ou could bring her back to me--"

"I don't wish to oppose Monsieur Bridau," observed Max.

"As for that," cried Rouget, "if that hinders you, he told me he meant
to kill you."

"Ah!" exclaimed Gilet, laughing, "we will see about it!"

"My friend," said the old man, "find Flore, and I will do all she wants
of me."

"Some one must have seen her as she passed through the town," said
Maxence to Kouski. "Serve dinner; put everything on the table, and then
go and make inquiries from place to place. Let us know, by dessert,
which road Mademoiselle Brazier has taken."

This order quieted for a time the poor creature, who was moaning like
a child that has lost its nurse. At this moment Rouget, who hated Max,
thought his tormentor an angel. A passion like that of this miserable
old man for Flore is astonishingly like the emotions of childhood. At
six o'clock, the Pole, who had merely taken a walk, returned to announce
that Flore had driven towards Vatan.

"Madame is going back to her own people, that's plain," said Kouski.

"Would you like to go to Vatan to-night?" said Max. "The road is
bad, but Kouski knows how to drive, and you'll make your peace better
to-night than to-morrow morning."

"Let us go!" cried Rouget.

"Put the horse in quietly," said Max to Kouski; "manage, if you can,
that the town shall not know of this nonsense, for Monsieur Rouget's
sake. Saddle my horse," he added in a whisper. "I will ride on ahead of
you."

Monsieur Hochon had already notified Philippe of Flore's departure; and
the colonel rose from Monsieur Mignonnet's dinner-table to rush to the
place Saint-Jean; for he at once guessed the meaning of this clever
strategy. When Philippe presented himself at his uncle's house, Kouski
answered through a window that Monsieur Rouget was unable to see any
one.

"Fario," said Philippe to the Spaniard, who was stationed in the
Grande-Narette, "go and tell Benjamin to mount his horse; it is
all-important that I shall know what Gilet does with my uncle."

"They are now putting the horse into the caleche," said Fario, who had
been watching the Rouget stable.

"If they go towards Vatan," answered Philippe, "get me another horse,
and come yourself with Benjamin to Monsieur Mignonnet's."

"What do you mean to do?" asked Monsieur Hochon, who had come out of his
own house when he saw Philippe and Fario standing together.

"The genius of a general, my dear Monsieur Hochon," said Philippe,
"consists n