"'Monsieur de Merret--well, you see he was a man you never could see
the top of, he was so tall! A very good gentleman, from Picardy, and who
had, as we say, his head close to his cap. He paid for everything down,
so as never to have difficulties with any one. He was hot-tempered, you
see! All our ladies liked him very much.' "'Because he was hot-tempered?' I asked her. "'Well, may be,' said she; 'and you may suppose, sir, that a man had to
have something to show for a figurehead before he could marry Madame de
Merret, who, without any reflection on others, was the handsomest and
richest heiress in our parts. She had about twenty thousand francs
a year. All the town was at the wedding; the bride was pretty and
sweet-looking, quite a gem of a woman. Oh, they were a handsome couple
in their day!' "'And were they happy together?' "'Hm, hm! so-so--so far as can be guessed, for, as you may suppose, we
of the common sort were not hail-fellow-well-met with them.--Madame de
Merret was a kind woman and very pleasant, who had no doubt sometimes to
put up with her husband's tantrums. But though he was rather haughty, we
were fond of him. After all, it was his place to behave so. When a man
is a born nobleman, you see----'

"'Still, there must have been some catastrophe for Monsieur and Madame
de Merret to part so violently?' "'I did not say there was any catastrophe, sir. I know nothing about
it.' "'Indeed. Well, now, I am sure you know everything.' "'Well, sir, I will tell you the whole story.--When I saw Monsieur
Regnault go up to see you, it struck me that he would speak to you about
Madame de Merret as having to do with la Grande Breteche. That put it
into my head to ask your advice, sir, seeming to me that you are a
man of good judgment and incapable of playing a poor woman like me
false--for I never did any one a wrong, and yet I am tormented by my
conscience. Up to now I have never dared to say a word to the people of
these parts; they are all chatter-mags, with tongues like knives. And
never till now, sir, have I had any traveler here who stayed so long in
the inn as you have, and to whom I could tell the history of the fifteen
thousand francs----'

"'My dear Madame Lepas, if there is anything in your story of a nature
to compromise me,' I said, interrupting the flow of her words, 'I would
not hear it for all the world.' "'You need have no fears,' said she; 'you will see.' "Her eagerness made me suspect that I was not the only person to whom
my worthy landlady had communicated the secret of which I was to be the
sole possessor, but I listened. "'Monsieur,' said she, 'when the Emperor sent the Spaniards here,
prisoners of war and others, I was required to lodge at the charge
of the Government a young Spaniard sent to Vendome on parole. Notwithstanding his parole, he had to show himself every day to the
sub-prefect. He was a Spanish grandee--neither more nor less. He had
a name in _os_ and _dia_, something like Bagos de Feredia. I wrote his
name down in my books, and you may see it if you like. Ah! he was a
handsome young fellow for a Spaniard, who are all ugly they say. He was
not more than five feet two or three in height, but so well made; and he
had little hands that he kept so beautifully! Ah! you should have
seen them. He had as many brushes for his hands as a woman has for her
toilet. He had thick, black hair, a flame in his eye, a somewhat coppery
complexion, but which I admired all the same. He wore the finest linen
I have ever seen, though I have had princesses to lodge here, and, among
others, General Bertrand, the Duc and Duchesse d'Abrantes, Monsieur
Descazes, and the King of Spain. He did not eat much, but he had such
polite and amiable ways that it was impossible to owe him a grudge for
that. Oh! I was very fond of him, though he did not say four words to me
in a day, and it was impossible to have the least bit of talk with him;
if he was spoken to, he did not answer; it is a way, a mania they all
have, it would seem. "'He read his breviary like a priest, and went to mass and all the
services quite regularly. And where did he post himself?--we found this
out later.--Within two yards of Madame de Merret's chapel. As he took
that place the very first time he entered the church, no one imagined
that there was any purpose in it. Besides, he never raised his nose
above his book, poor young man! And then, monsieur, of an evening he
went for a walk on the hill among the ruins of the old castle. It was
his only amusement, poor man; it reminded him of his native land. They
say that Spain is all hills! "'One evening, a few days after he was sent here, he was out very late. I was rather uneasy when he did not come in till just on the stroke of
midnight; but we all got used to his whims; he took the key of the door,
and we never sat up for him. He lived in a house belonging to us in the
Rue des Casernes. Well, then, one of our stable-boys told us one evening
that, going down to wash the horses in the river, he fancied he had seen
the Spanish Grandee swimming some little way off, just like a fish. When
he came in, I told him to be careful of the weeds, and he seemed put out
at having been seen in the water. "'At last, monsieur, one day, or rather one morning, we did not find
him in his room; he had not come back. By hunting through his things, I
found a written paper in the drawer of his table, with fifty pieces of
Spanish gold of the kind they call doubloons, worth about five thousand
francs; and in a little sealed box ten thousand francs worth of
diamonds. The paper said that in case he should not return, he left us
this money and these diamonds in trust to found masses to thank God for
his escape and for his salvation. "'At that time I still had my husband, who ran off in search of him. And this is the queer part of the story: he brought back the Spaniard's
clothes, which he had found under a big stone on a sort of breakwater
along the river bank, nearly opposite la Grande Breteche. My husband
went so early that no one saw him. After reading the letter, he burnt
the clothes, and, in obedience to Count Feredia's wish, we announced
that he had escaped. "'The sub-prefect set all the constabulary at his heels; but, pshaw! he
was never caught. Lepas believed that the Spaniard had drowned himself. I, sir, have never thought so; I believe, on the contrary, that he had
something to do with the business about Madame de Merret, seeing that
Rosalie told me that the crucifix her mistress was so fond of that she
had it buried with her, was made of ebony and silver; now in the early
days of his stay here, Monsieur Feredia had one of ebony and silver
which I never saw later.--And now, monsieur, do not you say that I need
have no remorse about the Spaniard's fifteen thousand francs? Are they
not really and truly mine?' "'Certainly.--But have you never tried to question Rosalie?' said I. "'Oh, to be sure I have, sir. But what is to be done? That girl is like
a wall.