library and fetch two large volumes entitled: "General Biography of
the Men of the Present Age," which he would find in the bookcase on the
right. Father Absinthe hastened to obey; and as soon as the books were
brought, M. Tabaret began turning the pages with an eager hand, like a
person seeking some word in a dictionary.

"Esbayron," he muttered, "Escars, Escayrac, Escher, Escodica--at last
we have it--Escorval! Listen attentively, my boy, and you will be
enlightened."

This injunction was entirely unnecessary. Never had the young
detective's faculties been more keenly on the alert. It was in an
emphatic voice that the sick man then read: "Escorval (Louis-Guillaume,
baron d').--Diplomatist and politician, born at Montaignac, December
3d, 1769; of an old family of lawyers. He was completing his studies in
Paris at the outbreak of the Revolution and embraced the popular
cause with all the ardor of youth. But, soon disapproving the excesses
committed in the name of Liberty, he sided with the Reactionists,
advised, perhaps, by Roederer, who was one of his relatives. Commended
to the favor of the First Counsel by M. de Talleyrand, he began
his diplomatic career with a mission to Switzerland; and during the
existence of the First Empire he was entrusted with many important
negotiations. Devoted to the Emperor, he found himself gravely
compromised at the advent of the Second Restoration. At the time of the
celebrated rising at Montaignac, he was arrested on the double charge of
high treason and conspiracy. He was tried by a military commission, and
condemned to death. The sentence was not executed, however. He owed his
life to the noble devotion and heroic energy of a priest, one of his
friends, the Abbe Midon, cure of the little village of Sairmeuse. The
baron d'Escorval had only one son, who embraced the judicial profession
at a very early age."

Lecoq was intensely disappointed. "I understand," he remarked. "This
is the biography of our magistrate's father. Only I don't see that it
teaches us anything."

An ironical smile curved old Tirauclair's lips. "It teaches us that
M. d'Escorval's father was condemned to death," he replied. "That's
something, I assure you. A little patience, and you will soon know
everything."

Having found a new leaf, he recommenced to read: "Sairmeuse
(Anne-Marie-Victor de Tingry, Duc de).--A French general and politician,
born at the chateau de Sairmeuse, near Montaignac, in 1758. The
Sair