"Is Olivier, then, his name?" inquired Robespierre, looking at the young man. But Lebas continued reading. "The valet, my dear child, will not fetch you this time. At fifteen a lad ought to be able to travel alone." "The letter being dated May, 1791, the young man must be now nineteen," Lebas observed. "Nineteen! yes, just nineteen!" repeated Robespierre, as if a thought had struck him. "Go on! Go on? What comes next?" Lebas continued: "My travelling-coach will wait for you in the Rue des Lions, before the door of the hotel." "There can be only one Rue des Lions in Paris, the Rue des Lions-Saint-Paul?" interposed Robespierre, more and more impressed, and still looking intently at the youth. "Just so!" Lebas answered. "Go on with the letter! Go on!" Lebas resumed his reading: "Benoit..." "The concierge!" interrupted Robespierre, scarcely able to hide his emotion. Lebas went on: "Benoit will open the shutters of the little room leading out of my study to the garden. In a bookcase, the one surmounted by the busts of Cicero and Socrates, you will find just within your reach, and will bring to me, volumes x. and xi. of a set of folios bound in red morocco, with the title..." "_Arrêts du Parlement!_" exclaimed Robespierre, to the general surprise, carried beyond himself by the revelation which had suddenly burst upon him. Olivier looked at him, in bewilderment. "That is it! _Arrêts du Parlement_," repeated Lebas; "but how did you know?" Robespierre, mastering his feelings, and without taking his eyes off Olivier, answered with assumed indifference-- "Oh! I have had those books in my hands many a time at Monsieur de Pontivy's, King's Councillor in Parliament, and that young man's grandfather." Olivier turned deadly pale, and grasped convulsively at the back of a chair for support. His mother was lost! Exclamations of surprise and astonishment had greeted the Incorruptible's words. Then Robespierre knew his family, and all about him? And all eyes were fixed on the young man with renewed curiosity. "Yes ... I know," ... answered Robespierre, forcing himself to appear calm, "I know ... who he is..." "Oh, now we shall hear the whole story!" they all exclaimed, clapping their hands. "Certainly you shall," Robespierre replied, "but in order to make sure I should like to be alone with him. We are too many here; I shall call you back presently. Let Héron and the police-agents wait in the courtyard." Every one prepared to leave the room, looking rather disappointed, specially the women, who wondered what would be the outcome of it all. As Lebas was passing out Robespierre stopped him. "Don't go," he said, "I may want you." And the three men remained alone. The father was face to face with his son!