ead the letter,
which seemed to give him satisfaction, for he laughed aloud; then he
snatched up the larger document, which looked like a government report
of some kind. Simon, in his gendarme's dress, stood grinning in the
background.

"But--but in the name of thunder what does all this mean?" Ratoneau's
looks had changed to sudden fury. "Are these copies or originals? Simon,
you ass, do you mean to tell me--"

Simon shrugged his shoulders and showed his teeth.

"Sorry, Monsieur le General, but no fault of mine! I made sure they had
gone to Paris by the last courier, if not before. The originals,
undoubtedly."

"You make sure in a queer sort of way," said Ratoneau. "You told me the
Prefect's secretary was in your hands, that you had access to his
bureaux at any time. You lied, then?"

"No, Monsieur le General," Simon answered, gently and readily. "Or how
should I have got hold of the papers? We have nothing to do now but to
get them dispatched at once to the Minister of Police, who will pass
them on to Monsieur le Duc de Frioul."

"Go downstairs, and wait till I send for you."

Simon went, not without a side-glance at the silent young officer,
standing tall, fair, and stiff as if on parade, no feeling of any sort
showing itself through the correctness of his bearing.

"Is that her brother? Curious!" the spy muttered as he slipped away.

General Ratoneau ran his eye once more over the paper in his hand, then
looked at Georges and held it out to him.

"The delay is vexatious," he said, "and my friend the Prefect shall pay
for it, one of these days. But at any rate, the thing is now in our own
hands, and there can be no cheating. Report and letter are what they
should be--I might have guessed that the old villain would put off
sending them--hoping for some loophole, I suppose. However, you can tell
Madame la Comtesse that you have seen the documents, and that they
start for Paris to-night."

Georges de Sainfoy read the document, truly a strange one, and it was a
strange sort of man who had the effrontery to put it into his hand. Like
a flash of blinding light, it showed the revolutionary, the tyrannical
side of the Empire which had fascinated him on its side of military
glory.

This paper gave a full description, as officially demanded, of
Mademoiselle Helene de Sainfoy, aged nineteen. It mentioned her personal
attractions, her _education distinguee_, her probable dowry, the names
and position of her paren