would ask you the name of my critic, the former magistrate you spoke of;
there were but few of them whom I did not know."

"Oh, there's no mystery about it!" said Godefroid, interrupting Monsieur
Bernard. "Now that you have shown this entire confidence in trusting
me with your book, I will tell you that your censor is the former
president, Lecamus de Tresnes."

"Oh, yes!--of the Royal Court of Paris. Take him the book; he is one of
the noblest characters of the present day. He and the late Popinot,
a judge of the Lower Court, were both worthy of the days of the old
Parliaments. All my fears, if I had any, are dissipated. Where does he
live? I should like to go and thank him for the trouble he is taking."

"You will find him in the rue Chanoinesse, under the name of Monsieur
Joseph. I am going there now. Where is that agreement you made with your
swindlers?"

"Auguste will give it to you," said the old man, re-entering the
courtyard of the hospital.

A cab was now brought up by the porter, and Godefroid jumped into
it,--promising the coachman a good pourboire if he would get him to the
rue Chanoinesse in good time, for he wanted to dine there.

Half an hour after Vanda's departure, three men dressed in black, whom
Madame Vauthier let into the house by the door on the rue Notre-Dame des
Champs, filed up the staircase, accompanied by their female Judas, and
knocked gently at the door of Monsieur Bernard's lodging. As it happened
to be a Thursday, Auguste was at home. He opened the door, and the three
men glided in like shadows.

"What do you want, messieurs?" asked the lad.

"These are the rooms of Monsieur Bernard,--that is, Monsieur le
baron,--are they not?"

"Yes; but what do you want?"

"You know very well, young man, what we want! We are informed that
your grandfather has left this house with a covered litter. That's not
surprising; he had the right to do so. But I am the sheriff, and I have
come to seize everything he has left. On Monday he received a summons
to pay three thousand francs, with interest and costs, to Monsieur
Metivier, under pain of arrest for debt duly notified to him, and like
an old stager who is up to the tricks of his own trade, he has walked
off just in time. However, if we can't catch him, his furniture hasn't
taken wings. You see we know all about it, young man."

"Here are the stamped papers your grandpapa didn't choose to take," said
Madame Vauthier, thrusting three writs into