At that instant the theft was accomplished. While the doctor was looking at his sopped bread heavy with chocolate, Auguste s.n.a.t.c.hed four notes and put them into his pocket, as if he were merely putting his hand there by accident.

"Yes, monsieur," he replied, "I am a baron, and so is my grandfather; he was attorney-general under the Restoration."

"You blush, young man; there's no need to blush for being a poor baron; that's common enough."

"Who told you, monsieur, that we are poor?"

"Your grandfather told me he had spent the night in the Champs Elysees; and though I know no palace with half so fine a ceiling as that of the skies at two o'clock this morning, I a.s.sure you it was pretty cold in the palace where your grandfather pa.s.sed the night. We don't select the 'Star' inn from choice."

"Has my grandfather been here this morning?" said Auguste, seizing the opportunity to get away. "I thank you, monsieur, and I will call again, if you will permit me, to ask for news of my mother."

As soon as he was in the street the young baron took a cab to go as rapidly as he could to the sheriff's office, where he paid his grandfather's debt. The sheriff gave him the papers and a receipted bill of costs, and told one of his clerks to accompany the young man home and relieve the legal guardian of her functions.

"As Messieurs Barbet and Metivier live in your quarter," he said, "I will tell my young man to carry the money there and obtain the bill of sale of the books and return it to you."

Auguste who did not understand either the terms or the formalities of the law, did exactly as he was told. He received seven hundred francs change from the four thousand francs he had stolen, and went away with the clerk. He got back into the cab in a condition of semi-stupor; for, the result being now obtained, remorse began; he saw himself dishonored, cursed by his grandfather, whose inflexible nature was well-known to him, and he felt that his mother would surely die if she knew him guilty. All nature changed for him. He was hot; he did not see the snow; the houses looked like spectres flitting past him.

By the time he reached home the young baron had decided on his course which was certainly that of an honest man. He went to his mother's room, took the gold snuff-box set with diamonds given to his grandfather by the Emperor, and wrapped it in a parcel with the seven hundred francs and the following letter, which required several rough copies before it was satisfactory. Then he directed the whole to Doctor Halpersohn:--

Monsieur,--The fruits of twenty years of my grandfather's toil were about to be seized by usurers, who even threatened to put him in prison. Three thousand three hundred francs were enough to save him. Seeing all that money on your table, I could not resist the happiness of freeing my grandfather from his danger. I borrowed, without your consent, four thousand francs of you; but as three thousand three hundred were all that was necessary, I send the other seven hundred in money, together with a gold snuff-box set with diamonds, given to my grandfather by the Emperor, the value of which will probably cover the whole sum.

In case you do not believe in the honor of him who will forever regard you as a benefactor, I pray you to keep silence about an act which would be quite unjustifiable under other circ.u.mstances; for by so doing you will save my grandfather's life, just as you are saving my mother's life; and I shall be forever

Your devoted servant, Auguste de Mergi.

About half-past two o'clock in the afternoon, Auguste, who went himself as far as the Champs Elysees, sent the package from there by a street messenger to Doctor Halpersohn's house; then he walked slowly homeward by the pont de Jena, the Invalides, and the boulevards, relying on Halpersohn's generosity.

The Polish doctor had meanwhile discovered the theft, and he instantly changed his opinion of his clients. He now thought the old man had come to rob him, and being unable to succeed, had sent the boy. He doubted the rank they had claimed, and went straight to the police-office where he lodged a complaint, requesting that the lad might be arrested at once.

The prudence with which the law proceeds seldom allows it to move as rapidly as complainants desire; but about three o'clock of that day a commissary of police, accompanied by agents who kept watch outside the house, was questioning Madame Vauthier as to her lodgers, and the widow was increasing, without being aware of it, the suspicions of the policeman.

When Nepomucene saw the police agents stationed outside the house, he thought they had come to arrest the old man, and as he was fond of Monsieur Auguste, he rushed to meet Monsieur Bernard, whom he now saw on his way home in the avenue de l'Observatoire.

"Hide yourself, monsieur!" he cried, "the police have come to arrest you. The sheriff was here yesterday and seized everything. Madame Vauthier didn't give you the stamped papers, and she says you'll be in Clichy to-night or to-morrow. There, don't you see those policemen?"

Baron Bourlac immediately resolved to go straight to Barbet. The former publisher lived in the rue Saint-Catherine d'Enfer, and it took him a quarter of an hour to reach the house.

"Ah! I suppose you have come to get that bill of sale," said Barbet, replying to the salutation of his victim. "Here it is."

And, to Baron Bourlac's great astonishment, he held out the doc.u.ment, which the baron took, saying,--

"I do not understand."

"Didn't you pay me?" said the usurer.

"Are you paid?"

"Yes, your grandson took the money to the sheriff this morning."

"Then it is true you made a seizure at my house yesterday?"

"Haven't you been home for two days?" asked Barbet. "But an old magistrate ought to know what a notification of arrest means."

Hearing that remark, the baron bowed coldly to Barbet and returned home, thinking that the policemen whom Nepomucene had pointed out must have come for the two impecunious authors on the upper floor. He walked slowly, lost in vague apprehensions; for, in spite of the explanation he gave himself, Nepomucene's words came back, and seemed to him more and more obscure and inexplicable. Was it possible that G.o.defroid had betrayed him?

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?"

"The robbery of four thousand francs from Doctor Halpersohn!"

"Is that true, Auguste?"

"Grandpapa, I sent him as security your diamond snuff-box. I did it to save you from going to prison."

"Unhappy boy! what have you done? The diamonds are false!" cried the baron; "I sold the real ones three years ago!"

The commissary of police and his agents looked at each other. That look, full of many things, was intercepted by Baron Bourlac, and seemed to blast him.

"Monsieur," he said to the commissary, "you need not feel uneasy; I shall go myself to the prefect; but you are witness to the fact that I kept my grandson ignorant of the loss of the diamonds. Do your duty; but I implore you, in the name of humanity, put that lad in a cell by himself; I will go to the prison. To which one are you taking him?"

"Are you really Baron Bourlac?" asked the commissary.

"Oh, monsieur!"

"The fact is that the munic.i.p.al judge and I doubted if it were possible that you and your grandson could be guilty. We thought, and the doctor, too, that some scoundrels had taken your name."

He took the baron aside, and added:--