“It’s a slander!” Beaumagnan almost shouted. “You are trying to make us believe that an impossible intimacy existed between you and her. One may bring many accusations against Josephine Balsamo perhaps: accusations of coquetry, trickery but not this one--not of an act of debauchery.” “Love is not an act of debauchery,” said Ralph calmly. “What do you mean? Love! Josephine Balsamo loved you?” “Yes,” said Ralph. Beaumagnan was beside himself. He sprang up and shook his fist in Ralph’s face. In their turn his friends had to calm him; but he was still trembling with rage; beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. “I hold him in the hollow of my hand all right,” Ralph thought to himself. “In the matter of the crime and remorse he’s as firm as a rock. But he is still being tortured by his passion for Josephine, and through that I shall do what I like with him.” For a good minute no one said anything. Beaumagnan mopped his brow. Then, making up his mind that this enemy, for all his delicate appearance, was not one to be rid of easily, he went on: “We’re getting away from the point. Your personal feelings for the Countess of Cagliostro have nothing whatever to do with the matter in hand. I return therefore to my original question: what is it you want from us?” “It’s perfectly simple,” said Ralph. “I can tell you in a few words. With regard to this religious treasure of the middle ages, which you personally want to recover for the treasury of the Society of Jesus, this is how we stand. These offerings flowed through channels in all the provinces into the seven principal abbeys of the Caux country, and constituted a common fund, managed by seven chosen administrators, of whom one only knew the hiding-place of the treasure. Each abbey possessed an episcopal or pastoral ring, which it handed down from generation to generation to its own delegate. As a symbol of its mission, the Council of Seven was represented by a candlestick with seven branches, each branch of which was set, a relic of the Hebraic liturgy and the temple of Moses, with a stone of the same kind and color as the stone in the ring to which it corresponded. For example, the branch I found at Gueures is set with a red stone, an imitation garnet, which was the representative stone of one of the abbeys; and we also know that Brother Nicolas, last administrator in chief of the abbeys of the Caux country, was a monk of Fécamp abbey. Are we in agreement so far?” “Yes.” “Then it is enough to know the names of the seven abbeys to know the seven places in which a search has a prospect of success. Now seven names are inscribed on the inside of the rings which Bridget Rousselin handed over to you at the theater last night, and it is those seven rings I ask to examine.” “What?” cried Beaumagnan. “After we’ve been searching all these years, you come along and claim to reach at the first shot the same stage as we have?” “Exactly,” said Ralph with a cheerful grin. “And if I refuse?”