tower, and two wings, each of which is surrounded by a flight of
steps with a stone balustrade. Looking across the walls of the park
and beyond the upland supported by the high Norman cliffs, you catch
a glimpse of the blue line of the Channel between the villages of
Sainte-Marguerite and Varengeville.

Here the Comte de Gesvres lived with his daughter Suzanne, a
delicate, fair-haired, pretty creature, and his niece Raymonde de
Saint-Veran, whom he had taken to live with him two years before,
when the simultaneous death of her father and mother left Raymonde
an orphan. Life at the chateau was peaceful and regular. A few
neighbors paid an occasional visit. In the summer, the count took
the two girls almost every day to Dieppe. He was a tall man, with a
handsome, serious face and hair that was turning gray. He was very
rich, managed his fortune himself and looked after his extensive
estates with the assistance of his secretary, Jean Daval.

Immediately upon his arrival, the examining magistrate took down the
first observations of Sergeant Quevillon of the gendarmes. The
capture of the criminal, imminent though it might be, had not yet
been effected, but every outlet of the park was held. Escape was
impossible.

The little company next crossed the chapter-hall and the refectory,
both of which are on the ground floor, and went up to the first
story. They at once remarked the perfect order that prevailed in the
drawing room. Not a piece of furniture, not an ornament but appeared
to occupy its usual place; nor was there any gap among the ornaments
or furniture. On the right and left walls hung magnificent Flemish
tapestries with figures. On the panels of the wall facing the