idon!" exclaimed Lacheneur, in profound astonishment; "Monsieur
d'Escorval!"

And foreseeing, perhaps, what was to come, he added, in a tone of
concentrated fury:

"What do you two men want with me?"

"We wish to prevent the accomplishment of an act of madness!" exclaimed
M. d'Escorval. "Hatred has crazed you, Lacheneur!"

"You know nothing of my projects!"

"Do you think that I do not suspect them? You hope to capture
Montaignac-----"

"What does that matter to you?" interrupted Lacheneur, violently.

But M. d'Escorval would not be silenced.

He seized the arm of his former friend, and in a voice loud enough to be
heard distinctly by everyone present, he continued:

"Foolish man! You have forgotten that Montaignac is a fortified city,
protected by deep moats and high walls! You have forgotten that behind
these fortifications is a garrison commanded by a man whose energy and
valor are beyond all question--the Duc de Sairmeuse."

Lacheneur struggled to free himself from his friend's grasp.

"Everything has been arranged," he replied, "and they are expecting us
at Montaignac. You would be as sure of this as I am myself, if you had
seen the light gleaming on the windows of the citadel. And look, you
can see it yet. This light tells me that two or three hundred retired
officers will come to open the gates of the city for us as soon as we
make our appearance."

"And after that! If you take Montaignac, what will you do then? Do
you suppose that the English will give you back your Emperor? Is not
Napoleon II. the prisoner of the Austrians? Have you forgotten that
the allied sovereigns have left one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers
within a day's march of Paris?"

Sullen murmurs were heard among Lacheneur's followers.

"But all this is nothing," continued the baron. "The chief danger lies
in the fact that there are as many traitors as dupes in an undertaking
of this sort."

"Whom do you call dupes, Monsieur?"

"All those who take their illusions for realities, as you have done; all
those who, because they desire anything very much, really believe that
it will come to pass. Do you really suppose that neither the Duc de
Sairmeuse nor the Marquis de Courtornieu has been warned of it?"

Lacheneur shrugged his shoulders.

"Who could have warned them?"

But his tranquillity was feigned; the look which he cast upon Jean
proved it.

And it was in the coldest possible tone that he added:

"It is probable t