dden
inspiration: "Dear me! I have just thought of it. There is perhaps a way
of getting these dear children from the convent without violence."

"How so, mother?" said Agricola, hastily.

"It is Abbe Dubois, who had them conveyed thither; but Gabriel supposes,
that he probably acted by the advice of M. Rodin.

"And if that were so, mother, it would be in vain to apply to M. Rodin.
We should get nothing from him."

"Not from him--but perhaps from that powerful abbe, who is Gabriel's
superior, and has always patronized him since his first entrance at the
seminary."

"What abbe, mother?"

"Abbe d'Aigrigny."

"True mother; before being a priest, he was a soldier he may be more
accessible than others--and yet--"

"D'Aigrigny!" cried Dagobert, with an expression of hate and horror.
"There is then mixed up with these treasons, a man who was a soldier
before being a priest, and whose name is D'Aigrigny?"

"Yes, father; the Marquis d'Aigrigny--before the Restoration, in the
service of Russia--but, in 1815, the Bourbons gave him a regiment."

"It is he!" said Dagobert, in a hollow voice. "Always the same! like an
evil spirit--to the mother, father, children."

"What do you mean, father?"

"The Marquis d'Aigrigny!" replied Dagobert. "Do you know what is this
man? Before he was a priest, he was the murderer of Rose and Blanche's
mother, because she despised his love. Before he was a priest, he fought
against his country, and twice met General Simon face to face in war.
Yes; while the general was prisoner at Leipsic, covered with wounds
at Waterloo, the turncoat marquis triumphed with the Russians and
English!--Under the Bourbons, this same renegade, loaded with honors,
found himself once more face to face with the persecuted soldier of the
empire. Between them, this time, there was a mortal duel--the marquis
was wounded--General Simon was proscribed, condemned, driven into exile.
The renegade, you say, has become a priest. Well! I am now certain, that
it is he who has carried off Rose and Blanche, in order to wreak on them
his hatred of their father and mother. It is the infamous D'Aigrigny,
who holds them in his power. It is no longer the fortune of these
children that I have to defend; it is their life--do you hear what I
say?--their very life?"

"What, father! do you think this man capable--"

"A traitor to his country, who finishes by becoming a mock priest, is
capable of anything. I tell you, that, perhaps a