blinded and carried away."

"Pardon me! There was that share in the great fortune."

"Ah! You knew very well that Chevassat would never have paid you
anything."

Crochard's hands twitched nervously. He cried out,--

"Chevassat cheat me! _cochonnere_! I would have--but no; he knows me; he
would never have dared"--

The magistrate had caught the prisoner's eye, and, fixing him sternly,
he said good-naturedly,--

"Why did you tell me, then, that that man magnetized you, and frightened
you out of your wits?"

The wretch had gone into the snare, and, instead of answering, hung his
head, and tried to sob.

"Repentance is all very well," said the lawyer, who did not seem to
be in the least touched; "but just now it would be better for you
to explain how your trip to Cochin China was arranged. Come, collect
yourself, and give us the details."

"As to that," he resumed his account, "you see Chevassat explained to
me everything at breakfast; and the very same day he gave me the address
which you found on the paper in which the bank-notes were wrapped up."

"What did he give you M. Champcey's address for?"

"So that I might know him personally."

"Well, go on."

"At first, when I heard he was a lieutenant in the navy, I said I must
give it up, knowing as I did that with such men there is no trifling.
But Chevassat scolded me so terribly, and called me such hard names,
that I finally got mad, and promised everything.

"'Besides,' he said to me, 'listen to my plan. The navy department wants
mechanics to go to Saigon. They have not gotten their full number yet:
so you go and offer yourself. They will accept you, and even pay your
journey to Rochefort: a boat will carry you out to the roadstead on
board the frigate "Conquest." Do you know whom you will find on board?
Our man, Lieut. Champcey. Well, now, I tell you! that if any accident
should happen to him, either during the voyage, or at Saigon,
that accident will pass unnoticed, as a letter passes through the
post-office.'

"Yes, that's what he told me, every word of it; and I think I hear him
now. And I--I was so completely bewildered, that I had nothing to say in
return. However, there was one thing which troubled me; and I thought,
'Well, after all, they won't accept me at the navy department, with my
antecedents.'

"But, when I mentioned the difficulty to Chevassat, he laughed. Oh, but
he laughed! it made me mad.

"'You are surely more of a fool than I tho