ouching
the innocent and the guilty alike, shall shelter cowardice. Argenson
and La Regnie must do their best."

Next morning La Martiniere enlarged upon the terrors of the time,
painting them in glowing colours to her lady, when she told her all
that had happened the previous night, and handed her the mysterious
casket, with much fear and trembling. Both she and Baptiste (who stood
in the corner as white as a sheet, kneading his cap in his hand from
agitation and anxiety) implored her, in the name of all the saints, to
take the greatest precautions in opening it. She, weighing and
examining the unopened mystery in her hand, said with a smile, "You are
a couple of bogies! The wicked scoundrels outside, who, as you say
yourselves, spy out all that goes on in every house, know, no doubt,
quite as well as you and I do, that I am not rich, and that there are
no treasures in this house worth committing a murder for. Is my life in
danger, do you think? Who could have any interest in the death of an
old woman of seventy-three, who never persecuted any evil-doers except
those in her own novels; who writes mediocre poetry, incapable of
exciting any one's envy; who has nothing to leave behind her but the
belongings of an old maid, who sometimes goes to Court, and two or
three dozen handsomely-bound books with gilt edges. And, alarming as
your account is, La Martiniere, of the apparition of this man, I cannot
believe that he meant me any harm, so----"

La Martiniere sprang three paces backwards, and Baptiste fell on one
knee with a hollow, "Ah!" as Mademoiselle Scuderi pressed a projecting
steel knob, and the lid of the casket flew open with a certain amount
of noise.

Great was her surprise to see that it contained a pair of bracelets,
and a necklace richly set in jewels. She took them out and as she spoke
in admiration of the marvellous workmanship of the necklace, La
Martiniere cast glances of wonder at the bracelets, and cried, again
and again, that Madame Montespan herself did not possess such jewelry.

"But why is it brought to me?" cried Mademoiselle Scuderi. "What can
this mean?" She saw, however, a little folded note at the bottom of the
casket, and in this she rightly thought she would find the key to the
mystery. When she had read what was written in the note, it fell from
her trembling hands; she raised an appealing look to heaven, and then
sank down half fainting in her chair. Baptiste and La Martiniere
hurried t