ay. In the morning it appeared that,
on the evening before, d'Emboise, when leaving his house in the
motor-car, was stabbed by his own chauffeur and thrown, half-dead, into
a deserted street. Mussy and Caorches had each received a
telephone-message, purporting to come from the duke, countermanding
their attendance.

Next week, without troubling further about the police investigation,
without obeying the summons of the examining-magistrate, without even
reading Arsene Lupin's letters to the papers on "the Varennes Flight,"
the duke, his daughter and his valet stealthily took a slow train for
Vannes and arrived one evening, at the old feudal castle that towers
over the headland of Sarzeau. The duke at once organized a defence with
the aid of the Breton peasants, true mediaeval vassals to a man. On the
fourth day, Mussy arrived; on the fifth, Caorches; and, on the seventh,
d'Emboise, whose wound was not as severe as had been feared.

The duke waited two days longer before communicating to those about him
what, now that his escape had succeeded in spite of Lupin, he called the
second part of his plan. He did so, in the presence of the three
cousins, by a dictatorial order to Angelique, expressed in these
peremptory terms:

"All this bother is upsetting me terribly. I have entered on a struggle
with this man whose daring you have seen for yourself; and the struggle
is killing me. I want to end it at all costs. There is only one way of
doing so, Angelique, and that is for you to release me from all
responsibility by accepting the hand of one of your cousins. Before a
month is out, you must be the wife of Mussy, Caorches or d'Emboise. You
have a free choice. Make your decision."

For four whole days Angelique wept and entreated her father, but in
vain. She felt that he would be inflexible and that she must end by
submitting to his wishes. She accepted:

"Whichever you please, father. I love none of them. So I may as well be
unhappy with one as with the other."

Thereupon a fresh discussion ensued, as the duke wanted to compel her to
make her own choice. She stood firm. Reluctantly and for financial
considerations, he named d'Emboise.

The banns were published without delay.

From that moment, the watch in and around the castle was increased
twofold, all the more inasmuch as Lupin's silence and the sudden
cessation of the campaign which he had been conducting in the press
could not but alarm the Duc de Sarzeau-Vendome