“Keep that lad under your eyes, and let him have no communication with anybody.”
Then, turning again to Anthony, he said,—
“Now show us to M. de Boiscoran’s bedroom.”
VIII.
In spite of its grand feudal air, the chateau at Boiscoran was, after all, little more than a bachelor’s modest home, and in a very bad state of preservation. Of the eighty or a hundred rooms which it contained, hardly more than eight or ten were furnished, and this only in the simplest possible manner,—a sitting-room, a dining-room, a few guest-chambers: this was all M. de Boiscoran required during his rare visits to the place. He himself used in the second story a small room, the door of which opened upon the great staircase.
When they reached this door, guided by old Anthony, the magistrate said to the servant,—
“Knock!”
The man obeyed: and immediately a youthful, hearty voice replied from within,—
“Who is there?”
“It is I,” said the faithful servant. “I should like”—