"But the more I hear, sir," said Adrienne, "the more I am alarmed at the
audacity of the Abbe d'Aigrigny, and the extent of the means he has at
his command. Really," she resumed, with increasing surprise, "if your
words were not entitled to absolute belief--"

"You would doubt their truth, madame?" said Dagobert. "It is like me.
Bad as he is. I cannot think that this renegade had relations with a
wild-beast showman as far off as Saxony; and then, how could he know
that I and the children were to pass through Leipsic? It is impossible,
my good man."

"In fact, sir," resumed Adrienne, "I fear that you are deceived by your
dislike (a very legitimate one) of Abbe d'Aigrigny, and that you ascribe
to him an almost fabulous degree of power and extent of influence."

After a moment's silence, during which Rodin looked first at Adrienne
and then at Dagobert, with a kind of pity, he resumed. "How could
the Abbe d'Aigrigny have your cross in his possession, if he had no
connection with Morok?"

"That is true, sir," said Dagobert; "joy prevented me from reflecting.
But how indeed, did my cross come into your hands?"

"By means of the Abbe d'Aigrigny's having precisely those relations with
Leipsic, of which you and the young lady seem to doubt."

"But how did my cross get to Paris?"

"Tell me; you were arrested at Leipsic for want of papers--is it not
so?"

"Yes; but I could never understand how my passports and money
disappeared from my knapsack. I thought I must have had the misfortune
to lose them."

Rodin shrugged his shoulders, and replied: "You were robbed of them
at the White Falcon Inn, by Goliath, one of Morok's servants, and the
latter sent the papers and the cross to the Abbe d'Aigrigny, to prove
that he had succeeded in executing his orders with respect to the
orphans and yourself. It was the day before yesterday, that I obtained
the key of that dark machination. Cross and papers were amongst the
stores of Abbe d'Aigrigny; the papers formed a considerable bundle,
and he might have missed them; but, hoping to see you this morning, and
knowing how a soldier of the Empire values his cross, his sacred relic,
as you call it, my good friend--I did not hesitate. I put the relic into
my pocket. 'After all,' said I, 'it is only restitution, and my delicacy
perhaps exaggerates this breach of trust.'"

"You could not have done a better action," said Adrienne; "and, for my
part, because of the interest I feel for M. Dag