l Tigre-Royal for
information. The young man arrived yesterday evening at
seven o'clock, just three-quarters of an hour before
mademoiselle; he came by the Bretagne road, that is,
the road she also came. He travels under the name of M.
de Livry."

"Oh!" said the regent, "this looks like a concerted plan. Pardieu!
Dubois would laugh if he knew this; how he would talk! It is to be hoped
he knows nothing of it, in spite of his police. Hola! page."

The page who had brought the letter entered.

"Where is the messenger from Rambouillet?"

"He is waiting for an answer."

"Give him this, and tell him to start at once."

As to Dubois, while preparing the interview between Gaston and the false
duke, he made the following calculation.

"I hold the regent both by himself and his daughter. This intrigue of
his is either serious or not; if it be not, I distress her in
exaggerating it. If it be serious, I have the merit of having discovered
it; but I must not strike both blows at once. First, I must save the
duke, then his daughter, and there will be two rewards.--Is that the
best?--Yes--the duke first--if a young girl falls, no one suffers, if a
man falls, a kingdom is lost, let us begin with the duke." And Dubois
dispatched a courier to M. de Montaran at Nantes.

M. de Montaran was, as we have said, the ancient governor of Bretagne.

As to Gaston, his plan was fixed. Ashamed of being associated with a man
like Jonquiere, he congratulated himself that he was now to communicate
with the chief of the enterprise, and resolved, if he also appeared base
and venial, to return and take counsel with his friends at Nantes. As to
Helene, he doubted not; he knew her courage and her love, and that she
would die rather than have to blush before her dearest friend. He saw
with joy that the happiness of finding a father did not lead her to
forget the past, but still he had his fears as to this mysterious
paternity; even a king would own such a daughter, were there not some
disgraceful obstacle.

Gaston dressed himself carefully; there is a coquetry in danger as well
as in pleasure, and he embellished his youth with every advantage of
costume.

The regent, by Dubois's advice, dressed in black velvet and half hid
his face in an immense cravat of Mechlin lace.

The interview was to take place in a house belonging to the regent, in
the Faubourg Saint Germain: he arrived there at five o'clock, as night
was falli