“I forgot that, dear girl; I was so startled by his saying he had discovered Louis Lebeau to be Julian. There must be some traitor or spy in the château; who can it be?”
“It must be Dedan, the girl from Dame Moret’s farm. Julia told me she had a lover to whom she was shortly to be married—a domestic in the house of Monsieur Gramont. She appears a kind, good-humoured girl. Oh! here is Julia.”
“Thanks to the Virgin,” said Julia, “they are gone, gendarmes and all; and only to think of it! it’s that girl Dedan who has done all the mischief. Here is my father, he will explain all.”
Monsieur Plessis and his wife entered the room; the latter looked pale and frightened.
“You look alarmed, Marie,” said Madame Coulancourt to her intendant’s good lady, and taking her hand they sat down on a sofa. “What makes you look so serious, now that we have, as dear Julian would say, weathered the storm?”
“I was so shocked,” returned Madame Plessis, “by the discovery of the treachery of that girl, who might have destroyed us all by her weak infatuation.”
“How did you discover her treachery, Jean Plessis?” said Madame. “For you cleverly turned the tables upon that designing man, Monsieur Gramont.”
“I had not the slightest idea,” said Jean Plessis, “when I left the château this morning that we had an enemy in the camp. We got to Havre to breakfast; I left Marie to make some purchases, and went to my appointment with Captain Bonafoux, the owner of the chasse-mare, and finally we arranged our terms and mode of proceeding; wishing to be back early, for fear Monsieur Gramont should visit the château. As I drove into the yard, the man, Antoine Dubois, was coming out of an outhouse. When he saw me, he hesitated, and thought to get out by a back way; but as I had given the girl Dedan strict injunctions not to receive her intended husband at the château, I followed the man, and he paused till I came up.
“‘What brought you here this morning, Dubois?’ I demanded. I knew the man well, for he is a native of this place, and never bore a very good character. He looked at me a moment and then said—‘If you will give me a hundred francs, Monsieur Plessis, and promise not to detain me or the girl Dedan, I will tell you news that may save you all from the clutches of Monsieur Gramont, who drove me out of his house two hours ago, and will be here, I expect, every moment.’ I was struck with the man’s manner, and aware how critical our situation is, I said, ‘I promise you; and if you really give me any intelligence that I consider of consequence, I will give you two hundred francs, and you and this girl Dedan, whom I suspect, shall be free to go where you like.’
“‘Well, then,’ said Dubois, ‘the two hundred francs are mine. The man that led the pretended robbers to plunder you the day you arrived here with the young demoiselles, is now lying wounded in Monsieur Gramont’s mansion; it was he who induced the coast-guard to endeavour to secure the two Englishmen you had hid in this château. He did so whilst Monsieur Gramont was gone to Paris; he wished to catch you all trying to escape, and then arrest you.’