o a hackney-coach with three men.

"Auguste," he said, "what does all this mean?"

The poor boy burst into tears and fainted away.

"Monsieur, I am the Baron Bourlac, formerly attorney-general," he said
to the commissary of police, whose scarf now attracted his eye. "I
entreat you to explain all this."

"Monsieur, if you are Baron Bourlac, two words will be enough. I have
just examined this young man, and he admits--"

"What?"

"The robbery of four thousand francs from Doctor Halpersohn!"

"Is that true, Auguste?"

"Grandpapa, I sent him as security your diamond snuff-box. I did it to
save you from going to prison."

"Unhappy boy! what have you done? The diamonds are false!" cried the
baron; "I sold the real ones three years ago!"

The commissary of police and his agents looked at each other. That look,
full of many things, was intercepted by Baron Bourlac, and seemed to
blast him.

"Monsieur," he said to the commissary, "you need not feel uneasy; I
shall go myself to the prefect; but you are witness to the fact that I
kept my grandson ignorant of the loss of the diamonds. Do your duty;
but I implore you, in the name of humanity, put that lad in a cell by
himself; I will go to the prison. To which one are you taking him?"

"Are you really Baron Bourlac?" asked the commissary.

"Oh, monsieur!"

"The fact is that the municipal judge and I doubted if it were possible
that you and your grandson could be guilty. We thought, and the doctor,
too, that some scoundrels had taken your name."

He took the baron aside, and added:--

"Did you go to see Doctor Halpersohn this morning?"

"Yes, monsieur."

"Your grandson went there half an hour after you."

"Did he? I knew nothing of that. I have just returned home, and have not
seen my grandson for two days."

"The writs he has shown me and the examination explain everything," said
the commissary of police. "I see the cause of the crime. Monsieur, I
ought by rights to arrest you as accomplice to your grandson; for your
answers confirm the allegations in Doctor Halpersohn's complaint. But
these papers, which I here return to you," holding out to the old man a
bundle of papers, "do prove you to be Baron Bourlac. Nevertheless, you
must hold yourself ready to appear before Monsieur Marest, the judge
of the Municipal Court who has cognizance of the case. As for your
grandson, I will speak to the _procureur du roi_, and we will take all
the care of him that is due