Vautrin Yes, a son full of n.o.bility, of winning grace, of high instincts; he needed but to have the way made clear to him.

The d.u.c.h.ess (wringing the hand of Vautrin) You must needs be great indeed, who have so well performed a mother's task!

Vautrin And better than you mothers do! Often you love your babes amiss--Ah, you will spoil him for me even now!--He was of reckless courage; he wished to be a soldier, and the Emperor would have accepted him. I showed him the world and mankind under their true light--Yet now he is about to renounce me--

The d.u.c.h.ess My son ungrateful?

Vautrin NO, 'tis mine I speak of.

The d.u.c.h.ess Oh! give him back to me this very instant!

Vautrin I and those two men upstairs--are we not all liable to prosecution?

And ought not the duke to give us a.s.surance of silence and release?

The d.u.c.h.ess Those two men then are your agents? And you came--

Vautrin But for me, of the two, natural and lawful son, there would not, in a few hours, have survived but one child. And they might perchance both have fallen--each by the other's hand.

The d.u.c.h.ess Ah! you are a providence of horror!

Vautrin What would you have had me do?

SCENE FOURTEENTH.

The same persons, the Duke, Lafouraille, Buteux, Saint-Charles, and all the domestics.

The Duke (pointing to Vautrin) Seize him! (Pointing to Saint-Charles) And obey no one but this gentleman.

The d.u.c.h.ess But you owe to him the life of your Albert! It was he who gave the alarm.

The Duke He!

Buteux (to Vautrin) Ah! you have betrayed us! Why did you bring us here?

Saint-Charles (to the duke) Does your grace hear them?

Lafouraille (to Buteux) Cannot you keep silence? Have we any right to judge him?

Buteux And yet he condemns us!

Vautrin (to the duke) I would inform your grace that these two men belong to me, and I claim possession of them.

Saint-Charles Why, these are the domestics of Monsieur de Frescas!

Vautrin (to Saint-Charles) Steward of the Langeacs, hold your tongue! (He points to Lafouraille) This is Philip Boulard. (Lafouraille bows.) Will your grace kindly send every one out of the room?

The Duke What! Do you dare give your orders in my house?

The d.u.c.h.ess Ah! sir, he is master here.

The Duke What! This wretch?

Vautrin If his grace the duke wishes to have an audience present we will proceed to talk of the son of Dona Mendes.

The Duke Silence!

Vautrin Whom you are pa.s.sing off as the son of--

The Duke Once more I say, silence!

Vautrin Your grace perceives, evidently, that there are too many people within hearing.

The Duke All of you begone!

Vautrin (to the duke) Set a watch on every outlet from your house, and let no one leave it, excepting these two men. (To Saint-Charles) Do you remain here. (He draws a dagger and cuts the cords by which Lafouraille and Buteux are bound.) Take yourselves off by the postern; here is the key, and go to the house of mother Giroflee. (To Lafouraille) You must send Raoul to me.

Lafouraille (as he leaves the room) Oh! our veritable emperor.

Vautrin You shall receive money and pa.s.sports.

Buteux (as he goes out) After all, I shall have something for Adele!

The Duke But how did you learn all these facts?

Vautrin (handing some doc.u.ments to the duke) These are what I took from your study.

The Duke These comprise my correspondence, and the letters of the d.u.c.h.ess to the Viscount de Langeac.

Vautrin Who was shot at Mortagne, October, 1792, through the kind efforts of Charles Blondet, otherwise known as the Chevalier de Saint-Charles.

Saint-Charles But your grace very well knows--

Vautrin It was he himself who gave me these papers, among which you will notice the death certificate of the viscount, which proves that he and her grace the d.u.c.h.ess never met after the Tenth of August, for he had then left the Abbaye for the Vendee, accompanied by Boulard, who seized the moment to betray and murder him.

The Duke And so Fernand--

Vautrin The child sent to Sardinia is undoubtedly your son.

The Duke And her grace the d.u.c.h.ess--

Vautrin Is innocent.

The Duke My G.o.d! (He sinks back into an armchair.) What have I done?

The d.u.c.h.ess What a horrible proof--his death! And the a.s.sa.s.sin stands before us.

Vautrin Monsieur le Duc de Montsorel, I have been a father to Fernand, and I have just saved your two sons, each from the sword of the other; you alone are the author of all this complication.

The d.u.c.h.ess Stop! I know him better than you do, and he suffers at this moment all that I have suffered during twenty years. In the name of mercy, where is my son?