me yet, and I will always be
at your service.

"But what are you going to do?"

"To supply the hulks with lodgers instead of lodging there," replied
Jacques Collin.

Rastignac gave a shrug of disgust.

"But if you were robbed----"

Rastignac hurried on to get away from Jacques Collin.

"You do not know what circumstances you may find yourself in."

They stood by the grave dug by the side of Esther's.

"Two beings who loved each other, and who were happy!" said Jacques
Collin. "They are united.--It is some comfort to rot together. I will be
buried here."

When Lucien's body was lowered into the grave, Jacques Collin fell in
a dead faint. This strong man could not endure the light rattle of the
spadefuls of earth thrown by the gravediggers on the coffin as a hint
for their payment.

Just then two men of the corps of Public Safety came up; they recognized
Jacques Collin, lifted him up, and carried him to a hackney coach.

"What is up now?" asked Jacques Collin when he recovered consciousness
and had looked about him.

He saw himself between two constables, one of whom was Ruffard; and he
gave him a look which pierced the murderer's soul to the very depths of
la Gonore's secret.

"Why, the public prosecutor wants you," replied Ruffard, "and we have
been hunting for you everywhere, and found you in the cemetery, where
you had nearly taken a header into that boy's grave."

Jacques Collin was silent for a moment.

"Is it Bibi-Lupin that is after me?" he asked the other man.

"No. Monsieur Garnery sent us to find you."

"And he told you nothing?"

The two men looked at each other, holding council in expressive
pantomime.

"Come, what did he say when he gave you your orders?"

"He bid us fetch you at once," said Ruffard, "and said we should find
you at the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Pres; or, if the funeral had left
the church, at the cemetery."

"The public prosecutor wants me?"

"Perhaps."

"That is it," said Jacques Collin; "he wants my assistance."

And he relapsed into silence, which greatly puzzled the two constables.

At about half-past two Jacques Collin once more went up to Monsieur
de Granville's room, and found there a fresh arrival in the person of
Monsieur de Granville's predecessor, the Comte Octave de Bauvan, one of
the Presidents of the Court of Appeals.

"You forgot Madame de Serizy's dangerous condition, and that you had
promised to save her."

"Ask these rascals in what st