Page 147 (1/1)

"I aitated; "and recently we have had infors in the Rue Saint-Jacques But proceed, I beg of you How did you obtain these details?"

"Sire, they are the results of an examination which I have made of a man of Marseilles, whom I have watched for some time, and arrested on the day of my departure This person, a sailor, of turbulent character, and whom I suspected of Bonapartisrand-e to a Bonapartist in Paris, whose name I could not extract from him; but this mission was to prepare men's minds for a return (it is the man who says this, sire)--a return which will soon occur"

"And where is this man?"

"In prison, sire"

"And the matter seems serious to you?"

"So serious, sire, that when the circumstance surprised me in the midst of a family festival, on the very day ofeverything, that I ht hasten to lay at your majesty's feet the fears which impressed me, and the assurance of my devotion"

"True," said Louis XVIII, "was there not a ehter of one of your majesty's most faithful servants"

"Yes, yes; but let us talk of this plot, M de Villefort"

"Sire, I fear it is more than a plot; I fear it is a conspiracy"

"A conspiracy in these ti very easy to meditate, but more difficult to conduct to an end, inasmuch as, re-established so recently on the throne of our ancestors, we have our eyes open at once upon the past, the present, and the future For the last ten ilance, in order to watch the shore of the Mediterranean If Bonaparte landed at Naples, the whole coalition would be on foot before he could even reach Piomoino; if he land in Tuscany, he will be in an unfriendly territory; if he land in France, it must be with a handful of men, and the result of that is easily foretold, execrated as he is by the population Take courage, sir; but at the saratitude"

"Ah, here is M Dandre!" cried de Blacas At this instant the , and as if ready to faint Villefort was about to retire, but M de Blacas, taking his hand, restrained him