"Zounds! will you speak, or will you not?"

Chupin regretted that he had gone so far.

"Because the marquis----"

"Well?"

"He is engaged in it."

The duke overturned the table with a terrible blow of his clinched fist.

"You lie, wretch!" he thundered, with the most horrible oaths.

He was so formidable in his anger that the old poacher sprang to the
door and turned the knob, ready to take flight.

"May I lose my head if I do not speak the truth," he insisted. "Ah!
Lacheneur's daughter is a regular sorceress. All the gallants of the
neighborhood are in the ranks; Chanlouineau, young d'Escorval, your
son----"

M. de Sairmeuse was pouring forth a torrent of curses upon Marie-Anne
when his valet re-entered the room.

He suddenly checked himself, put on his uniform, and ordering Chupin to
follow him, hastened from the house.

He was still hoping that Chupin had exaggerated the danger; but when
he reached the Place d'Arms, which commanded an extended view of the