ct him."

The young advocate smiled bitterly.

"Monsieur Jacques Martin poses as a Brutus, Jean. When your father
was denounced in the club, he rose and said that he should take no
part in the deliberations, that he was before all other things a
patriot, and that he would not permit private affection to
interfere with his duty as a citizen. In fact, my dear Jean,
painful as it must be for you to hear, my opinion is that your
brother has all along been playing a deep game, and that his object
has been to grasp the whole of your father's business and property.
It was a friend of his who denounced you at the club, when I before
gave you warning; it was members of his clique who stirred the
authorities up to send a small body of cavalry to capture you, and
it was they also who denounced your father. Your brother is by far
the most powerful of the committee of safety, as well as in the
club. He assumes an air of perfect disinterestedness, and of a
passionate love for the republic. His vote is always given for
death. I think he takes Saint Just as his model, and repeats his
assertion, that it is only by the destruction of the enemies of
France that France can be freed.

"There is a cold bloodedness about him that sets my nerves
tingling. I believe, myself, that the discovery that your father
had largely reduced his stocks, and had sent the proceeds to
England, decided him in either agreeing to, or bringing about, this
denunciation; and that he deferred it only until he found that your
mother and sister had escaped. That freed his hands, to some
extent. Had they remained here, he would have been in a difficult
position. Even in these days, when we are sated with horrors, he
could hardly have permitted his mother and sister to be executed
when, as everyone knew, he had power to save them. On the other
hand, if they had remained they would have been obstacles to the
success of his plan. As it is now, your father's house and all
property belonging to him were declared confiscated; but the
committee of safety passed a vote that, seeing the inestimable
service rendered to the state by his eldest son, they would be
bestowed upon him as a token of gratitude for his well doing."

"You scarcely surprise me," Jean said gloomily. "I never liked my
brother--we had not a feeling in common, and for years he has never
seemed to belong to the family; and certainly, since the troubles
began, he has not set foot in my father's house. Stil