king should interrogate him.

"M. de Villefort," said Louis XVIII., "the Duc de Blacas
assures me you have some interesting information to
communicate."

"Sire, the duke is right, and I believe your majesty will
think it equally important."

"In the first place, and before everything else, sir, is the
news as bad in your opinion as I am asked to believe?"

"Sire, I believe it to be most urgent, but I hope, by the
speed I have used, that it is not irreparable."

"Speak as fully as you please, sir," said the king, who
began to give way to the emotion which had showed itself in
Blacas's face and affected Villefort's voice. "Speak, sir,
and pray begin at the beginning; I like order in
everything."

"Sire," said Villefort, "I will render a faithful report to
your majesty, but I must entreat your forgiveness if my
anxiety leads to some obscurity in my language." A glance at
the king after this discreet and subtle exordium, assured
Villefort of the benignity of his august auditor, and he
went on: --

"Sire, I have come as rapidly to Paris as possible, to
inform your majesty that I have discovered, in the exercise
of my duties, not a commonplace and insignificant plot, such
as is every day got up in the lower ranks of the people and
in the army, but an actual conspiracy -- a storm which
menaces no less than your majesty's throne. Sire, the
usurper is arming three ships, he meditates some project,
which, however mad, is yet, perhaps, terrible. At this
moment he will have left Elba, to go whither I know not, but
assuredly to attempt a landing either at Naples, or on the
coast of Tuscany, or perhaps on the shores of France. Your
majesty is well aware that the sovereign of the Island of
Elba has maintained his relations with Italy and France?"

"I am, sir," said the king, much agitated; "and recently we
have had information that the Bonapartist clubs have had
meetings 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
Bonapartism, has been secretly to the Island of Elba. There
he saw the grand-marshal, who charged him with an oral
message 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 of my
betrothal, I left my bride and friends, postponing
everything, that I might 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 marriage
engagement between you and Mademoiselle de Saint-Meran?"

"Daughter 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 times," said Louis XVIII., smiling,
"is a thing 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 months my ministers have redoubled their vigilance,
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 same time rely on
our royal gratitude."

"Ah, here is M. Dandre!" cried de Blacas. At this instant
the minister of police appeared at the door, pale,
trembling, and as if ready to faint. Villefort was about to
retire, but M. de Blacas, taking his hand, restrained him.


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