“Here are the three letters,” said Jacqueline, who had finished unsewing the lining of her gown.

“Quite right,” said Jacques Collin, taking the three precious documents—­autograph letters on vellum paper, and still strongly scented.  “Theodore did the Nanterre job.”

“Oh! it was he.”

“Don’t talk.  Time is precious.  He wanted to give the proceeds to a little Corsican sparrow named Ginetta.  You must set old Nourrisson to find her; I will give you the necessary information in a letter which Gault will give you.  Come for it to the gate of the Conciergerie in two hours’ time.  You must place the girl with a washerwoman, Godet’s sister; she must seem at home there.  Godet and Ruffard were concerned with la Pouraille in robbing and murdering the Crottats.

“The four hundred and fifty thousand francs are all safe, one-third in la Gonore’s cellar—­la Pouraille’s share; the second third in la Gonore’s bedroom, which is Ruffard’s; and the rest is hidden in Godet’s sister’s house.  We will begin by taking a hundred and fifty thousand francs out of la Pouraille’s whack, a hundred thousand of Godet’s, and a hundred thousand of Ruffard’s.  As soon as Godet and Ruffard are nabbed, they will be supposed to have got rid of what is missing from their shares.  And I will make Godet believe that I have saved a hundred thousand francs for him, and that la Gonore has done the same for la Pouraille and Ruffard.

“Prudence and Paccard will do the job at la Gonore’s; you and Ginetta —­who seems to be a smart hussy—­must manage the job at Godet’s sister’s place.

“And so, as the first act in the farce, I can enable the public prosecutor to lay his hands on four hundred thousand francs stolen from the Crottats, and on the guilty parties.  Then I shall seem to have shown up the Nanterre murderer.  We shall get back our shiners, and are behind the scenes with the police.  We were the game, now we are the hunters—­that is all.

“Give the driver three francs.”

The coach was at the Palais.  Jacqueline, speechless with astonishment, paid. Trompe-la-Mort went up the steps to the public prosecutor’s room.

A complete change of life is so violent a crisis, that Jacques Collin, in spite of his resolution, mounted the steps but slowly, going up from the Rue de la Barillerie to the Galerie Marchande, where, under the gloomy peristyle of the courthouse, is the entrance to the Court itself.

Some civil case was going on which had brought a little crowd together at the foot of the double stairs leading to the Assize Court, so that the convict, lost in thought, stood for some minutes, checked by the throng.

To the left of this double flight is one of the mainstays of the building, like an enormous pillar, and in this tower is a little door.  This door opens on a spiral staircase down to the Conciergerie, to which the public prosecutor, the governor of the prison, the presiding judges, King’s council, and the chief of the Safety department have access by this back way.