Blassemare reentered, paler than before, and said--

"You cowardly, barbarous miscreant, you will answer for it here and
hereafter."

"Blassemare, my friend--my dear friend--in the name of God, don't
denounce me. You would not; no, you could not. I have been a good friend
to you. For the love of God, help me, Blassemare--save me. You shall
have half my fortune; I'll stick at no terms; I'll make you, by ---- the
richest man in Paris. You shall have what you like--every thing, any
thing--only help me in this accursed extremity."

For a long time, Blassemare met his abject and agonized entreaties with
a stoical scorn; at last, however, he relented.

The body was removed that night; and it is well known to the readers of
old French trials, how wonderfully Providence supplied by a chain of
apparent accidents, an important witness in our friend Gabriel.

We left him buried in the hay of the stable-loft. We must pursue his
adventure to its conclusion.

As soon as he had a little recovered the heat which was nearly
extinguished, he got up, and finding an old piece of drugget, he wrapped
it about him in the fashion of a cloak; and having looked in vain for
any window opening upon the street, he climbed, by the aid of the
joists, to an aperture in the half-rotten roof, and passing through it,
crept like a cat along, until he reached the spout, down which, at the
risk of his neck, he climbed. He was now safe in the public street.
Picking up a sharp stone, he scratched some marks, such as he could
easily recognize again, upon the gateway. He then knocked at a barber's
shop, nearly opposite, where he saw a light, and asked the name of the
street, and his route to the Hotel de Secqville.

The marquis had arrived before him; and his amazement at the strange
attire of his retainer was changed to horror, when he learned the
particulars of his adventure.

Not a moment was lost by De Secqville in applying to the police, and,
with an officer and a party of archers, he proceeded at once to the
Hotel St. Maurice--for such was the name of the nearly ruinous building
we have described. There they arrested Monsieur Le Prun, who was just
emerging from the gate as they arrived; as also Blassemare, whom they
surprised in his room. No definite suspicion, beyond the conjectures of
De Secqville, had as yet attached to either of these gentlemen; but some
expressions which escaped Le Prun, upon his arrest, were of a character
to excite the