The more time and attention we bestowed upon this unhappy suit, the more fully convinced were my father and myself that it was impossible to lose it. Two wills were brought forward in evidence; one of which five years previous had been duly attested, signed and sealed, was in favor of M. d’Aillane. Being in straitened circumstanced at this period, he had escaped from his difficulties by a sale of the real estate which he regarded as his own. The other will, discovered three years afterwards, by one of those strange chances which causes it to be said that life resembles a romance, suddenly impoverished the d’Aillanes to enrich Madame d’Ionis. The validity of this last deed was incontestable; the date, later than that of the first one was clear and precise. M. d’Aillane pleaded the childish condition of the testator and the nature of the pressure M. d’Ionis had brought to bear upon him in his last hours. This latter argument was sufficiently apparent; but the condition of dotage could not be proved in any manner whatever. Besides, M. d’Ionis assumed, rightly, that d’Aillane, pressed by his creditors, had ceded the property to them for less than its real value, and he demanded what was for them a very considerable sum, since it represented the last wreck of his adversaries’ fortune. M. d’Aillane did not expect to succeed. He was conscious that his case was a weak one; but he was bent upon clearing himself from the accusation brought against him, of having known or even suspected the existence of a second will, of having engaged the person with whom it was deposited to keep it concealed for three years, and of having hastened to utilize the inheritance so as to practically escape from the consequences of the future. There had been besides a discussion upon the real value of the property, exaggerated more or less by the two parties in the debates, previous to my father’s intervention in the suit. My father and I were discussing this last point and were not quite of the same opinion, when Baptiste announced M. d’Aillane, the son, captain of the —— regiment. Bernard d’Aillane was a handsome young man of about my age, proud, sensitive, and very outspoken. He expressed himself very politely, appealing to our honor, as one who recognized our strict observance thereof, but towards the close of his exordium, carried away by his natural vivacity, he distinctly threatened me, in case I should, in the course of my speech, chance to express any doubt of his father’s perfect loyalty. My father was more disturbed by this challenge than I, and a lawyer at heart, he expressed his indignation in words. I saw that a quarrel was likely to result from a project of reconciliation, and I begged the two speakers to listen to me.