n a passing swoon. Under ordinary circumstances he might not
have been satisfied to have taken the fellow's word; he would himself
have ascertained the truth of the statement by a close inspection of the
victim. But, as we have seen, the news came as so desirable a solution
to the altercation that was waxing 'twixt himself and Des Cadoux that he
was more than glad to avail himself of it.

The discovery that Caron lived was made while they were cutting him down
from his pillory, and just as the Marquis was turning to go within. A
flutter of the eyelids and a gasp for breath announced the fact, and
the executioner was on the point of crying out his discovery when
Mademoiselle's eyes flashed him a glance of warning, and her voice
whispered feverishly:

"Hush! There are ten louis for each of you if you but keep silent and
carry him to Master Duhamel as I told you."

The secretary opened his eyes but saw nothing, and a low moan escaped
him. She shot a fearful glance at the retreating figure of her father,
whilst Gilles--the executioner--hissed sharply into his ear:

"Mille diables! be still, man. You are dead."

Thus did he escape, and thus was he borne--a limp, agonised, and
bleeding mass, to the house of Duhamel. The old schoolmaster received
them with tears in his eyes--nor were they altogether tears of sorrow,
for all that poor Caron's mangled condition grieved him sorely; they
were in a measure tears of thankfulness; for Duhamel had not dared hope
to see the young man alive again.

At the pedagogue's door stood a berline, and within his house there was
a visitor. This was a slight young man of medium stature, who had not
the appearance of more than twenty-five years of age, for all that, as
a matter of fact, he was just over thirty. He was dressed with so
scrupulous a neatness as to convey, in spite of the dark colour of his
garments, an impression almost of foppishness. There was an amplitude
about his cravat, an air of extreme care about the dressing of his wig
and the powdering of it, and a shining brightness about his buttons and
the buckles of his shoes which seemed to proclaim the dandy, just as
the sombreness of the colour chosen seemed to deny it. In his singularly
pale countenance a similar contradiction was observable. The weak,
kindly eyes almost appeared to give the lie to the astute prominence of
his cheekbones; the sensitiveness of the mouth seemed neutralised by the
thinness of the lips, whilst the