Of a truth Chauvelin at this hour had every cause to be thankful, and it
was with a light heart that he set out to interview the Leridans.

VIII

The Leridans, anxious, obsequious, terrified, were only too ready to
obey the citizen Representative in all things.

They explained with much complacency that, even though they were
personally acquainted with Jeannette Marechal, when the citizeness
presented herself this very morning without the ring they had refused
her permission to see the brat.

Chauvelin, who in his own mind had already reconstructed the whole
tragedy of the stolen child, was satisfied that Marat could not have
chosen more efficient tools for the execution of his satanic revenge
than these two hideous products of revolutionary Paris.

Grasping, cowardly, and avaricious, the Leridans would lend themselves
to any abomination for a sufficiency of money; but no money on earth
would induce them to risk their own necks in the process. Marat had
obviously held them by threats of the guillotine. They knew the power of
the "Friend of the People," and feared him accordingly. Chauvelin's
scarf of office, his curt, authoritative manner, had an equally awe-
inspiring effect upon the two miserable creatures. They became
absolutely abject, cringing, maudlin in their protestations of good-will
and loyalty. No one, they vowed, should as much as see the child--ring
or no ring--save the citizen Representative himself. Chauvelin, however,
had no wish to see the child. He was satisfied that its name was Lannoy--
for the child had remembered it when first he had been brought to the