ut not of your friend."

"Yet I have proofs."

"Naturally. But proofs can be fabricated; relatives can be improvised.
Your evidence is open to suspicion. My proofs are undeniable, perfectly
authenticated. While you were pining in prison, I was preparing my
batteries and collecting munition to open fire. I wrote to St. Remy, and
received answers to my questions."

"Will you let me know what they were?"

"Have patience," said M. Verduret as he turned over the leaves of
his memoranda. "Ah, here is number one. Bow respectfully to it, 'tis
official."

He then read:

"'LAGORS.--Very old family, originally from Maillane, settled at St.
Remy about a century ago.'"

"I told you so," cried Prosper.

"Pray allow me to finish," said M. Verduret.

"'The last of the Lagors (Jules-Rene-Henri) bearing without warrant
the title of count, married in 1829 Mlle. Rosalie-Clarisse Fontanet,
of Tarascon; died December 1848, leaving no male heir, but left two
daughters. The registers make no mention of any person in the district
bearing the name of Lagors.'

"Now what do you think of this information?" queried the fat man with a
triumphant smile.

Prosper looked amazed.

"But why did M. Fauvel treat Raoul as his nephew?"

"Ah, you mean as his wife's nephew! Let us examine note number two: it
is not official, but it throws a valuable light upon the twenty thousand
livres income of your friend."

"'_Jules-Rene-Henri_ de Lagors, last of his name, died at St. Remy on
the 29th of December, 1848, in a state of great poverty. He at one time
was possessed of a moderate fortune, but invested it in a silk-worm
nursery, and lost it all.

"'He had no son, but left two daughters, one of whom is a teacher at
Aix, and the other married a retail merchant at Orgon. His widow, who
lives at Montagnette, is supported entirely by one of her relatives, the
wife of a rich banker in Paris. No person of the name of Lagors lives in
the district of Arles.'

"That is all," said M. Verduret; "don't you think it enough?"

"Really, monsieur, I don't know whether I am awake or dreaming."

"You will be awake after a while. Now I wish to remark one thing. Some
people may assert that the widow Lagors had a child born after her
husband's death. This objection has been destroyed by the age of your
friend. Raoul is twenty-four, and M. de Lagors has not been dead twenty
years."

"But," said Prosper thoughtfully, "who can Raoul be?"

"I don't know. Th