gular packet, which sailed
some hours later--between eight and nine o'clock in the forenoon. In
this case, they might apply for their passports before the regular
office hours, if they explained the circumstances, backed by the
authority of the magistrate's letter.

Mr. Bowmore followed Percy to the nearest inn that was open, sublimely
indifferent to the delays and difficulties of the journey. He ordered
refreshments with the air of a man who was performing a melancholy duty
to himself, in the name of humanity.

"When I think of my speech," he said, at supper, "my heart bleeds for
the people. In a few hours more, they will assemble in their thousands,
eager to hear me. And what will they see? Joskin in my place! Joskin
with a manuscript in his hand! Joskin, who drops his voice at the ends
of his sentences! I will never forgive Charlotte. Waiter, another glass
of brandy and water."

After an unusually quick passage across the Channel, the travelers
landed on the French coast, before the defeated spy had returned from
London to Dartford by stage-coach. Continuing their journey by post as
far as Amiens, they reached that city in time to take their places by
the diligence to Paris.

Arrived in Paris, they encountered another incomprehensible proceeding
on the part of Captain Bervie.

Among the persons assembled in the yard to see the arrival of the
diligence was a man with a morsel of paper in his hand, evidently on
the lookout for some person whom he expected to discover among the
travelers. After consulting his bit of paper, he looked with steady
attention at Percy and Mr. Bowmore, and suddenly approached them. "If
you wish to see the Captain," he said, in broken English, "you will find
him at that hotel." He handed a printed card to Percy, and disappeared
among the crowd before it was possible to question him.

Even Mr. Bowmore gave way to human weakness, and condescended to
feel astonished in the face of such an event as this. "What next?" he
exclaimed.

"Wait till we get to the hotel," said Percy.

In half an hour more the landlord had received them, and the waiter had
led them to the right door. Percy pushed the man aside, and burst into
the room.

Captain Bervie was alone, reading a newspaper. Before the first furious
words had escaped Percy's lips, Bervie silenced him by pointing to a
closed door on the right of the fireplace.

"She is in that room," he said; "speak quietly, or you may frighten her.
I