I long for her and curse her by turns. To me she owes all her fortune,
all her happiness; well, she has not sent me the very smallest
pittance. Sometimes I do not know what will become of me!"

With these words the veteran dropped on to his chair again and
remained motionless. Derville sat in silence, studying his client.

"It is a serious business," he said at length, mechanically. "Even
granting the genuineness of the documents to be procured from
Heilsberg, it is not proved to me that we can at once win our case. It
must go before three tribunals in succession. I must think such a
matter over with a clear head; it is quite exceptional."

"Oh," said the Colonel, coldly, with a haughty jerk of his head, "if I
fail, I can die--but not alone."

The feeble old man had vanished. The eyes were those of a man of
energy, lighted up with the spark of desire and revenge.

"We must perhaps compromise," said the lawyer.

"Compromise!" echoed Colonel Chabert. "Am I dead, or am I alive?"

"I hope, monsieur," the attorney went on, "that you will follow my
advice. Your cause is mine. You will soon perceive the interest I take
in your situation, almost unexampled in judicial records. For the
moment I will give you a letter to my notary, who will pay to your
order fifty francs every ten days. It would be unbecoming for you to
come here to receive alms. If you are Colonel Chabert, you ought to be
at no man's mercy. I shall record these advances as a loan; you have