aused by them."

"Explain it."

"I again ask permission to relate fully. I did not hear from Versailles:
I began to fear Monsieur de Lamotte's anxiety would bring him to Paris.
Bound by the promise I had made to his wife to avert all suspicion and to
satisfy any doubts he might conceive, and, must I add, also remembering
that it was important for me to inform him of our new arrangements, and
of this payment of a hundred thousand livres."

"That payment is assuredly fictitious," interrupted Monsieur de Lamotte;
"we must have some proof of it."

"I will prove it presently," answered Derues. "So I went to Buisson, as
I have already told you. On my return I found a letter from Madame de
Lamotte, a letter with a Paris stamp, which had arrived that morning. I
was surprised that she should write, when actually in Paris; I opened the
letter, and was still more surprised. I have not the letter with me, but
I recollect the sense of it perfectly, if not the wording, and I can
produce it if necessary. Madame de Lamotte was at Lyons with her son and
this person whose name I do not know, and whom I do not care to mention
before her husband. She had confided this letter to a person who was
coming to Paris, and who was to bring it me; but this individual, whose
name was Marquis, regretted that having to start again immediately, he
was obliged to entrust it to the post. This is the sense of its
contents. Madame de Lamotte wrote that she found herself obliged to
follow this nameless person to Lyons; and she begged me to send her news
of her husband and of the state of his affairs, but said not one single
word of any probable return. I became very uneasy at the news of this
clandestine departure. I had no security except a private contract
annulling our first agreement on the payment of one hundred thousand
livres, and that this was not a sufficient and regular receipt I knew,
because the lawyer had already refused to surrender Monsieur de Lamotte's
power of attorney. I thought over all the difficulties which this
flight, which would have to be kept secret, was likely to produce, and I
started for Lyons without writing or giving any notice of my intention.
I had no information, I did not even know whether Madame de Lamotte was
passing by another name, as at Versailles, but chance decreed that I met
her the very day of my arrival. She was alone, and complained bitterly
of her fate, saying she had been compelled to follow th