"All our friends keep their word!" he exclaimed. "They are ready; they
are even now on their way to the rendezvous. Let us start at once, for
we must be there first!"

They brought him his horse, and his foot was already in the stirrup,
when two men sprang from the neighboring grove and darted toward him.
One of them seized the horse by the bridle.

"Abbe Midon!" exclaimed Lacheneur, in profound astonishment; "Monsieur
d'Escorval!"

And foreseeing, perhaps, what was to come, he added, in a tone of
concentrated fury:

"What do you two men want with me?"

"We wish to prevent the accomplishment of an act of madness!" exclaimed
M. d'Escorval. "Hatred has crazed you, Lacheneur!"

"You know nothing of my projects!"

"Do you think that I do not suspect them? You hope to capture
Montaignac-----"

"What does that matter to you?" interrupted Lacheneur, violently.

But M. d'Escorval would not be silenced.

He seized the arm of his former friend, and in a voice loud enough to be