"To be sure! That God in the other world and two persons only in this had ever known this secret. The two human beings were Diane de Poitiers and the Comte de Montgommery, my father. I have begged and implored and threatened Madame de Valentinois; but when I left her, I was more uncertain and despairing than ever."
"But when I told you, Monseigneur," said Aloyse, "you declared that if it were necessary for you to descend into your father's tomb to wrest this secret from him, you would not shrink from the task."
"But," said Gabriel, "I have no idea where that tomb is situated."
"Nor I, but you must seek for it, Monseigneur."
"And even if I should find it," cried Gabriel, "God would have to work a miracle for me. The dead do not speak, Aloyse."
"No, the dead do not; but the living do."
"Great God! what do you mean?" said Gabriel, pale as a ghost.
"That you are not, as you kept calling yourself in your delirium, the Comte de Montgommery, Monseigneur, but only Vicomte de Montgommery, because your father, the Comte de Montgommery, is still living."
"Heaven and earth! Do you know that he is alive, my dear father?"
"I don't know it, Monseigneur, but I believe and hope so; for his was a strong and sturdy nature like yours, and should have resisted suffering and misfortune as valiantly. Now, if he is alive, he is not the one to refuse, as Madame Diane did, to reveal the secret on which your happiness depends!"