“Come, what did he say when he gave you your orders?”
“He bid us fetch you at once,” said Ruffard, “and said we should find you at the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Pres; or, if the funeral had left the church, at the cemetery.”
“The public prosecutor wants me?”
“Perhaps.”
“That is it,” said Jacques Collin; “he wants my assistance.”
And he relapsed into silence, which greatly puzzled the two constables.
At about half-past two Jacques Collin once more went up to Monsieur de Granville’s room, and found there a fresh arrival in the person of Monsieur de Granville’s predecessor, the Comte Octave de Bauvan, one of the Presidents of the Court of Appeals.
“You forgot Madame de Serizy’s dangerous condition, and that you had promised to save her.”
“Ask these rascals in what state they found me, monsieur,” said Jacques Collin, signing to the two constables to come in.
“Unconscious, monsieur, lying on the edge of the grave of the young man they were burying.”