could have

+told.  The twilight gradually faded into gloom;

+darkness like a huge mantle slowly enveloped those

+motionless, kneeling figures in the coffee-room of "The

+Farmer's Paradise."

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But if some semblance of hope had crept into the

+hearts of the Chouans at sight of the beneficent

+darkness, it was soon dispelled by the trenchant warning

+which came like a blow from a steel-hammer from the

+police agent's lips:

+</p>

+

+<p>

+"If I hear the slightest movement through the darkness,

+one flutter, one creak, even a sigh&mdash;I shall fire,"

+he had said, as soon as the gloom of the night had

+begun to creep into the more remote corners of the

+room.  And even through the darkness the over-strained

+ears of the kneeling Chouans caught the

+sound of a metallic click&mdash;the cocking of the pistol

+which threatened Constance de Plélan's life.  And so

+they remained still&mdash;held more securely on their knees

+by that one threat than by the pressure of giant hands.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+An hour went by.  Through the open window the

+sound of the murmur of voices had given place to

+renewed clanking of metal chains, to pawing of the

+ground by high-mettled horses, to champing of bits,

+to snorting, groaning and creaking, as the heavy

+travelling chaise once more started on its way.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+After that it seemed like eternity.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+When once again the silent roads gave forth signs

+of life and movement; when, from the direction of

+Paris there came the sound of a cavalcade, of a

+number of horses galloping along at breakneck speed;

+when after a while it dawned upon these enchanted

+statues here that a posse of police had arrived at "The

+Farmer's Paradise," and the men were even now

+dismounting, almost a sigh of relief rose from five

+oppressed breasts.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+They knew the game was up; they knew that all

+that they had staked had been swept aside by the

+ruthless, unerring hand of the man who had terrorised and

+cowed and bent them to his will.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+Constance de Plélan was resting against the door

+in a state of semi-consciousness.  Two or three minutes

+later the landlord, who, acting under the orders

+given him by the secret agent, had gone to meet the

+posse of police on the road and guided them to his

+house, now led them to the back entrance of the

+coffee-room.  The arrest of M. de Trévargan and the

+Chouans was an easy matter.  They were, in fact, too

+numb and dazed to resist.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+All five were tried for the murder of Hector Duroy,

+the police messenger, and for an attempted outrage

+against the person of the Emperor, and all five were

+condemned to penal servitude for life.  At the

+Restoration, however, M. de Trévargan was publicly

+absolved of participation in the murder, and honoured

+by the King for having made such a bold, if

+unsuccessful, attempt to "remove" the Corsican usurper.

+</p>

+

+<p>

+But Constance de Plélan was never brought to

+trial.  Powerful influences were said to have saved her.

+</p>

+

+<p><br /><br /><br /><br /></p>

+

+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MAN IN GREY ***</div>

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