al terror, of which Giguet, formerly instructed
by Corentin, took immediate advantage.

"Everything can be arranged," he said, drawing the Marquis de Simeuse
into a corner of the dining-room. "Perhaps after all it is nothing but a
joke; you've been a soldier and soldiers understand each other. Tell me,
what have you really done with the senator? If you have killed him--why,
that's the end of it! But if you have only locked him up, release him,
for you see for yourself your game is balked. Do this and I am certain
the director of the jury and the senator himself will drop the matter."

"We know absolutely nothing about it," said the marquis.

"If you take that tone the matter is likely to go far," replied the
lieutenant.

"Dear cousin," said the Marquis de Simeuse, "we are forced to go to
prison; but do not be uneasy; we shall return in a few hours, for there
is some misunderstanding in all this which can be explained."

"I hope so, for your sakes, gentlemen," said the magistrate, signing to
the gendarmes to remove the four gentlemen, Michu, and Gothard. "Don't
take them to Troyes; keep them in your guardhouse at Arcis," he said to
the lieutenant; "they must be present to-morrow, at daybreak, when we
compare the shoes of their horses with the hoof-prints in the park."

Lechesneau and Pigoult did not follow until they had closely questioned
Catherine, Monsieur and Madame d'Hauteserre, and Laurence. The Durieus,
Catherine, and Marthe declared they had only seen their masters at
breakfast-time; Monsieur d'Hauteserre said he had seen them at three
o'clock.

When, at midnight, Laurence found herself alone with Monsieur and Madame
d'Hauteserre, the abbe and his sister, and without the four young men
who for the last eighteen months had been the life of the chateau and
the love and joy of her own life, she fell into a gloomy silence which
no one present dared to break. No affliction was ever deeper or more
complete than hers. At last a deep sigh broke the stillness, and all
eyes turned towards the sound.

Marthe, forgotten in a corner, rose, exclaiming, "Death! They will kill
them in spite of their innocence!"

"Mademoiselle, what is the matter with you?" said the abbe.

Laurence left the room without replying. She needed solitude to recover
strength in presence of this terrible unforeseen disaster.

CHAPTER XV. DOUBTS AND FEARS OF COUNSEL

At a distance of thirty-four years, during which three great revoluti