ssed his lips; tried to wrench
his arm from the grasp that was on it, but could not stir the old
soldier's steady hand.

"Are you afraid? are you a coward? Can't you look him in the face?"
asked the general, tightening his hold sternly.

"Stop! stop!" interposed one of the old officers, coming forward. "Give
him time. This may be a case of strange accidental resemblance, which
would be enough, under the circumstances, to discompose any man. You
will excuse me, citizen," he continued, turning to Trudaine; "but you
are a stranger. You have given us no proof of your identity."

"There is the proof," said Trudaine, pointing to Danville's face.

"Yes, yes," pursued the other; "he looks pale and startled enough,
certainly. But I say again, let us not be too hasty; there are strange
cases on record of accidental resemblances, and this may be one of
them!"

As he repeated those words, Danville looked at him with a faint,
cringing gratitude, stealing slowly over the blank terror of his face.
He bowed his head, murmured something, and gesticulated confusedly with
the hand that he was free to use.

"Look!" cried the old officer; "look, Berthelin; he denies the man's
identity."

"Do you hear that?" said the general, appealing to Trudaine. "Have you
proofs to confute him? If you have, produce them instantly."

Before the answer could be given the door leading into the drawing-room
from the staircase was violently flung open, and Madame Danville--her
hair in disorder, her face in its colorless terror looking like the very
counterpart of her son's--appeared on the threshold, with the old man
Dubois and a group of amazed and startled servants behind her.

"For God's sake, don't sign! for God's sake, come away!" she cried.
"I have seen your wife--in the spirit, or in the flesh, I know not
which--but I have seen her. Charles! Charles! as true as Heaven is above
us, I have seen your wife!"

"You have seen her in the flesh, living and breathing as you see her
brother yonder," said a firm, quiet voice, from among the servants on
the landing outside.

"Let that man enter, whoever he is!" cried the general.

Lomaque passed Madame Danville on the threshold. She trembled as he
brushed by her; then, supporting herself by the wall, followed him a
few paces into the room. She looked first at her son--after that, at
Trudaine--after that back again at her son. Something in her presence
silenced every one. There fell a sudden stillness