sip about my master. If any one
questions you, make no reply."

"What could I say?" asked Schwann. "I know nothing!"

"You might indulge in suppositions, which I advise you to avoid."

"Zounds!" muttered Schwann, as he descended the stairs, "all these airs
displease me! I very much prefer my rope dancers to this great lord!"

Cyprien looked up and down the corridor, and listened at the doors of
the next rooms, to ascertain that they were empty.

The Marquis, in the meantime, had thrown his hat and cloak on the bed.

"We are alone?" he asked impatiently.

"Yes, sir."

"Speak, then. Your letter told me that you have found traces of that
miserable Labarre."

"Yes, sir, and I trust you will be satisfied with what I have done."

"Did you see the man?"

"No, sir. Your instructions were to avoid all contact with him. I know,
however, where to lay my hands on him."

"You have done well. I wish my presence here to be like a thunderclap to
him. And then I expect that in his terror he will make the avowal which
will be my salvation."

"May I ask, sir, if your affairs have in any way ameliorated since my
departure?"

"Ameliorated!" Fongereues repeated with an angry gesture, "no, quite the
contrary. Ruin is approaching with rapid strides, and in a few months I
shall be lost!"

"But the favor of His Majesty--"

Fongereues laughed bitterly. "His Majesty cares little for me. Ever
since I was unfortunate enough to displease his fair friend, the tide
has turned."

"But can nothing be done?"

Fongereues shrugged his shoulders. "What is the use? I am sick of
manoeuvering and intriguing. I have told the king that his faithful
emigres should be his best counsellors, and that it was his duty as well
as his interest to rely on me. But it was of no use.

"They think they have paid us," the Marquis continued, "because they
have thrown us, as food to the dogs, a few louis of indemnity. As if
France were not ours, as if we had no rights over these people who have
assassinated their king and kissed the feet of an adventurer; but they
are afraid, and talk of patience. I told His Majesty, one day, of my
embarrassments. 'Sir,' he said to me, 'a Fongereues never begs!' and the
next day I received four thousand louis. Confound the nonsense!"

Cyprien could not refrain from a smile. Four thousand louis did not seem
to him a trifle, nor nonsense.

"But His Majesty is interested in your son."

"My son! These Puritans have much