In such situations, the slightest whisper is enough to break the spell. The Marquis started on beholding two men emerge from a noisome alley, conversing in French. When abroad, our native tongue always claims our attention, especially when one using it happens to pronounce a familiar name. These men twice spoke the name of Amélie's father, whereupon René stealthily followed the pair. He could not distinguish the topic of their conversation but was quite close enough to study the physical type of each of the suspicious characters, one of whom was close-shaven, coarse and short of stature, the other tall, full-bearded, alert and enveloped in a huge overcoat which concealed half his face. They walked slowly, peering at intervals in all directions. On perceiving René, they nudged each other, for the Marquis's fine clothes were out of keeping with the place, which was the thoroughfare of dissolute and disorderly sailors. They ceased talking and, a few moments later, suddenly turned a corner and disappeared in the labyrinth of malodorous, ill-lighted alleys. René realized that they had eluded him, but his hunter's scent and nimble legs put him again upon their trail. Why this espionage? He could scarcely have answered had he been questioned. When he next perceived them, they were standing beneath the yellow lantern of a tavern. He saw them enter the filthy place, order some glasses of beer, which they gulped down like genuine Londoners and make their exit. Guardedly he followed them into the wider and better-lighted streets, through which rolled an occasional cab. Again they described a capricious curve, descended towards the river and emerged upon the park which faced the small house and garden--the scene of René's colloquy with Amélie. On noting the coincidence, his heart beat fast and the movement was quickened when he perceived that the wily couple were ambuscading back of the great trees in the centre of the square. Connecting the name he had twice heard spoken by the ruffians--for so he classified them--with the place of their concealment, he conjectured that an act was about to be perpetrated which would affect Amélie, an act in which he must interpose, whether impelled by fate or chance. He crept into the zone of shade cast by the dense foliage, his gray cloak blending in color with the walls and making him almost invisible.