e,--I
should deem myself lacking in what I owe both to you and to myself were
I to neglect to destroy the suspicion you have formed of my conduct in
the affair of Monsieur, your son, against Lecour. I can give you my word
of honour that I always refused to give my signature to his different
petitions. My brother informs me that you say 'that several of your
friends, and even of your relations at Montreal, certified that Monsieur
Lecour was a gentleman.' I am not of their number, and I do not know
that family."

The Marquis eagerly read the packet through, digested its contents,
blessed his ally Panet for his professional methodicality, and placed
the papers in order in the Record.

After the flight of more than a century, this Record, yellow and faded
and a little worm-eaten, but complete even to its wax seals, its
wire-headed pins, and the thin gilt edges of the correspondence paper,
lies before the writer of these pages, a vivid fragment of the old
_regime_, a witness to the hatred, the activity, the very thoughts, as
it were, of the enemies of Lecour, and revealing his perils from their
inner side.

CHAPTER XXXIX

THE MARQUIS'S VISITOR

On the very day after the Panet documents were added to the Record a
visitor called upon the Marquis.

"The 25th of January," records the latter in his journal, "there entered
my apartments, about half-past ten in the morning, a young man, wearing
a sword and a hat with a white plume, his suit entirely of black
knitcloth with trimmings to match, of middle height, firmly built and
well-looking, skin fine with plenty of colour, eye nearly black, soft
and somewhat large, surmounted by a black eyebrow."

"My name is Monsieur de la Louviere, Gendarme of the Guard," he said. "I
come on the part of the Chevalier de Bailleul respecting the matter of
Monsieur LeCour."

"Be seated, sir," replied the Marquis with interest, indicating a chair
near his writing-desk, at which he himself sat down. "Is this Lecour
known to yourself?"

"I am a friend of his," replied M. de la Louviere.

"Where is he now?"

"A week ago he was in England."

"Have you not heard that he is an impostor?"

"I only know, sir, that he is a very unfortunate man, and that you, who
have so interested yourself against him, have only to show him leniency
and kindness and you would be surprised at his gratitude. I carry the
appeal of the Chevalier to you, desirous of seeing whether the trouble
cannot be a