"Let him come in," said M. H...., eagerly. "You were right to announce him."
The person whom we have previously seen with a mask at the house of M. H...., entered, and looked carefully around to see that he was with the Chief of Police alone. Many months had passed, and all we have described had taken place. For since then, we have gone, like a sound logician, backwards, in order to expose our data distinctly before we proceed to define their consequences. Now the first appearance of the masked man in the cabinet of M. H.... coincided with the painful scene in which Taddeo Rovero had crushed the hopes of the Duchess of Palma by revealing to her the probability of the marriage of Monte-Leone and Aminta.
"Monsieur," said the stranger to M. H...., "have I kept my promise?"
"Yes," said H....
"Have I unfolded the plot of Carbonarism?"
"You have satisfied me of the existence of the French Venta, and of their identity with those of Italy and Spain. We have written to the police of those nations, and all was discovered to be exact, so that in a few days the governments of those countries will have acted."
"Have I named you the chief Carbonari in Paris?"
"You have."
"Have I given you their secret notes and books?"
"In relation to that, I am but partially satisfied, but I do not need the copies but the documents themselves, in the handwriting of their authors."