hat it is so," Bervie rejoined. "The thing is remarkable, even
from your point of view. And if more coincidences follow, the result
will be more remarkable still."

Arrived at the Strand, Percy set the Captain down at the turning which
led to the Doctor's lodgings. "You will call on me or write me word, if
anything remarkable happens?" he said.

"You shall hear from me without fail," Bervie replied.

That night, the Captain's pen performed the Captain's promise, in few
and startling words.

"Melancholy news! Madame Lagarde is dead. Nothing is known of her son
but that he has left England. I have found out that he is a political
exile. If he has ventured back to France, it is barely possible that
I may hear something of him. I have friends at the English embassy in
Paris who will help me to make inquiries; and I start for the Continent
in a day or two. Write to me while I am away, to the care of my father,
at 'The Manor House, near Dartford.' He will always know my address
abroad, and will forward your letters. For your own sake, remember the
warning I gave you this afternoon! Your faithful friend, A. B."

CHAPTER IX.

OFFICIAL SECRETS

THERE WAS a more serious reason than Bervie was aware of, at the time,
for the warning which he had thought it his duty to address to Percy
Linwood. The new footman who had entered Mr. Bowmore's service was a
Spy.

Well practiced in the infamous vocation that he followed, the wretch had
been chosen by the Department of Secret Service at the Home Office, to
watch the proceedings of Mr. Bowmore and his friends, and to report the
result to his superiors. It may not be amiss to add that the employment
of paid spies and informers, by the English Government of that time,
was openly acknowledged in the House of Lords, and was defended as a
necessary measure in the speeches of Lord Redesdale and Lord Liverpool.*

The reports furnished by the Home Office Spy, under these circumstances,
begin with the month of March, and take the form of a series of notes
introduced as follows:

"MR. SECRETARY--Since I entered Mr. Bowmore's service, I have the honor
to inform you that my eyes and ears have been kept in a state of active
observation; and I can further certify that my means of making myself
useful in the future to my honorable employers are in no respect
diminished. Not the slightest suspicion of my true character is felt by
any person in the house.

FIRST NOTE.

"The young gentlema