days of
Mademoiselle Laguerre I had trouble with them, and God knows she let
them do as they liked."

At the end of the month of May the general still gave no sign that he
intended to sell Les Aigues; in fact, he was undecided. One night, about
ten o'clock, he was returning from the forest through one of the six
avenues that led to the pavilion of the Rendezvous. He dismissed the
keeper who accompanied him, as he was then so near the chateau. At a
turn of the road a man armed with a gun came from behind a bush.

"General," he said, "this is the third time I have had you at the end of
my barrel, and the third time that I give you your life."

"Why do you want to kill me, Bonnebault?" said the general, without
showing the least emotion.

"Faith, if I don't, somebody else will; but I, you see, I like the men
who served the Emperor, and I can't make up my mind to shoot you like a
partridge. Don't question me, for I'll tell you nothing; but you've
got enemies, powerful enemies, cleverer than you, and they'll end by
crushing you. I am to have a thousand crowns if I kill you, and then I
can marry Marie Tonsard. Well, give me enough to buy a few acres of land
and a bit of a cottage, and I'll keep on saying, as I have done, that
I've found no chances. That will give you time to sell your property and
get away; but make haste. I'm an honest lad still, scamp as I am; but
another fellow won't spare you."

"If I give you what you ask, will you tell me who offered you those
three thousand francs?" said the general.

"I don't know myself; and the person who is urging me to do the thing
is some one I love too well to tell of. Besides, even if you did know
it was Marie Tonsard, that wouldn't help you; Marie Tonsard would be as
silent as that wall, and I should deny every word I've said."

"Come and see me to-morrow," said the general.

"Enough," replied Bonnebault; "and if they begin to say I'm too
dilatory, I'll let you know in time."

A week after that singular conversation the whole arrondissement, indeed
the whole department, was covered with posters, advertising the sale of
Les Aigues at the office of Maitre Corbineau, the notary of Soulanges.
All the lots were knocked down to Rigou, and the price paid amounted to
two millions five hundred thousand francs. The next day Rigou had the
names changed; Monsieur Gaubertin took the woods, Rigou and Soudry the
vineyards and the farms. The chateau and the park were sold over again