eel for his dagger.

"We shall never come to terms," said Michu, coldly.

"Mind what you're about, my good fellow; the law has its eye upon you."

"If the law can't see any clearer than you, there's danger to every
one," said the bailiff.

"Do you refuse?" said Corentin, in a significant tone.

"I'd rather have my head cut off a thousand times, if that could be
done, than come to an agreement with such a villain as you."

Corentin got into his vehicle hastily, after one more comprehensive look
at Michu, the lodge, and Couraut, who barked at him. He gave certain
orders in passing through Troyes, and then returned to Paris. All the
brigades of gendarmerie in the neighborhood received secret instructions
and special orders.

During the months of December, January, and February the search was
active and incessant, even in remote villages. Spies were in all the
taverns. Corentin learned some important facts: a horse like that of
Michu had been found dead in the neighborhood of Lagny; the five horses
burned in the forest of Nodesme had been sold, for five hundred francs
each, by farmers and millers to a man who answered to the description of
Michu. When the decree against the accomplices and harborers of Georges
was put in force Corentin confined his search to the forest of Nodesme.
After Moreau, the royalists, and Pichegru were arrested no strangers
were ever seen about the place.

Michu lost his situation at that time; the notary of Arcis brought him a
letter in which Malin, now made senator, requested Grevin to settle all
accounts with the bailiff and dismiss him. Michu asked and obtained a
formal discharge and became a free man. To the great astonishment of the
neighborhood he went to live at Cinq-Cygne, where Laurence made him
the farmer of all the reserved land about the chateau. The day of his
installation as farmer coincided with the fatal day of the death of the
Duc d'Enghien, when nearly the whole of France heard at the same time
of the arrest, trial, condemnation, and death of the prince,--terrible
reprisals, which preceded the trial of Polignac, Riviere, and Moreau.

PART II.

CHAPTER X. ONE AND THE SAME, YET A TWO-FOLD LOVE

While the new farm-house was being built Michu the Judas, so-called, and
his family occupied the rooms over the stables at Cinq-Cygne on the side
of the chateau next to the famous breach. He bought two horses, one
for himself and one for Francois, and they both joined Goth