"Yes, mademoiselle, I knew."
"And it was you who assisted her to leave Brittany?"
"It was I! That was about the first good action which brightened my life, and—and—and"—(another muttered oath to assist his articulation) "and I hope it was only a commencement."
"Tell us—tell us everything quickly," prayed Bertha.
"Mademoiselle Madeleine, when she determined to leave the Château de Gramont,—when she resolved to cease to be dependent,—when, in spite of her noble birth, which was to her only an encumbrance, she purposed to gain a livelihood by honest industry,—confided her project to me. And what good she did me in making me feel that I was worthy enough of her esteem to be trusted! She first committed to my charge her family diamonds, her sole possession, and ordered me to dispose of them"—
"Her diamonds! those which have been in her family for generations! What sacrilege!" cried the countess, in accents of horror.
"Pardon me, madame; it would have been sacrilege, she thought, and so did I, if she had kept them when their sale could have prevented her being the unhappy recipient of the unwilling charity of her relatives."
"Go on—go on!" urged Bertha. "How did she leave the château? How could she travel?"
"I obtained her a passport, for it would have been running too great a risk if she had attempted to travel without one. The passport had to be signed by two witnesses. Fortunately, two of my friends at Rennes were about to leave the country; I selected them as witnesses, because they could not be questioned; I told them the whole story, and bound them to secrecy. We took out the passport for England to divert pursuit; but, Mademoiselle Madeleine only went to Paris, and it was not necessary that her passport should be viséd if she remained there."
"But the diamonds,—they were those Madame de Fleury wore and which I recognized!" exclaimed Bertha.