“The man who stole it died a maniac, with the ring upon his finger.” “And you would not part with it for gold or honors?” The doctor only answered with a smile—the idea seemed impossible to him. Madame put the diamond slowly back upon her finger, still keeping her eyes wistfully on the Egyptian relic. All at once her countenance changed; an idea flashed through her brain, and shone upon her face. She waved her hand in dismissal. Dr. Gosner gladly accepted this permission to withdraw from a presence which, from the first, had been hateful to him. The moment he was gone, madame snatched up the bell and rang it sharply. Zamara answered it. “Tell one of my people to follow that man even to Paris, if it is necessary; trace him to his abode, wherever it is. Then, and not till then, I shall expect my messenger back. Quick, Zamara, for he walks fast; glad to escape.” The Indian dwarf made a hurried salam, and left the room. In a few moments madame had the pleasure of seeing one of her retainers, whose talent as a spy she could depend on, stealthily following the track of her late visitor. CHAPTER IV. KING LOUIS THE FIFTEENTH. The two spies had scarcely disappeared when Madame Du Berry observed an old man walking deliberately along the grand avenue leading to the palace. “Ah! how fortunate! I might have been compelled to wait, but for this. He seems in good-humor, too; but I am trembling yet. Mon Dieu, how I tremble! That awful shock has shaken every nerve in my body. He will see that I am disturbed, and, perhaps, ask the cause. For the world, I would not tell him. Zamara! Zamara!” The dwarf, who was waiting close by the door, entered instantly. “Wine, Zamara!” The dwarf turned, and directly came back with a salver, on which was a crystal flask, full of wine, and a tall glass, engraved with a frost-work of vine-leaves. Madame forbade him to kneel, and filled the glass herself, draining it like a bar-maid. “Now go,” she said; “the king must not be kept waiting.”