"'Indeed. Well, now, I am sure you know everything.'

"'Well, sir, I will tell you the whole story.--When I saw Monsieur
Regnault go up to see you, it struck me that he would speak to you
about Madame de Merret as having to do with la Grande Breteche. That
put it into my head to ask your advice, sir, seeming to me that you
are a man of good judgment and incapable of playing a poor woman like
me false--for I never did any one a wrong, and yet I am tormented by
my conscience. Up to now I have never dared to say a word to the
people of these parts; they are all chatter-mags, with tongues like
knives. And never till now, sir, have I had any traveler here who
stayed so long in the inn as you have, and to whom I could tell the
history of the fifteen thousand francs----'

"'My dear Madame Lepas, if there is anything in your story of a
nature to compromise me,' I said, interrupting the flow of her words,
'I would not hear it for all the world.'

"'You need have no fears,' said she; 'you will see.'

"Her eagerness made me suspect that I was not the only person to whom
my worthy landlady had communicated the secret of which I was to be
the sole possessor, but I listened.

"'Monsieur,' said she, 'when the Emperor sent the Spaniards here,
prisoners of war and others, I was required to lodge at the charge of
the Government a young Spaniard sent to Vendome on parole.
Notwithstanding his parole, he had to show himself every day to the
sub-prefect. He was a Spanish grandee--neither more nor less. He had a