both. I only half trust you."

"Ah, were I well, Monsieur, no man should talk to me as you are doing."

"Luckily for me you are not well; but will you swear to this, to a
written statement?"

"I will." Whether it was to be a truthful statement or not concerned the
minister but little if he could make use of it. Upon this, the
consul-general and a secretary, Le Blanc, being called in, to their
amazement Carteaux dictated a plain statement and signed it with his
left hand, the two officials acting as witnesses.

The minister read it aloud:

OELLER'S HOTEL, July 4, 1795.

I, George Carteaux, being _in extremis_, declare that on the 29th
of November, about 5 P.M., near Bristol, I was set upon and shot
and a despatch taken from me by one Schmidt and a Frenchman by
name De Courval. No valuables were taken. By whom they were set
on or paid I do not know.

GEORGE CARTEAUX.

_Witnesses_:

LOUIS LE BLANC,
JEAN DE LA FORET.

The two members of the legation silently followed the minister out of
the room.

"That is a belated story," said De la Foret. "Do you credit it?"

"It is not all, you may be sure; a rather lean tale," replied Le Blanc,
whose career in the police of Paris had taught him to distrust men. "He
lied both times, but this time it is a serviceable lie."

"A little late, as you say," remarked Fauchet. "Once it might have
helped us."

"Ah, if," said the consul-general, "he could tell who has your
despatch!"

"Not Mr. Randolph," said Le Blanc.

"No," returned Fauchet; "or if he has, it will never be seen by any one
else."

"Why?" asked Le Blanc.

The minister, smiling, shook his head. "If ever it turns up in other
hands, you will know why, and Mr. Randolph, too."

The minister later in the day assured Carteaux that he would make such
use of the deposition as would force the administration to rid itself of
a guilty clerk. He was in no haste to fulfil his pledge. Two or three
months earlier, when the general opposition to the English treaty
promised to delay or prevent it, this damaging paper would have had some
value. Apart, however, from any small practical utility the confession
might still possess, it promised Fauchet another form of satisfaction.
Being a man of great vanity, he felt injured and insulted by the
coolness of his diplomatic reception and by the complete absence of
p