“That luckily reminds me!” cried Camusot.  “My brain is so bewildered that I had quite forgotten an important point.  The instructions to place Jacques Collin in a private room were taken by Coquart to Monsieur Gault, the Governor of the prison.  Now, Bibi-Lupin, Jacques Collin’s great enemy, has taken steps to have three criminals, who know the man, transferred from La Force to the Conciergerie; if he appears in the prison-yard to-morrow, a terrific scene is expected——­”

“Why?”

“Jacques Collin, my dear, was treasurer of the money owned by the prisoners in the hulks, amounting to considerable sums; now, he is supposed to have spent it all to maintain the deceased Lucien in luxury, and he will be called to account.  There will be such a battle, Bibi-Lupin tells me, as will require the intervention of the warders, and the secret will be out.  Jacques Collin’s life is in danger.

“Now, if I get to the Palais early enough I may record the evidence of identity.”

“Oh, if only his creditors should take him off your hands!  You would be thought such a clever fellow!—­Do not go to Monsieur de Granville’s room; wait for him in his Court with that formidable great gun.  It is a loaded cannon turned on the three most important families of the Court and Peerage.  Be bold:  propose to Monsieur de Granville that he should relieve you of Jacques Collin by transferring him to La Force, where the convicts know how to deal with those who betray them.

“I will go to the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, who will take me to the Grandlieus.  Possibly I may see Monsieur de Serizy.  Trust me to sound the alarm everywhere.  Above all, send me a word we will agree upon to let me know if the Spanish priest is officially recognized as Jacques Collin.  Get your business at the Palais over by two o’clock, and I will have arranged for you to have an interview with the Keeper of the Seals; perhaps I may find him with the Marquise d’Espard.”

Camusot stood squarely with a look of admiration that made his knowing wife smile.

“Now, come to dinner and be cheerful,” said she in conclusion.  “Why, you see!  We have been only two years in Paris, and here you are on the highroad to be made Councillor before the end of the year.  From that to the Presidency of a court, my dear, there is no gulf but what some political service may bridge.”

This conjugal sitting shows how greatly the deeds and the lightest words of Jacques Collin, the lowest personage in this drama, involved the honor of the families among whom he had planted his now dead protege.

At the Conciergerie Lucien’s death and Madame de Serizy’s incursion had produced such a block in the wheels of the machinery that the Governor had forgotten to remove the sham priest from his dungeon-cell.