XIX. VENGEANCE
The old man walked mechanically along the rue Notre-Dame des Champs, and entered the house by the little door, which he noticed was open. There he came suddenly upon Nepomucene.
“Oh, monsieur, come quick! they are taking Monsieur Auguste to prison! They arrested him on the boulevard; it was he they were looking for; they have examined him.”
The old man bounded like a tiger, rushed through the house with the speed of an arrow, and reached the door on the boulevard in time to see his grandson getting into a hackney-coach with three men.
“Auguste,” he said, “what does all this mean?”
The poor boy burst into tears and fainted away.
“Monsieur, I am the Baron Bourlac, formerly attorney-general,” he said to the commissary of police, whose scarf now attracted his eye. “I entreat you to explain all this.”
“Monsieur, if you are Baron Bourlac, two words will be enough. I have just examined this young man, and he admits—”
“What?”