e
revolutionaries were equally well informed? And most probably they were.
The women-folk political offenders had been known aforetime to suffer
for the sins of their men. Anything was possible in a popular upheaval,
and Aline would be exposed jointly with Mme. de Plougastel.

Late that night, as he sat gloomily in his brother's library, the pipe
in which he had sought solace extinguished between his fingers, there
came a sharp knocking at the door.

To the old seneschal of Gavrillac who went to open there stood revealed
upon the threshold a slim young man in a dark olive surcoat, the skirts
of which reached down to his calves. He wore boots, buckskins, and a
small-sword, and round his waist there was a tricolour sash, in his hat
a tricolour cockade, which gave him an official look extremely sinister
to the eyes of that old retainer of feudalism, who shared to the full
his master's present fears.

"Monsieur desires?" he asked, between respect and mistrust.

And then a crisp voice startled him.

"Why, Benoit! Name of a name! Have you completely forgotten me?"

With a shaking hand the old man raised the lantern he carried so as to
throw its light more fully upon that lean, wide-mouthed countenance.

"M. Andre!" he cried. "M. Andre!" And then he looked at the sash and the
cockade, and hesitated, apparently at a loss.

But Andre-Louis stepped past him into the wide vestibule, with its
tessellated floor of black-and-white marble.

"If my godfather has not yet retired, take me to him. If he has retired,
take me to him all the same."

"Oh, but certainly, M. Andre--and I am sure he will be ravished to see
you. No, he has not yet retired. This way, M. Andre; this way, if you
please."

The returning Andre-Louis, reaching Meudon a half-hour ago, had gone
straight to the mayor for some definite news of what might be happening
in Paris that should either confirm or dispel the ominous rumours that
he had met in ever-increasing volume as he approached the capital.
Rougane informed him that insurrection was imminent, that already the
sections had possessed themselves of the barriers, and that it was
impossible for any person not fully accredited to enter or leave the
city.

Andre-Louis bowed his head, his thoughts of the gravest. He had for
some time perceived the danger of this second revolution from within the
first, which might destroy everything that had been done, and give the
reins of power to a villainous faction