eled at me;
I was peremptorily ordered to deliver up my purse; I threw it down on the
ground, and galloped off. Do not ask me any more questions."

"Why not? I wish to know all. Should you know the robber again? Did you
notice his figure and general appearance?"

"It being dark, I could not exactly discover: I can not positively say.
However, it seems to me--"

"_What_ seems to you? What or whom do you think you saw?"

"I never can tell _you_."

"Speak--speak; you can not surely wish to screen a malefactor from
justice?"

"No; but if the said malefactor should be--"

"If he were my own son, I should insist upon your telling me."

"Well, then, it appeared to me that the robber was your brother-in-law,
MIRABEAU! But I might be mistaken; and, as I said before, fear--"

"Impossible: no, it can not be. Mirabeau a footpad! No, no. You _are_
mistaken, my good friend."

"Certainly--certainly."

"Let us not speak any more of this," said Count du Saillant. "We will
return to the drawing-room, and I hope you will be as gay as usual; if
not, I shall set you down as a mad-man. I will so manage that our absence
shall not be thought any thing of." And the gentlemen re-entered the
drawing room, one a short time before the other.

The visitor succeeded in resuming his accustomed manner; but the count
fell into a gloomy reverie, in spite of all his efforts. He could not
banish from his mind the extraordinary story he had heard: it haunted him;
and at last, worn out with the most painful conjectures, he again took his
friend aside, questioned him afresh, and the result was, that a plan was
agreed upon for solving the mystery. It was arranged that M. De ---- should
in the course of the evening mention casually, as it were, that he was
engaged on a certain day to meet a party at a friend's house to dinner,
and that he purposed coming afterward to take a bed at the chateau, where
he hoped to arrive at about nine in the evening. The announcement was
accordingly made in the course of conversation, when all the guests were
present--good care being taken that it should be heard by Mirabeau, who at
the time was playing a game of chess with the cure.

A week passed away, in the course of which a farmer was stopped and robbed
of his purse; and at length the critical night arrived.

Count du Saillant was upon the rack the whole evening; and his anxiety
became almost unbearable when the hour for his friend's promised arrival
had pass