"What has become of him," asked Henri again.
"He has joined the insurrection."
"Ah, it wanted only that! He has done us a great injury. The government will imagine that we are all more or less implicated in his folly. But is the thing certain?"
"There is no doubt whatever," and Mathilde read with a trembling voice a passage from the letter. The husband seeing her so agitated left her, and himself became thoughtful and gloomy.
The news spread from mouth to mouth over the city. Some refused to believe it, while others rejoiced at it. Jacob had no warm friends, and few were sorry for him.
The same evening Sofronof went in triumph to Muse.
"Well! He has joined the insurgents, this man that you accused me of suspecting without motive!"
"You jest. Was he not the enemy of the revolution?"
"Yet he has enlisted under their banner. The Poles are all the same. The sight of their eaglet always has an irresistible attraction for them."
"It is nothing to me," replied Muse; "but I will not believe it without more ample information."