autrin (to the duke)
Set a watch on every outlet from your house, and let no one leave it,
excepting these two men. (To Saint-Charles) Do you remain here. (He
draws a dagger and cuts the cords by which Lafouraille and Buteux are
bound.) Take yourselves off by the postern; here is the key, and go to
the house of mother Giroflee. (To Lafouraille) You must send Raoul to
me.

Lafouraille (as he leaves the room)
Oh! our veritable emperor.

Vautrin
You shall receive money and passports.

Buteux (as he goes out)
After all, I shall have something for Adele!

The Duke
But how did you learn all these facts?

Vautrin (handing some documents to the duke)
These are what I took from your study.

The Duke
These comprise my correspondence, and the letters of the duchess to
the Viscount de Langeac.

Vautrin
Who was shot at Mortagne, October, 1792, through the kind efforts of
Charles Blondet, otherwise known as the Chevalier de Saint-Charles.

Saint-Charles
But your grace very well knows--

Vautrin
It was he himself who gave me these papers, among which you will
notice the death certificate of the viscount, which proves that he and
her grace the duchess never met after the Tenth of August, for he had
then left the Abbaye for the Vendee, accompanied by Boulard, who
seized the moment to betray and murder him.

The Duke
And so Fernand--

Vautrin
The child sent to Sardinia is undoubtedly your son.

The Duke
And her grace the duchess--

Vautrin
Is innocent.

The Duke
My God! (He sinks back into an armchair.) What have I done?

The Duchess
What a horrible proof--his death! And the assassin stands before us.

Vautrin
Monsieur le Duc de Montsorel, I have been a father to Fernand, and I
have just saved your two sons, each from the sword of the other; you
alone are the author of all this complication.

The Duchess
Stop! I know him better than you do, and he suffers at this moment all
that I have suffered during twenty years. In the name of mercy, where
is my son?

The Duke
What, Raoul de Frescas?

Vautrin
Fernand de Montsorel is on his way here. (To Saint-Charles) And what
do you say about all this?

Saint-Charles
You are a hero; let me be your servant.

Vautrin
You are ambitious. Would you follow me?

Saint-Charles
Anywhere.

Vautrin
I can well believe it.

Saint-Charles
Ah! what a master mind you obtain in me, and what a loss to the
government!

Vautrin
Go; and wait for me at the bureau of