t
exclaiming: 'Here comes another dauphin!'--why, may I ask, is Abbe
Edgeworth sent so far to seek one?"

He smiled.

"We are supposing that Monseigneur, in whose presence I have the honor
to be, is the true dauphin."

"That being the case, how are we to account for the true dauphin's
reception at Mittau?"

"The gross stupidity and many blunders of agents that the court was
obliged to employ, need hardly be assumed."

"Poor Bellenger! He has to take abuse from both sides in order that we
may be polite to each other."

"As Monseigneur suggests, we will not go into that matter."

Eagle sat as erect as a statue and as white.

I felt an instant's anxiety. Yet she had herself entirely at command.

"We have now arrived at the paper, I trust," said the priest.

"The message?"

"Oh, no. The paper in which you resign all claim to the throne of
France, and which may give you the price of a principality in this
country."

"I do not sign any such paper."

"Not at all?"

"Not at all."

"You are determined to hold to your rights?"

"I am determined not to part with my rights."

"Inducements large enough might be offered." He paused suggestively.

"The only man in France," I said, "empowered to treat for abdication of
the throne at present, is Napoleon Bonaparte. Did you bring a message
from him?"

Abbe Edgeworth winced, but laughed.

"Napoleon Bonaparte will not last. All Europe is against him. I see we
have arrived at the message."

He rose and handed me the paper he held in his hand. I rose and received
it, and read it standing.

It was one brief line:--

"Louis: You are recalled.
Marie-Therese."

The blood must have rushed over my face. I had a submerged feeling,
looking out of it at the priest.

"Well, Monseigneur?"

"It is like her heavenly goodness."

"Do you see nothing but her heavenly goodness in it?"

"This is the message?"

"It is a message I crossed the ocean to bring."

"With the consent of her uncle?"

"Madame d'Angouleme never expresses a wish contrary to the wishes of his
majesty."

"We are then to suppose that Louis XVIII offers me, through you,
monsieur, the opportunity to sign away my rights, and failing that, the
opportunity of taking them?"

"Supposing you are Monseigneur the dauphin, we will let our supposition
run as far as this."

I saw distinctly the position of Louis XVIII. Marquis du Plessy had told
me he was a mass of superstition. No