"She says that she is sure of it, that he has grown hardly any older, that he is dressed in black as he was then; and she is very sure that his old servant is the same man who was with him then. Oh! she looked closely at them. When we met them three days ago, near another château not far from here----" "Ah! yes," said the marquis, "tell us how she met him." "He was with a kind, handsome young lord, whom I have since heard spoken of as Guillaume. Monsieur Guillaume had given a lot of money to the gypsies we were with. And suddenly, when the Spaniard looked very stern and was going to strike me, Mercedes said: "'It is he! look! it is he! and the other, the old valet is the other!' "And she ran after them to see them better, until Monsieur Guillaume told us that we annoyed him. Then Mercedes made some one ask him his name and his friend's name, so that we could pray for them, she said. But Monsieur Guillaume laughed at us, and the gypsies went off in another direction. My Mercedes let them go without us, and said to me: "'We have your father's murderers, I promise you. We must find out their names.' "Then we turned back and went to the château of La Motte to beg; and as they didn't pay much attention to us, Mercedes told me to listen to what the servants and the peasants said; and in that way we found out that the Spaniard was going to stay with the _marquis_, because the _marquis_ had sent for his chariot and ordered his guest chamber to be prepared for a stranger. And then we talked with a shepherdess in a field near there. She told us: "'The marquis is the kindest of men. You can go to pass the night at his château; he will treat you well. That's his château yonder.' "So then we came here at once, and yesterday morning we saw the murderer again, the two murderers! And when I saw the letters on the pistols and the great sword that the servant had, and I said to Mercedes: "'Show me the wicked knife that killed my poor papa; I think those are the same letters that are on it.'" "And are you sure of it?" said the marquis. "I am very sure; and you will see for yourself if Mercedes will show them to you." "Where is she now?" "With Monsieur Jovelin, whom she is very fond of because he jumped into the water for me." "Jovelin absolutely must extort her secret from her," said the marquis to Adamas; "go, bring him here, that I may speak with him." XXIV Adamas went out and soon returned to say that Jovelin would come at once. He had found him engaged in a very animated conversation with the Moor, she speaking Arabic, he writing down all that she said, and making many gestures which she seemed to understand.