course he--in a low
voice, "I have word for you in this affair. Your powerful movements are
known to me."

"Indeed?"

"I know your sentiments on the impostor."

"And you wish me to buy some information from you?"

"Monsieur le Marquis--he is my enemy also: I ask no price, only your
co-operation with a humble individual like myself."

"Speak on."

"It is all letters to day, my Lord. I heard you both discuss that of
Madame de Lery."

"You are a spy, then?" asked Louis tartly, scorn flashing across his
face.

"An _observer_, Monsieur--one of the King's secret service."

"A 'Sentinel of the nation,'" the Marquis said, only the more deeply
interested, smiling and tendering his snuff-box to Jude graciously.

"And next?" added he.

"Next, too, is a letter. I watched the mails addressed to his
correspondents and friends here. This is a letter to his valet."

The Marquis took it. It read--

"DOVER, _6th January, 1789_.

"MY DEAR DOMINIQUE,--Prepare for me within ten days after you
receive this.

"DE LINCY."

"_Peste!_" hissed the Marquis.

Jude pressed a folded paper into his hand, slipped behind a pillar and
disappeared, and the two relatives joined the crowd. The Marquis that
day made copious entries in his journal.

His life was now entirely engrossed in the controversy with LeCour. As a
Frenchman the occupation was dear to his heart. What Norman does not
love a lawsuit? What Parisian, politics? The journal became even more
complete and exact on the matter and teemed with expressions of contempt
thrust home to the heart of the absent adversary. It recapitulated
minutely the manner in which LeCour had been discovered wearing the
Repentigny name; the refusal of the slayer of Philibert to punish him;
the change of name to de Lincy, which de Lotbiniere shrewdly attributed
to the genealogist; the conduct of de Bailleul; the real origin of the
Lecour family, with the history of the father; the duels with Louis, and
his vexations on account of the matter; the writer's journey to Chalons,
Troyes, and Versailles, the circumstances of the disappearance of
Germain, and the news of his actions in Canada.

After bringing his account down to date with a description of the
written proofs collected, he laid the journal aside, opened the drawer
of his secretary and took out a folio sheet of an exceedingly heavy
wrapping-paper. This he bent over so as to make it into something
resembling the cover