such an expression of
hatred and cruelty, that he would have inspired dislike, rather than
admiration--as he sat there with a fierce frown contracting his brow,
and savagely gnawing his under lip with his gleaming white teeth. In
fine, the occupant of the carriage that had so nearly run over the Baron
de Sigognac was no other than the young Duke of Vallombreuse.

"Another failure!" said he to himself, with an oath, as he rolled along
up the broad quay past the Tuileries. "And yet I promised that stupid
rascal of a coachman of mine twenty-five louis if he could be adroit
enough to run afoul of that confounded de Sigognac--who is the bane of
my life--and drive over him, as if by accident. Decidedly the star of my
destiny is not in the ascendant--this miserable little rustic lordling
gets the better of me in everything. Isabelle, sweet Isabelle, adores
HIM, and detests me--he has beaten my lackeys, and dared to wound ME.
But there shall be an end of this sort of thing, and that speedily--even
though he be invulnerable, and bear a charmed life, he must and shall be
put out of my way--I swear it! though I should be forced to risk my name
and my title to compass it."

"Humph!" said Herode, drawing a long breath; "why those brutes must be
of the same breed as the famous horses of that Diomedes, King of Thrace,
we read of, that pursued men to tear them asunder, and fed upon their
flesh. But at least you are not hurt, my lord, I trust! That coachman
saw you perfectly well, and I would be willing to wager all I possess
in the world that he purposely tried to run over you--he deliberately
turned his horses towards you--I am sure of it, for I saw the whole
thing. Did you observe whether there was a coat of arms on the panel?
As you are a nobleman yourself I suppose you must be familiar with the
devices of the leading families in France."

"Yes, I am of course," answered de Sigognac, "but I was too much
occupied in getting out of the way of the swift rolling carriage to
notice whether there was anything of that kind on it or not."

"That's a pity," rejoined the tyrant regretfully, "for if we only knew
that, we should have a clew that might lead to our discovering the truth
about this most suspicious affair. It is only too evident that some one
is trying to put you out of the way, quibuscumque viis, as the pedant
would say. Although we unfortunately have no proof of it, I am very much
inclined to think that this same carriage belo