against the emperor's life. The suspicions were groundless, the plot a
mare's nest. But my colleague's attention was especially drawn towards a
man not mixed up with the circumstances from which a plot had been
inferred, but deemed in some way or other a dangerous enemy to the
Government. Ostensibly, he exercised a modest and small calling as a
sort of courtier or _agent de change_; but it was noticed that certain
persons familiarly frequenting his apartment, or to whose houses he used
to go at night, were disaffected to the Government,--not by any means of
the lowest rank,--some of them rich malcontents who had been devoted
Orleanists; others, disappointed aspirants to office or the 'cross;' one
or two well-born and opulent fanatics dreaming of another Republic.
Certain very able articles in the journals of the excitable _Midi_,
though bearing another signature, were composed or dictated by this man,
--articles evading the censure and penalties of the law, but very
mischievous in their tone. All who had come into familiar communication
with this person were impressed with a sense of his powers; and also with
a vague belief that he belonged to a higher class in breeding and
education than that of a petty _agent de change_. My colleague set
himself to watch the man, and took occasions of business at his little
office to enter into talk with him. Not by personal appearance, but by
voice, he came to a conclusion that the man was not wholly a stranger to
him,--a peculiar voice with a slight Norman breadth of pronunciation,
though a Parisian accent; a voice very low, yet very distinct; very
masculine, yet very gentle. My colleague was puzzled till late one
evening he observed the man coming out of the house of one of these rich
malcontents, the rich malcontent himself accompanying him. My colleague,
availing himself of the dimness of light, as the two passed into a lane
which led to the agent's apartment, contrived to keep close behind and
listen to their conversation; but of this he heard nothing,--only, when
at the end of the lane, the rich man turned abruptly, shook his companion