“What induced you to attempt to entrap this Englishman before my return?” asked Monsieur Gramont.
“Because I found out that this Lieutenant Thornton and this Louis Lebeau, whose Christian name is, however, Julian——”
“Julian! Julian!” repeated Bertram Gramont, with a start. “By the saints, I have it! No, no, he’s no lover. Julian! Yes, that’s the name of Madame Coulancourt’s son, supposed to have been killed amongst the good people of Lyons at the time D’Herbois shot them down like rooks. I trust Sergeant Perrin has secured him, at all events?”
“Not he; that cursed Jean Plessis is too wide awake for that. He’s gone—where, I can’t say—but he left the château on a pony last night with a boy called Joseph.”
“Then he will be easily traced, so all is right there. How did you contrive to get this girl to betray the secrets of a mistress so well loved as Madame Coulancourt? I suppose you made love to her.”
“Not such a fool as that,” muttered Vadier. “You can never lay aside your jokes, not even when your deepest interests are concerned.”
“Possibly not, mon ami,” returned Monsieur le Maire, with a laugh, “it’s not very long ago since it was the fashion to bandy bon mots with the executioner, when he was adjusting your head for that interesting receptacle, the box under the guillotine. However, you see,” continued Monsieur Gramont, “one of the consequences of your interfering is that this Lieutenant Thornton, who was one of those who failed in cutting out the Vengeance in Havre Roads, tried it again last night, and, by Jove, he has got her, and the Hermaphrodite armed brig, of Bordeaux, with a valuable cargo. If you had left him alone till my return, this would have been prevented.”
“How so?” returned Vadier. “I do not see that; for he and that pretended Pierre Bompart were evidently seeking to communicate with the corvette when I thought to entrap them.”
“Yes, I admit that, mon ami; but they were not intending to go on board then. My idea is, and I am persuaded I am right, that they were merely communicating with the corvette, planning an escape for Madame Coulancourt and her daughter; so my return with the order for the arrest of the whole party would have struck a fatal blow to their projects, and saved both the Vengeance and the brig.”
“And what do you intend doing now?” demanded Vadier. “I have the false deeds quite ready, and the late duke’s signatures, &c., all complete.”