window." Ferrier mechanically obeyed. "Now, hireling," continued
Lebeau, addressing the vanquished Pole, "choose between the door and the
window."

"Go, my friend," whispered the Italian. The Pole did not utter a word;
but rising nimbly, and rubbing his arm, stalked to the door. There he
paused a moment and said, "I retire overpowered by numbers," and
vanished.

"Messieurs," resumed Lebeau, calmly, "I repeat that the Council is
dissolved. In fact its object is fulfilled more abruptly than any of us
foresaw, and by means which I at least had been too long out of Paris to
divine as possible. I now see that every aberration of reason is
possible to the Parisians. The object that united us was the fall of the
Empire. As I have always frankly told you, with that object achieved,
separation commences. Each of us has his own crotchet, which differs
from the other man's. Pursue yours as you will--I pursue mine--you will
find Jean Lebeau no more in Paris: _il s'eface. Au plaisir, mais pas au
revoir_."

He retreated to the masked door and disappeared.

Marc le Roux, the porter or custos of that ruinous council-hall, alarmed
at the explosion of the pistol, had hurried into the room, and now stood
unheeded by the door with mouth agape, while Lebeau thus curtly dissolved
the assembly. But when the president vanished through the secret
doorway, Le Roux also retreated. Hastily descending the stairs, he made
as quickly as his legs could carry him for the mouth of the alley in the
rear of the house, through which he knew that Lebeau must pass. He
arrived, panting and breathless, in time to catch hold of the ex-