“Well, it strikes me,” said Augustine, “that this Mademoiselle de Tourville is Madame Coulancourt’s daughter, sent from Paris, fearing she might be suspected.” Monsieur Gramont looked at his companion, saying— “You have been receiving private communications from Paris, during your absence?” “I have; and desperate as you think the cause of the jacobins, I have another idea.” “And who is your correspondent?” demanded Monsieur Gramont, somewhat authoritatively. “A man who will soon revive the power of the terrorists (another name for jacobins)—Babouf, who is now styled the tribune of the people; he will restore the ‘true, pure, and absolute democracy.’” “Bah!” muttered Monsieur Gramont. “I tell you what, Augustine Vadier, you will bring your head under the axe; to believe or think that a rascally scribbler of a paltry paper, who reproduces the discarded theories of that little villain Muret, will again overturn the present consolidated form of government, under which our armies are achieving the most triumphant success! Bah! It is the army that will govern by and by.” “By heaven, I do believe you are no better than an aristocrat at heart—a loyalist!” said Augustine Vadier, savagely. “No doubt in the world of it,” returned Monsieur Gramont, quite coolly, “and always was; your republican principles and your ideas of liberty are all fudge. However, here we are, drop your political career, or you will lose your head. I never, out of all those I have seen, ever knew a man’s carcase worth a sous without a head. So keep yours, follow my counsel, and I’ll stick to my bargain, though you botched the beginning.” So saying Monsieur Gramont rode into the court-yard at the back of his château, an edifice of considerable importance at one time, but at this period greatly out of repair, and sadly neglected. A domestic came to take the horses, and then followed Monsieur Gramont into the house, looking both gloomy and discontented. Our readers will recollect that in one of the chapters we mentioned that Jean Plessis stated to our hero that he firmly believed that the casket Madame Coulancourt confided to his care was plundered of its contents by a galley slave named Augustine Vadier, who afterwards played a very conspicuous part among the monsters of the revolution. That Augustine Vadier and the Augustine Vadier above-mentioned are one and the same person, and it will be now necessary to lay before our readers an account of his connection with Monsieur Gramont.