"It is the road of Paradise! very good, that," said Madame Marion,
anxious to flatter Achille Pigoult in the interests of her nephew.

"Monsieur," said Antonin's valet in the dining-room, "the tilbury has
a coat of arms--"

"Coat of arms!"

"Yes, and droll enough they are! There's a coronet with nine points
and pearls--"

"Then he's a count!"

"And a monster with wings, flying like a postilion who has dropped
something. And here is what is written on the belt," added the man,
taking a paper from his pocket. "Mademoiselle Anicette, the Princesse
de Cadignan's lady's maid, who came in a carriage" (the Cinq-Cygne
carriage before the door of the Mulet!) "to bring a letter to the
gentleman, wrote it down for me."

"Give it to me."

The sub-prefect read the words: _Quo me trahit fortuna_.

Though he was not strong enough in French blazon to know the house
that bore that device, Antonin felt sure that the Cinq-Cygnes would
not send their chariot, nor the Princess de Cadignan a missive by her
maid, except to a person of the highest nobility.

"Ha! so you know the maid of the Princess de Cadignan! happy man!"