. It had lost its worn look and was at
peace. A faint smile, as of proud pleasure, rested on the lips, and
Lecour knew that smile was for him. It brought him a strange emotion; he
felt as if, though condemned by so many of the living, he was loved by
the dead; and a great tenderness towards his pathetic relative welled in
his heart. He bent over the face and earnestly wept.

"He loved you, Monsieur le Chevalier," the landlady said, weeping also,
"and bade the notary leave with me a copy of his will for you. When
Monsieur descends, I shall give it to him."

"Did he talk much before he died?"

"A great deal. The confessor said there was a high fever. He talked of a
castle upon a mountain--and about you, Monsieur, a good deal. He was not
strong when he came to us: I said from the beginning 'He is on the short
way to heaven': he seemed like one who had suffered too much."

They followed her out of the chamber. Lecour could not help some
eagerness concerning the will, and perusing it closely when she handed
it to him, found it bequeathed him all the testator's possessions. He
passed the deed silently to his friend the Baron, who read the first
half and caught the drift.

"Your proof is incontestable," he said briefly.

"The difficulty is but the completion of my proofs. I have to go to
Canada for that. But assure the company of my return."

"We shall appeal in a body to the Prince."

"I pray you not."

"What can we do for you, then?"

"Thank the others. Invite all my friends in Troyes to a banquet in my
name this day week, at which you will preside for me. Spare no expense.
You shall be witness for me while I am absent in Canada."

"If to serve you is the programme, I shall live happy."

The Baron returned to Troyes and, duly presiding at the dinner given to
the Guards in Germain's name, related excitedly what he had seen.

The young men heard the story with outbursts of delight, drank Lecour's
health standing on their chairs, heaped his place with roses, sang over
and over a chorus in his honour, and parted swearing vehemently that the
dismissal of such a good fellow was a wrong to the company of Noailles
concocted as an insult to the whole of them by the rival company of
Villeroy.

CHAPTER XXXIII

THE REGISTER OF ST. GERMAIN-DES-PRES

A hazy hope concerning his descent had haunted Lecour for some months
past. That the Chevalier de Lincy was really in some manner his relative
became his belief. H