"No, sir, no," said Grimaud. "I cannot stop a moment; I must start for
Paris again immediately."

"What? You start for Paris? You are mistaken; it is Olivain who leaves
me; you are to remain."

"On the contrary, Olivain is to stay and I am to go. I have come for
nothing else but to tell you so."

"But what is the meaning of this change?"

"I cannot tell you."

"Explain yourself."

"I cannot explain myself."

"Come, tell me, what is the joke?"

"Monsieur le vicomte knows that I never joke."

"Yes, but I know also that Monsieur le Comte de la Fere arranged that
you were to remain with me and that Olivain should return to Paris. I
shall follow the count's directions."

"Not under present circumstances, monsieur."

"Perhaps you mean to disobey me?"

"Yes, monsieur, I must."

"You persist, then?"

"Yes, I am going; may you be happy, monsieur," and Grimaud saluted and
turned toward the door to go out.

Raoul, angry and at the same time uneasy, ran after him and seized him
by the arm. "Grimaud!" he cried; "remain; I wish it."

"Then," replied Grimaud, "you wish me to allow monsieur le comte to be
killed." He saluted and made a movement to depart.

"Grimaud, my friend," said the viscount, "will you leave me thus, in
such anxiety? Speak, speak, in Heaven's name!" And Raoul fell back
trembling upon his chair.

"I can tell you but one thing, sir, for the secret you wish to know is
not my own. You met a monk, did you not?"

"Yes."

The young men looked at each other with an expression of fear.

"You conducted him to the wounded man and you had time to observe him,
and perhaps you would know him again were you to meet him."

"Yes, yes!" cried both young men.

"Very well; if ever you meet him again, wherever it may be, whether on
the high road or in the street or in a church, anywhere that he or you
may be, put your foot on his neck and crush him without pity, without
mercy, as you would crush a viper or a scorpion! destroy him utterly and
quit him not until he is dead; the lives of five men are not safe, in my
opinion, as long as he is on the earth."

And without adding another word, Grimaud, profiting by the astonishment
and terror into which he had thrown his auditors, rushed from the room.
Two minutes later the thunder of a horse's hoofs was heard upon the
road; it was Grimaud, on his way to Paris. When once in the saddle
Grimaud reflected on two things; first, that at the pace he was going
hi