One night, five days after the funeral, I was working late at my writing-table, when my servant entered, and told me in a frightened tone that M. de Franchi wanted to speak to me. "Who?" I said, in astonishment. "M. de Franchi, sir, your friend--the gentleman who has been here once or twice to see you." "You must be out of your senses, Victor! Don't you know that he died five days ago?" "Yes, sir; and that's why I am so upset. I heard a ring at the bell, and when I opened the door, he walked in, asked if you were at home, and told me to tell you that M. de Franchi desired to speak with you." "Are you out of your mind, my good man? I suppose the hall is badly lit, and you were half-asleep and heard the name wrong. Go back and ask the name again." "No, sir, I will swear that I'm not mistaken. I'm sure I heard and saw perfectly." "Very well, then, show him in." Victor went back to the door, trembling all the time, and said, "Please step in, sir." My hasty sensation of terror was quickly dispelled. It was Lucien who was apologising to me for disturbing me at such an hour. "The fact is," he said, "I only arrived ten minutes ago, and you will understand how impossible it was not to come and see you at once." I at once thought of the letter I had sent. In five days it could not have reached Sullacro. "Good heaven!" I cried. "Nothing is known to you?" "Everything is known," he said quietly. Lucien mentioned that on going to his brother's house, the people were so panic-stricken that they refused the door to him. "Tell me," I said, when we were alone. "You must have been on your way here when you heard the fatal news?" "On the contrary, I was at Sullacro. Have you for-forgotten what I told you about the apparitions in my family?" "Has your brother appeared to you?" I cried. "Yes. He told me he had been killed in a duel by M. de Château-Renard. I saw my brother in his room the day he was killed," Lucien went on, "and that night in a dream I saw the place where the duel was fought, and heard the name of M. de Château-Renard. And I have come to Paris to kill the man who killed my brother. My brother had never touched a pistol in his life, and it was as easy to kill him as to kill a tame stag. My mother knows why I have come. She is a true Corsican, and she kissed me on the forehead and said 'Go!'" The next morning Lucien wrote to Giordano and sent a challenge to Château-Renard. Then he went with me to Vincennes, and, though he had never been there in his life before, Lucien walked straight to the spot where his brother had fallen. He turned round, walked twenty paces, and said, "This is where the villain stood, and to-morrow he will lie here."