"Hush! general, don't mention it here, for pity's sake. His sister lives in this house,--the young girl who waited on you at table last night,--and her father is only just buried."
"Ah, these civil wars! the devil take them!" said the general.
"And yet they are the only logical wars."
"Maybe. However, I captured your Jean Oullier, and he got away."
"Yes; but if he falls into my grip again--"
"Oh, there's no danger of that; once warned, I'll answer for him."
"So much the better, for I shouldn't be indulgent to him. I haven't talked of the great war with him, as I have with you."
"But he fought through it, though, and bravely, too."
"But, general," said the marquis, "I can't see, so far, how the conduct of my keeper can be twisted into a crime of mine."
"Wait, and you will see. You said last night that imps came and told you all I did between seven and ten o'clock that evening."
"Well, I have imps, too, and they are every bit as good as yours."
"They have told me all that happened in your castle yesterday."
"Go on," said the marquis, incredulously; "I'm listening."
"On the previous evening two persons came to stay at the château de Souday."
"Good! you are better than your word. You promised to tell me what happened yesterday, and now you begin with the day before yesterday."
"These two persons were a man and a woman."
"So be it; call them two men, though one of them had nothing but the clothes of our sex."
The marquis said nothing, and the general continued:
"Of these two personages, one, the smaller, spent the whole day at the castle; the other rode about the neighborhood, and gave rendezvous that evening at Souday to a number of gentlemen. If I were indiscreet I would tell you their names; but I will only mention that of the gentleman who summoned them,--namely, the Comte de Bonneville."
The marquis made no reply. He must either acknowledge or lie.
"These gentlemen arrived at Souday, one after the other. They discussed various matters, the most calming of which was certainly not the glory, prosperity, and duration of the government of July."
"My dear general, admit that you are not one whit more in love than I with your government of July, though you serve it."
"Eh? good God! I'm saying that you are a republican, blue, dark-blue; and a true dark-blue is a fast color."