ooked at him with very natural curiosity.

"Such a man as you can never be superfluous in so delicate a case,"
replied the magistrate, seeing that Corentin had heard or guessed
everything.

Corentin bowed with a patronizing air.

"Do you know the man in question, monsieur?"

"Yes, Monsieur le Comte, it is Jacques Collin, the head of the 'Ten
Thousand Francs Association,' the banker for three penal settlements,
a convict who, for the last five years, has succeeded in concealing
himself under the robe of the Abbe Carlos Herrera. How he ever came to
be intrusted with a mission to the late King from the King of Spain is a
question which we have all puzzled ourselves with trying to answer. I am
now expecting information from Madrid, whither I have sent notes and a
man. That convict holds the secrets of two kings."

"He is a man of mettle and temper. We have only two courses open to us,"
said the public prosecutor. "We must secure his fidelity, or get him out
of the way."

"The same idea has struck us both, and that is a great honor for me,"
said Corentin. "I am obliged to have so many ideas, and for so many
people, that out of them all I ought occasionally to meet a clever man."

He spoke so drily, and in so icy a tone, that Monsieur de Granville made
no reply, and proceeded to attend to some pressing matters.

Mademoiselle Jacqueline Collin's amazement on seeing Jacques Collin in
the _Salle des Pas-Perdus_ is beyond imagining. She stood square on
her feet, her hands on her hips, for she was dressed as a costermonger.
Accustomed as she was to her nephew's conjuring tricks, this beat
everything.

"Well, if you are going to stare at me as if I were a natural history
show," said Jacques Collin, taking his aunt by the arm and leading her
out of the hall, "we shall be taken for a pair of curious specimens;
they may take us into custody, and then we should lose time."

And he went down the stairs of the Galerie Marchande leading to the Rue
de la Barillerie. "Where is Paccard?"

"He is waiting for me at la Rousse's, walking up and down the flower
market."

"And Prudence?"

"Also at her house, as my god-daughter."

"Let us go there."

"Look round and see if we are watched."

La Rousse, a hardware dealer living on the Quai aux Fleurs, was the
widow of a famous murderer, one of the "Ten Thousand." In 1819, Jacques
Collin had faithfully handed over twenty thousand francs and odd to this
woman from her lover, after