Captain of the Guards--Chevalier
de Saint-Louis. Zounds! that is a good deal for one day!"

"To-night, then, I shall see you, Marquis!" said Magdalena, as she rose
from her chair.

Montferrand raised her hands to his lips once more, and took his leave.

Instantly Fongereues turned to his wife.

"Is this true?" he asked.

She shrugged her shoulders disdainfully, and left the room in silence.
She went to her son's chamber.

"It is all settled," she said to him. "In a few hours you will have the
twenty thousand francs you need to silence this scandal, and you will
try to make yourself worthy of the favor of your king."

As soon as his mother left the room, Frederic sent to the house at
Belleville, by a trusty messenger, the following note:

"I will be with you at four o'clock--shall bring the sum required. I
desire that you shall leave me alone in the house with----you know."

CHAPTER XXXI.

TRIUMPH.

A triumph like this was, of course, to be celebrated by La Roulante and
Robeccal after their own fashion. They sat opposite each other at a
table covered with bottles. In the centre lay the bag of gold. As they
talked they played with it, making it up in little piles and arranging
it in figures.

"We will buy a little place in the country, now," said La Roulante, as
she filled her glass.

"Why does the girl sleep like this?" asked Robeccal.

"Oh! it is a secret that I learned some time ago--to make little girls
submissive."

There was a sudden sound, a long, shivering sigh from above stairs.

"Did you hear that?" asked Robeccal, in a startled tone.

"It is nothing!" answered La Roulante, superciliously. "It is only the
girl waking up at last!"

"But she will scream, I am sure!"

"Let her, if she dare!" and the giantess clenched her enormous fist. "I
would crush her to jelly if she did!"

"And then you would lose the twenty thousand francs!"

The woman nodded in a tipsy manner.

"That's so!" she answered. "I had best go and talk to the Princess,
anyway."

Another long sigh.

"I am coming! I am coming!" grunted La Roulante, slowly feeling her way
up the stairs that creaked under her weight. She drew the key from her
pocket with considerable difficulty, and finally succeeded in opening
the door.

The young girl lay in the same position, but she seemed oppressed by a
nightmare, for big tears rolled down her cheeks and sighs rent her
breast.

La Roulante went to the side of the bed.

"