I am the bearer of good news to you."

"Indeed!"

"Madame was robbed last month at Fontainebleau."

"And you bring back my jewels, good Abbe?" She began already to seem
more radiant to him than he had dreamed.

"Not that quite."

"You mystify me."

"Madame will remember that three of the villains were caught."

"And Monsieur de Repentigny has found the others?" she cried, her
countenance lighting again.

The Abbe's face fell.

"No, I have more agreeable news."

"You are too slow, as usual."

"Complete justice has been done!"

Her face suddenly turned to motionless marble.

"You mean on those three men?" she asked, with horror, which surprised
him.

"Certainly."

"How?"

"Their legs will crack this very morning in Paris at eight o'clock."

"Those living beings whom I have seen, that cruel death!" she cried.
"Where is the Prime Minister? Christ help me!"

She took no heed of her flimsy, incongruous dress, her fatigue, her need
of sleep. Her soul was overwhelmed with the Christian desire to save,
and in her sudden energy the girl over-awed the reptile before her.

"Why do you wait, sir?" she exclaimed. "Conduct me to the Minister
instantly!"

"What, at this hour? In this manner? Does my lady reflect what will be
said to-morrow throughout the town?" he ejaculated.

"You have my command," she answered him, motioning to her maid to
follow.

Sometimes leading, and sometimes instructed where to go, the Abbe
preceded her through a long maze of chambers and passages, in each of
which sentinels were posted, until they came to the antechamber of
Monsieur de Calonne.

By good luck, the Minister, like herself, had not yet retired, but was
signing papers.

His astonishment was unbounded at both her appearance and her agitated
and remarkable request.

"Baroness," said he, "these men for whom you have such singular though
meritorious sympathy have flagrantly wronged yourself and the King. How
much better are they than the thousands who suffer the same fate every
year under the well-weighed sentences of the bench?"

"What rends me, sir, is to see human beings die, into whose faces I have
looked."

"That speaks well for your heart, Madame; but what about the laws?"

"Are laws just under which three lives are set against a few trinkets?"

"Well, Baroness, that is the business not of you nor me, but of the
magistrates. You admit at least the guilt of the criminals against
society?"

"What has socie