im dismount, and a moment later he came in with a
gentleman and two or three armed servants. He did not at once see me,
but as the crowd made way for him he addressed himself sharply to M.
Grabot. "Well, have you got them?" he said.

"Certainly, M. le Comte."

"Oh! very well. Now for the particulars, then. You must state your
charge quickly, for I have to be in Vitre to-day."

"He alleged that he had been appointed Mayor of Bottitort," Grabot
answered pompously.

"Umph! I don't know?" M. de Laval muttered, looking round with a
frown of discontent. "I hope that you have not brought me hither on a
fool's errand. Which one?"

"That one," the Mayor said, pointing to the solemn man, whose gravity
and depression were now something preternatural.

"Oh!" M. de Laval grumbled. "But that is not all, I suppose. What of
the others?"

M. Grabot pointed to me. "That one," he said--

He got no farther; for M. de Laval, springing forward, seized my hand
and saluted me warmly. "Why, your excellency," he cried, in a tone of
boundless surprise, "what are you doing in this GALERE! All last
evening I waited for you, at my house, and now--"

"Here I am," I answered jocularly, "in charge it seems, M. le Comte!"

"MON DIEU!" he cried. "I don't understand it!"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Don't ask me," I said. "Perhaps your friend
the Mayor call tell you."

"But, Monsieur, I do not understand," the Mayor answered piteously, his
mouth agape with horror, his fat cheeks turning in a moment all
colours. "This gentleman, whom you seem to know, Monsieur le Comte--"

"Is the Marquis de Rosny, President of the Council, blockhead!" Laval
cried irately. "You madman! you idiot!" he continued, as light broke
in upon him, and he saw that it was indeed on a fool's errand that he
had been roused so early. "Is this your conspiracy? Have you dared to
bring me here--"

But I thought that it was time to interfere. "The truth is," I said,
"that M. Grabot here is not so much to blame. He was the victim of a
trick which these rascals played on him; and in an idle moment I let it
go on. That is the whole secret. However, I forgive him for his
officiousness since it brings us together, and I shall now have the
pleasure of your company to Vitre."

Laval assented heartily to this, and I did not think fit to tell him
more, nor did he inquire; the Mayor's stupidity passing current for
all. For M. Grabot himself, I think that