his uncle the Marquis that he must contrive
to reach Marseilles, whence he should be transported to Spain--in which
country the illustrious emigrant was then residing--by a certain named
date. His uncle's communication arrived safely, and the plan proposed
seemed a secure and eligible one. Only in two respects was it calculated
to make Paul de Senanges thoughtful. The first was, that his uncle
should take any interest in the matter of his safety; the second, what
could be the nature of a certain deposit which the Marquis's letter
directed him to procure, if possible, from the Chateau de Senanges. The
fact of this injunction explained, in some measure, the first of the two
difficulties. It was plain that whatever were the contents of this
packet which he was to seek for, according to the indications marked on
a ground-plan drawn by his uncle and enclosed in the letter, the Marquis
wanted them, and could not procure them except by the agency of his
nephew. That the Marquis should venture to direct Paul de Senanges to
put himself in communication with Prosper Alix, would have been
surprising to any one acquainted only with the external and generally
understood features of the character of the new proprietor of the
Chateau de Senanges. But a few people knew Prosper Alix thoroughly, and
the Marquis was one of the number; he was keen enough to know in theory
that, in the case of a man with only one weakness, that is likely to be
a very weak weakness indeed, and to apply the theory to the _avocat_.
The beautiful, pious, and aristocratic mother of Paul de Senanges--a
lady to whose superiority the Marquis had rendered the distinguished
testimony of his dislike, not hesitating to avow that she was "much too
good for _his_ taste"--had been very fond of, and very kind to, the
motherless daughter of Prosper Alix, and he held her memory in reverence
which he accorded to nothing beside, human or divine, and taught his
daughter the matchless worth of the friend she had lost. The Marquis
knew this, and though he had little sympathy with the sentiment, he
believed he might use it in the present instance to his own profit, with
safety. The event proved that he was right. Private negotiations, with
the manner of whose transaction we are not concerned, passed between the
_avocat_ and the _ci-devant_ Marquis; and the young man, then leading a
life in which skulking had a large share, in the vicinity of Dijon, was
instructed to present himself