n exclaimed.

"As a suspect," Mirande answered, shrugging his shoulders.

Bercy had partly risen from his chair. He sat down again, stunned.

"Things move quickly nowadays," Mirande continued, with a ferocious
smile. "To the Luxembourg, thence to the Conciergerie, thence to the
Place de la Revolution is a journey of three days at most; and the path
is well trodden. You will find yourself in good company, M. de Bercy."

"You will give me up?"

"Ay!" the Republican answered hoarsely. He had risen, and stood facing
his antagonist, his hands on the table, his face flushed and swollen.
"Ay, though you were my own son! What have you not done to me? You crept
like a snake into my house, and robbed me of my daughter!"

"I made her my wife!" the Vicomte answered, with calm pride.

"Ay, and then? After that act of mighty condescension you led her to
take part in your vile plot, and when she was discovered and arrested,
you left her to pay the penalty. You left her to die alone rather than
risk one hair of your miserable head!"

The young man sprang to his feet in sudden ungovernable excitement. "It
is false!" he cried. "False!"

"It is true!" Mirande retorted, striking the table so violently that the
room rang again and the flame of the lamp leapt up and for an instant
dyed the two angry faces with a lurid gleam.

"I say it is false!" the Vicomte replied sternly. "On the contrary,
being at Rheims when I heard that Corinne was arrested, I took horse on
the instant. I rode for Paris as a man rides for life. I was anxious to
give myself up in her place if I could save her in no other way. But at
Meaux, M. Mirande, I met your agent----"

"And went back to Rheims again and into hiding," the other continued,
with a bitter sneer, "after sending me, her father, the shameful message
that your duty to your race forbade the last of the Bercys to die for a
merchant's daughter."

"I sent that message, do you say? I? I?" the young man cried.

"Yes, you! Who else? You--sent it after hearing from me that if you
would surrender, the Committee of Safety would suffer her to escape! So
much my services had wrung from them--in vain. What? Do you deny that
you met my agent at night in the yard of the Three Kings at Meaux, M. le
Vicomte?"

"I met him," the young man answered firmly, though his frame was a-shake
with excitement. "But I did not send that message by him! Nor did he
give me such a message as you state. On the contrary, he t