officer completed the sentence:

"Not to betray your Majesty! Oh, sire!--"

"Then listen to me."

He took from his pocket a little book of which he tore out one of the
last pages. But, altering his mind:

"No, I had better copy it--"

He seized a large sheet of paper and tore it in such a way as to leave
only a small rectangular space, on which he copied five lines of dots,
letters and figures from the printed page. Then, after burning the
latter, he folded the manuscript sheet in four, sealed it with red wax,
and gave it to the officer.

"Monsieur, after my death, you must hand this to the Queen and say to
her, 'From the King, madame--for Your Majesty and for your son.' If she
does not understand--"

"If she does not understand, sire--"

"You must add, 'It concerns the secret, the secret of the Needle.' The
Queen will understand."

When he had finished speaking, he flung the book into the embers
glowing on the hearth.

He ascended the scaffold on the 21st of January.

It took the officer several months, in consequence of the removal of
the Queen to the Conciergerie, before he could fulfil the mission with
which he was entrusted. At last, by dint of cunning intrigues, he
succeeded, one day, in finding himself in the presence of Marie
Antoinette.

Speaking so that she could just hear him, he said:

"Madame, from the late King, your husband, for Your Majesty and your
son."

And he gave her the sealed letter.

She satisfied herself that the jailers could not see her, broke the
seals, appeared surprised at the sight of those undecipherable lines
and then, all at once, seemed to understand.

She smiled bitterly and the officer caught the words:

"Why so late?"

She hesitated. Where should she hide this dangerous document? At last,
she opened her book of hours and slipped the paper into a sort of
secret pocket contrived between the leather of the binding and the
parchment that covered it.

"Why so late?" she had asked.

It is, in fact, probable that this document, if it could have saved
her, came too late, for, in the month of October next, Queen Marie
Antoinette ascended the scaffold in her turn.

Now the officer, when going through his family papers, came upon his
ancestor's manuscript. From that moment, he had but one idea, which was
to devote his leisure to elucidating this strange problem. He read all
the Latin authors, studied all the chronicles of France and those of
the neighboring countr