the peasant. "A moment ago I wished to
detain you; now I say to you: 'Go!'"

The peasant bowed and withdrew. The president waited until the door was
closed.

"Gentlemen," said he, "the news which our brother Morgan has just
imparted to us is so grave that I wish to propose a special measure."

"What is it?" asked the Companions of Jehu with one voice.

"It is that one of us, chosen by lot, shall go to Paris and keep the
rest informed, with the cipher agreed upon, of all that happens there."

"Agreed!" they replied.

"In that case," resumed the president, "let us write our thirteen names,
each on a slip of paper. We put them in a hat. He whose name is first
drawn shall start immediately."

The young men, one and all, approached the table, and wrote their
names on squares of paper which they rolled and dropped into a hat. The
youngest was told to draw the lots. He drew one of the little rolls of
paper and handed it to the president, who unfolded it.

"Morgan!" said he.

"What are my instructions?" asked the young man.

"Remember," replied the president, with a solemnity to which the
cloistral arches lent a supreme grandeur, "that you bear the name and
title of Baron de Sainte-Hermine, that your father was guillotined on
the Place de la Revolution and that your brother was killed in Conde's
army. Noblesse oblige! Those are your instructions."

"And what else?" asked the young man.

"As to the rest," said the president, "we rely on your royalist
principles and your loyalty."

"Then, my friends, permit me to bid you farewell at once. I would like
to be on the road to Paris before dawn, and I must pay a visit before my
departure."

"Go!" said the president, opening his arms to Morgan. "I embrace you
in the name of the Brotherhood. To another I should say, 'Be brave,
persevering and active'; to you I say, 'Be prudent.'"

The young man received the fraternal embrace, smiled to his other
friends, shook hands with two or three of them, wrapped himself in his
mantle, pulled his hat over his eyes and departed.

CHAPTER IX. ROMEO AND JULIET

Under the possibility of immediate departure, Morgan's horse, after
being washed, rubbed down and dried, had been fed a double ration of
oats and been resaddled and bridled. The young man had only to ask for
it and spring upon its back. He was no sooner in the saddle than the
gate opened as if by magic; the horse neighed and darted out swiftly,
having forgotten its f