to return to the present question--may I depend on you to-morrow? For we
must have a witness, and our witness must be both discreet and silent."

"On my silence and discretion you may rely absolutely."

"And you can be here by nine?"

"By daybreak, if you please."

"I won't tax you to that extent. Nine will do quite well."

"Adieu, then, till nine."

"Adieu, and thank you."

With this I left him, somewhat relieved to find that I had escaped all
cross-examination on the score of Madame Marignan.

"De Caylus!" I again repeated to myself, as I took my rapid way to the
Hotel Dieu. "De Caylus! why, surely, it must have been that evening at
Madame de Courcelles'...."

And then I recollected that De Caylus was the name of that officer who
was said to have ridden by night, and single-handed, through the heart
of the enemy's camp, somewhere in Algiers.



CHAPTER XVIII.