Cauvignac passed through the reception-room, left Barrabas in the study, cast a sympathetic glance in passing at the two clerks who were pretending to write busily while playing at _marelle_, and entered the _sanctum sanctorum._ Master Rabodin was sitting in front of a desk so laden with papers that the respectable attorney seemed to be literally buried up in writs and records and judgments. He was a tall, gaunt, sallow man, clad in a black coat which fitted as closely to his body as an eel's skin. When he heard Cauvignac's footsteps, he straightened up his long, bent backbone, and raised his head, which then appeared above the breastwork by which he was surrounded. For an instant Cauvignac thought that he had discovered the basilisk, an animal regarded as fabulous by modern scientists, so brightly did the attorney's little eyes shine with the ominous glitter of avarice and cupidity. "Monsieur," said Cauvignac, "I ask your pardon for calling upon you without previous appointment; but," he added with his most charming smile, "it is a privilege of my office." "A privilege of your office!" exclaimed Master Rabodin. "What is your office, pray?" "I am an exempt in his Majesty's service, monsieur." "An exempt in his Majesty's service?" "I have that honor." "I do not understand, monsieur." "You will understand in a moment. You know Monsieur Biscarros, do you not?" "Certainly I know him; he is my client." "What do you think of him?" "What do I think of him?" "Yes." "Why, I think--I think--I think that he's a very worthy man." "Well, monsieur, you are mistaken." "What's that?--mistaken?" "Your worthy man is a rebel." "A rebel?" "Yes, monsieur, a rebel, who takes advantage of the isolated situation of his inn to make it a hotbed of conspiracy." "God bless my soul!" "Who has bound himself to poison the king, the queen, and Monsieur de Mazarin, if they happen to put up at his inn." "You don't mean it!" "And whom I have arrested and taken to the prison at Libourne, on a charge of _lèse-majesté._" "Monsieur, you horrify me," said Master Rabodin, falling back in his chair. "That is not all, monsieur," continued the false exempt; "you, also, are involved in the affair." "I, monsieur!" cried the attorney, turning from orange-yellow to apple-green; "I involved in it! how, in God's name?" "You have in your possession a sum of money which the villain Biscarros destined for the payment of an army of rebels." "It is true, monsieur, that I have received for him--" "Four thousand livres! he was subjected to the torture of the _brodequins_, and at the eighth wedge he admitted that you had that sum." "I have it, monsieur, but I have had it only an instant." "So much the worse, monsieur, so much the worse!" "Why so much the worse?" "Because I shall be obliged to make sure of your person." "Of my person?" "Certainly; the complaint names you as accomplice." The attorney turned from apple-green to bottle-green.