The Duke listened with a sarcastic smile. He cared nothing about the frantic struggles of his son, for his heart had grown cold and hard from the presence of the fixed idea which had actuated his conduct for so many years, and it was with the solemn face of a man who was fulfilling a sacred duty that he ascended to the room in which his son was imprisoned. Jean threw open the door, and the Duke paused for a moment on the threshold. The furniture had been overturned, some of it broken, and there were evident signs of a furious struggle having taken place. A powerful laborer stood near the window, and Norbert was lying on the bed, with his face turned to the wall. “Leave us,” said the Duke, and the man withdrew at once. “Get up, Norbert,” he added; “I wish to speak to you.” His son obeyed him. Any one but the Duke would have been alarmed by the expression of the young man’s face. “What is the meaning of all this?” asked the old nobleman in his most severe voice. “Are not my orders sufficient to insure obedience? I hear that absolute force has had to be used towards you during my absence. Tell me, my son, what plans you have devised during these hours of solitude, and what hopes you still venture to cherish.” “I intend to be free, and I will be so.” The Duke affected not to hear the reply, uttered as it was in a tone of derision. “It was very easy for me to discover, from your obstinacy, that some woman had endeavored to entrap you, and by her insidious counsels inducing you to disobey your best friend.” He paused, but there was no reply. “This woman--this dangerous woman--I have been in search of, and as you can conceive, I easily found her. I went to the Forest of Bevron, and there I need not tell you I found Mademoiselle de Laurebourg.” “Did you speak to her?” “I did so, certainly. I told her my opinion of those manoeuvring women who fascinate the dupes they intend to take advantage of--” “Father!” “Can it be possible that you, simple boy even as you are, could have been deceived by the pretended love of this wily young woman? It is not you, Marquis, that she loves, but our name and fortune; but _I_ know if _she_ does not that the law will imprison women who contrive to entrap young men who are under age.” Norbert turned deadly pale. “Did you really say that to her?” asked he, in a low, hoarse voice, utterly unlike his own. “You dare to insult the woman I love, when you knew that I was far away and unable to protect her! Take care, or I shall forget that you are my father.”