"Certainly!" said the stranger. "We conspirators are honest people enough, but we are prudent, and used to secrecy. We never make revelations without exacting a double security." "That of honor!" "And displaying the dagger as the certain reward of treachery." "Stop, sir!" said M. H----, rising, and evidently enraged at the daring of the stranger. "You forget where you are; no one but myself makes threats here; assume, therefore, another tone; for sorry as I should be not to avail myself of your offers, I must, if you persist, terminate our interview at once. But," continued he, "what is required of me?" "I have told you--an oath. Here it is. You will swear on this," and he took a crucifix from his bosom, "that neither in person, nor otherwise, will you ever attempt to discover the person in behalf of whom I treat. You will swear that when you have been informed of the facts which I shall point out to you, when you shall have received proof of the culpability of certain men, you will cause them to be arrested and give them no clue to, and make no revelation of, the means by which you acquired your information." "But how will the man who is to furnish this information treat with us?" "Through me alone," said the stranger, "and I will allow you to be ignorant of nothing. In a few words--I will be his interpreter--the soul of his body, the action of his thought. Here," continued he, again presenting the crucifix to M. H----," an oath for such services is not too much to ask. You do not often get information at so cheap a rate. The form of the oath will doubtless appear strange to you, but I am a native of a land where oaths are taken on the cross alone." "So be it," said M. H----, who, as he listened to the man, reflected on the small importance of the conditions imposed on him, which did not demand that he should act against the _Vente_ or associations, until there was no doubt of their guilt. "So be it; I accept. I swear that I will never seek to ascertain of whom you are the agent, whether in person or through others." He placed his hand on the crucifix. "_Rely then on him--rely on me_," said the stranger. "Why do you not speak now?" said M. H----. "_Because it is necessary to give the fruit time to ripen before we gather it_," said the mysterious stranger; and bowing to M. H----, he left. "Well," said the chief of the political police, when he was alone, "the bargain I have made is not a rare one. Informers always have scruples at first, especially when they are men of rank;--when those of the man of whom the agent speaks are dissipated, or when by his wants and vices he is forced to draw directly on our chest, his shame will pass away, and his name will be enrolled on the list of our spies like those of M. X., the Baron de W----, the Advocate V----, the Ex-consul R----, and the Countess of Fu. This man is, then, taken in three words, what we call a SPY IN SOCIETY." IV.--THE AMBASSADRESS.