ad visited during his sojourn in Paris. He frequented public
places. He might have been seen, by turn, in the Jacobin Club, in the
galleries of the Convention, at the Palais Egalite, in every place where
he would be likely to find any trace of Philip; but nowhere could he
discover the slightest clew to his whereabouts. Every evening on his
return home, after a day of laborious search, he was obliged to admit
his want of success to Dolores. She listened sadly, then shook her head
and said:

"Bridoul is right. Philip and Antoinette have left the country; we shall
never see them again. After all, it is, perhaps, for the best, since
they are in safety."

But, even while she thus attempted to console herself, Dolores could not
conceal the intense sorrow and disappointment that filled her heart,
and which were caused, not so much by the absence of her friends as by
the mystery that enshrouded their fate. If it be misery to be separated
from those we love, how much greater is that misery when we know nothing
concerning their fate, and do not even know whether they are dead or
alive! Dolores loved Antoinette with all a sister's tenderness, and
Philip, with a much deeper and far more absorbing passion, although she
had voluntarily sacrificed her hopes and forced herself to see in him
only a brother. She had paid for the satisfaction of knowing that he was
happy and prosperous with all that made life desirable; and this
uncertainty was hard to bear.

"Come, come, my child, do not weep," Coursegol would say at times like
these. "We shall soon discover what has become of them."

"They are in England or in Germany," added Bridoul, "probably quite as
much distressed about you as you are about them. You will see them again
some day. Until then, have patience."

More than four months had passed when it was suddenly announced that the
king, who had been a prisoner in the Temple for some time, was to be
brought to trial. It was also rumored that a number of noblemen had
eluded the vigilance of the authorities and had entered Paris resolved
upon a desperate attempt to save him at the very last moment.

Coursegol's hope revived. He felt certain that Philip would not hesitate
to hazard his life in such an enterprise if he were still alive; and it
was in the hope of meeting him that he attended the trial of the
unfortunate monarch, and that, on the twentieth day of January, he
accompanied Bridoul to the very steps of the guillotine. Th