tlemen," he added, addressing the men who
accompanied him and pointing to the mud on the clothing of the
prisoners, "cannot deny that they have spent the greater part of this
day on horseback."

"Of what are they accused?" asked Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne, haughtily.

"Don't you mean to arrest Mademoiselle?" said Giguet.

"I shall leave her at liberty under bail, until I can carefully examine
the charges against her," replied the director.

The mayor offered bail, asking the countess to merely give her word of
honor that she would not escape. Laurence blasted him with a look which
made him a mortal enemy; a tear started from her eyes, one of those
tears of rage which reveal a hell of suffering. The four gentlemen
exchanged a terrible look, but remained motionless. Monsieur and Madame
d'Hauteserre, dreading lest the young people had practised some deceit,
were in a state of indescribable stupefaction. Clinging to their chairs
these unfortunate parents, finding their sons torn from them after
so many fears and their late hopes of safety, sat gazing before them
without seeing, listening without hearing.

"Must I ask you to bail me, Monsieur d'Hauteserre?" cried Laurence to
her former guardian, who was roused by the cry, clear and agonizing to
his ear as the sound of the last trumpet.

He tried to wipe the tears which sprang to his eyes; he now understood
what was passing, and said to his young relation in a quivering voice,
"Forgive me, countess; you know that I am yours, body and soul."

Lechesneau, who at first was much struck by the evident tranquillity in
which the whole party were dining, now returned to his former opinion
of their guilt as he noticed the stupefaction of the old people and the
evident anxiety of Laurence, who was seeking to discover the nature of
the trap which was set for them.

"Gentlemen," he said, politely, "you are too well-bred to make a useless
resistance; follow me to the stables, where I must, in your presence,
have the shoes of your horses taken off; they afford important proof of
either guilt or innocence. Come, too, mademoiselle."

The blacksmith of Cinq-Cygne and his assistant had been summoned by
Lechesneau as experts. While the operation at the stable was going on
the justice of peace brought in Gothard and Michu. The work of detaching
the shoes of each horse, putting them together and ticketing them, so as
to compare them with the hoof-prints in the park, took time. Lechesneau