tes," said Jacques Collin.

"And you can give me all those ladies' letters?"

"Have you read the three?"

"Yes," said the magistrate vehemently, "and I blush for the women who
wrote them."

"Well, we are now alone; admit no one, and let us come to terms," said
Jacques Collin.

"Excuse me, Justice must first take its course. Monsieur Camusot has
instructions to seize your aunt."

"He will never find her," said Jacques Collin.

"Search is to be made at the Temple, in the shop of a demoiselle Paccard
who superintends her shop."

"Nothing will be found there but rags, costumes, diamonds,
uniforms----However, it will be as well to check Monsieur Camusot's
zeal."

Monsieur de Granville rang, and sent an office messenger to desire
Monsieur Camusot to come and speak with him.

"Now," said he to Jacques Collin, "an end to all this! I want to know
your recipe for curing the Countess."

"Monsieur le Comte," said the convict very gravely, "I was, as you know,
sentenced to five years' penal servitude for forgery. But I love my
liberty.--This passion, like every other, had defeated its own end, for
lovers who insist on adoring each other too fondly end by quarreling. By
dint of escaping and being recaptured alternately, I have served seven
years on the hulks. So you have nothing to remit but the added terms
I earned in quod--I beg pardon, in prison. I have, in fact, served my
time, and till some ugly job can be proved against me,--which I defy
Justice to do, or even Corentin--I ought to be reinstated in my rights
as a French citizen.

"What is life if I am banned from Paris and subject to the eye of the
police? Where can I go, what can I do? You know my capabilities. You
have seen Corentin, that storehouse of treachery and wile, turn ghastly
pale before me, and doing justice to my powers.--That man has bereft me
of everything; for it was he, and he alone, who overthrew the edifice
of Lucien's fortunes, by what means and in whose interest I know
not.--Corentin and Camusot did it all----"

"No recriminations," said Monsieur de Granville; "give me the facts."

"Well, then, these are the facts. Last night, as I held in my hand the
icy hand of that dead youth, I vowed to myself that I would give up
the mad contest I have kept up for twenty years past against society at
large.

"You will not believe me capable of religious sentimentality after what
I have said of my religious opinions. Still, in these twenty years I
ha