terests confided to
me, I shall be in Paris for the critical hour. My presence will double
your courage; the strength of my love will diminish your sufferings.'"

"I beg your pardon for interrupting you, Noel," said old Tabaret, "do
you know what important affairs detained your father abroad?"

"My father, my old friend," replied the advocate, "was, in spite of his
youth, one of the friends, one of the confidants, of Charles X.; and he
had been entrusted by him with a secret mission to Italy. My father is
Count Rheteau de Commarin."

"Whew!" exclaimed the old fellow; and the better to engrave the name
upon his memory, he repeated several times, between his teeth, "Rheteau
de Commarin."

For a few minutes Noel remained silent. After having appeared to do
everything to control his resentment, he seemed utterly dejected, as
though he had formed the determination to attempt nothing to repair the
injury he had sustained.

"In the middle of the month of May, then," he continued, "my father is
at Naples. It is whilst there, that he, a man of prudence and sense,
a dignified diplomatist, a nobleman, prompted by an insensate passion,
dares to confide to paper this most monstrous of projects. Listen!

"'My adored one,--

"'It is Germain, my old valet, who will hand you this letter. I am
sending him to Normandy, charged with a commission of the most delicate
nature. He is one of those servitors who may be trusted implicitly.

"'The time has come for me to explain to you my projects respecting my
son. In three weeks, at the latest, I shall be in Paris.

"'If my previsions are not deceited, the countess and you will be
confined at the same time. An interval of three or four days will not
alter my plan. This is what I have resolved.

"'My two children will be entrusted to two nurses of Normandy, where my
estates are nearly all situated. One of these women, known to Germain,
and to whom I am sending him, will be in our interests. It is to this
person, Valerie, that our son will be confided. These two women will
leave Paris the same day, Germain accompanying her who will have charge
of the son of the countess.

"'An accident, devised beforehand, will compel these two women to pass
one night on the road. Germain will arrange so they will have to sleep
in the same inn, and in the same chamber! During the night, our nurse
will change the infants in their cradles.

"'I have foreseen everything, as I will explain to you, and ev