"Sit down, and answer my questions."
"The first man who visited you this evening was M. Jeannin, was he not?"
"Yes, M. Jeannin de Castille."
"The king's treasurer?"
"Yes."
"All right. The second was Commander de Jars, and the young man he brought with him was his nephew, the Chevalier de Moranges. The last comer was a duke; am I not right?"
"The Duc de Vitry."
"Now write from my dictation."
He spoke very slowly, and Mademoiselle de Guerchi, obeying his commands, took up her pen.
"'To-day,'" dictated Quennebert,—"'to-day, this twentieth day of the month of November, in the year of the Lord 1658, I—