bid, madame. I say nothing against him; though I could say
much."

"Say nothing against Count de Chaumont. Count de Chaumont befriends all
emigres."

"I have nothing to say against Count de Chaumont. He is not of our
party; he is of the new. Fools! If we princes had stood by each other as
the friends of the Empire stand by their emperor, we could have killed
the Terror."

The animal in the cabin by this time was making such doleful cries I
said to the potter.

"Let him out. It is dreadful to be shut in by walls."

The potter, stooping half over and rolling stiffly from foot to foot in
his walk, filled me with compunction at having been brutal to so pitiful
a creature, and I hurried to open the door for him. The animal clawed
vigorously inside, and the instant I pushed back the ill-fitted slabs,
it strained through and rushed on all fours to the fire. Madame de
Ferrier fled backward, for what I liberated could hardly be seen without
dread.

It was a human being. Its features were a boy's, and the tousled hair
had a natural wave. While it crouched for warmth I felt the shock of
seeing a creature about my own age grinning back at me, fishy eyed and
black mouthed.

"There!" Bellenger said, straightening up in his place like a bear
rising from all fours. "That is the boy your De Ferriers saw in London."

I remembered the boy Madame Tank had told about. Whether myself or this
less fortunate creature was the boy, my heart went very pitiful toward
him. Madame de Ferrier stooped and examined, him; he made a juicy noise
of delight with his mouth.

"This is not the boy you had in London, monsieur," she said to
Bellenger.

The potter waved his hands and shrugged.

"You believe, madame, that Lazarre is the boy you saw in London?" said
Louis Philippe.

"I am certain of it."

"What proofs have you?"

"The evidence of my eyes."

"Tell that to Monsieur!" exclaimed the potter.

"Who is Monsieur?" I asked.

"The eldest brother of the king of France is called Monsieur. The Count
de Provence will be called Monsieur until he succeeds Louis XVII and is
crowned Louis XVIII--if that time ever comes. He cannot be called Louis
XVII"--the man who told me to call him Louis Philippe took my arm, and I
found myself walking back and forth with him as in a dream while he
carefully formed sentence after sentence. "Because the dauphin who died
in the Temple prison was Louis XVII. But there are a few who say he did
not die: that a