upied the
opera-house immediately after the eighteenth of March and had made a
starting-place right at the top for their Mongolfier balloons, which
carried their incendiary proclamations to the departments, and a state
prison right at the bottom.

The Persian went on his knees and put his lantern on the ground. He
seemed to be working at the floor; and suddenly he turned off his
light. Then Raoul heard a faint click and saw a very pale luminous
square in the floor of the passage. It was as though a window had
opened on the Opera cellars, which were still lit. Raoul no longer saw
the Persian, but he suddenly felt him by his side and heard him whisper:

"Follow me and do all that I do."

Raoul turned to the luminous aperture. Then he saw the Persian, who
was still on his knees, hang by his hands from the rim of the opening,
with his pistol between his teeth, and slide into the cellar below.

Curiously enough, the viscount had absolute confidence in the Persian,
though he knew nothing about him. His emotion when speaking of the
"monster" struck him as sincere; and, if the Persian had cherished any
sinister designs against him, he would not have armed him with his own
hands. Besides, Raoul must reach Christine at all costs. He therefore
went on his knees also and hung from the trap with both hands.

"Let go!" said a voice.

And he dropped into the arms of the Persian, who told him to lie down
flat, closed the trap-door above him and crouched down beside him.
Raoul tried to ask a question, but the Persian's hand was on his mouth
and he heard a voice which he recognized as that of the commissary of
police.

Raoul and the Persian were completely hidden behind a wooden partition.
Near them, a small staircase led to a little room in which the
commissary appeared to be walking up and down, asking questions. The
faint light was just enough to enable Raoul to distinguish the shape of
things around him. And he could not restrain a dull cry: there were
three corpses there.

The first lay on the narrow landing of the little staircase; the two
others had rolled to the bottom of the staircase. Raoul could have
touched one of the two poor wretches by passing his fingers through the
partition.

"Silence!" whispered the Persian.

He too had seen the bodies and he gave one word in explanation:

"HE!"

The commissary's voice was now heard more distinctly. He was asking
for information about the system of lighting,