that she would wait until
La Boulaye communicated with her again.

That night Caron slept tranquilly. He had matured a plan of escape which
he intended to carry out upon the morrow, and with confident hope to
cradle him he had fallen asleep.

But the morrow--early in the forenoon--brought a factor with which
he had not reckoned, in the person of the Incorruptible himself.
Robespierre had returned in hot haste to Paris upon receiving Varennes'
message, and he repaired straight to the house of La Boulaye.

Caron was in his dressing-gown when Robespierre was ushered into his
study, and the sight of that greenish complexion and the small eyes,
looking very angry and menacing, caused the song that the young man had
been humming to fade on his lips.

"You, Maximilien!" he exclaimed.

"Your cordial welcome flatters me," sneered the Incorruptible, coming
forward. Then with a sudden change of voice: "What is that they tell me
you have done, miserable?" he growled.

It would have been a madness on Caron's part to have increased an
anger that was already mounting to very passionate heights. Contritely,
therefore, and humbly he acknowledged his fault, and cast himself upon
the mercy of Robespierre.

But the Incorruptible was not so easily to be shaken.

"Traitor that you are!" he inveighed. "Do you imagine that because it
is yours to make high sounding speeches in the Convention you are to
conspire with impunity against the Nation? Your loyalty, it seems, is
no more than a matter of words, and they that would keep their heads on
their shoulders in France to-day will find the need for more than words
as their claim to be let live. If you would save your miserable neck,
tell me what you have done with this damned aristocrat."

"He is gone," answered La Boulaye quietly.

"Don't prevaricate, Caron! Don't seek to befool me, Citizen-deputy. You
have him in hiding somewhere. You can have supplied him with no papers,
and a man may not travel out of France without them in these times. Tell
me--where is he?"

"Gone," repeated La Boulaye. "I have set him free, and he has availed
himself of it to place himself beyond your reach. More than that I
cannot tell you."

"Can you not?" snarled Robespierre, showing his teeth. "Of what are you
dreaming fool? Do you think that I will so easily see myself cheated of
this dog? Did I not tell you that rather would I grant you the lives of
a dozen aristocrats than that of this single one? Do