w plots for the future, which he afterwards
executed with success. He conceived the idea of bursting forth in a new
shape, under which no one would ever suspect his former identity.

"How he went about to do this, I am enabled to tell you accurately.
Through his godfather, the valet, who had died before his trial, Justin
Chevassat knew the history of the Brevan family in its minutest details.
It was a very sad story. The old marquis had died insolvent, after
having lost his five sons, who had gone abroad to make their fortunes.
The noble family had thus become extinct; but Justin proposed to
continue its lineage. He knew that the Brevans were originally from
Maine; that they had formerly owned immense estates in the neighborhood
of Mans; and that they had not been there for more than twenty years.
Would they still be remembered in a land where they had once been all
powerful? Most assuredly they would. Would people take the trouble to
inquire minutely what had become of the marquis and his five sons? As
assuredly not.

"Chevassat's plot was based upon these calculations.

"As soon as he was free once more, he devoted all his energies to the
destruction of every trace of his identity; and, when he thought he had
accomplished this, he went to Mans, assuming the name of one of the sons
of the marquis, who had been nearly of his own age. No one doubted for a
moment that he was Maxime de Brevan. Who could have doubted it, when
he purchased the old family mansion for a considerable sum, although
it only consisted of a ruinous castle, and a small farm adjoining the
house? He paid cash, moreover, proving thus the correctness of the
magistrate's suspicions as to his story about losses on 'Change, and as
to the complicity of his parents. He even took the precaution of
living on his little estate for four years, practising the life of
a country-gentleman, received with open arms by the nobility of the
neighborhood, forming friendships, gaining supporters, and becoming more
and more identified with Maxime de Brevan.

"What was his aim at that time? I always thought he was looking out
for a wealthy wife, so as to consolidate his position; and he came near
realizing his hopes.

"He was on the point of marrying a young lady from Mans, who would have
brought him half a million in money, and the banns had already been
published, when, all of a sudden, the marriage was broken off, no one
knew why.

"This only is certain: he was so