former and present fears.

Bathilde consequently remained at the window, looking on all sides, and
trying to read in the physiognomy of every passer-by whether that
individual was an actor in the mysterious drama which was preparing, and
in which she instinctively understood that Raoul was to play the chief
part. She remained, then, with a beating heart, her neck stretched out,
and her eyes wandering hither and thither, when all at once her unquiet
glances concentrated on a point. The young girl gave a cry of joy, for
she saw Buvat coming round the corner from the Rue Montmartre. Indeed,
it was the worthy caligraphist in person, who, looking behind him from
time to time--as if he feared pursuit--advanced with his cane
horizontal, and at as swift a run as his little legs permitted.

While he enters, and embraces his ward, let us look back and relate the
causes of that absence, which, doubtless, caused as much uneasiness to
our readers as to Nanette and Bathilde.

It will be remembered how Buvat--driven by fear of torture to the
revelation of the conspiracy--had been forced by Dubois to make every
day, at his house, a copy of the documents which the pretended Prince de
Listhnay had given him. It was thus that the minister of the regent had
successively learned all the projects of the conspirators, which he had
defeated by the arrest of Marshal Villeroy, and by the convocation of
parliament.

Buvat had been at work as usual, but about four o'clock, as he rose, and
took his hat in one hand and his cane in the other, Dubois came in and
took him into a little room above that where he had been working, and,
having arrived there, asked him what he thought of the apartment.
Flattered by this deference of the prime minister's to his judgment,
Buvat hastened to reply that he thought it very agreeable.

"So much the better," answered Dubois, "and I am very glad that it is to
your taste, for it is yours."

"Mine!" cried Buvat, astonished.

"Certainly; is it astonishing that I should wish to have under my hand,
or rather, under my eyes, a personage as important as yourself?"

"But," asked Buvat, "am I then going to live in the Palais Royal?"

"For some days, at least," answered Dubois.

"Monseigneur, let me at all events inform Bathilde."

"That is just the thing. Bathilde must not be informed."

[Illustration: THE BODY OF THE CAPTAIN LAY STRETCHED ON THE FLOOR,
SWIMMING IN A SEA OF BLOOD.--Page 408.]

"But you will p