“Well, tell it,” said Dinah.  “I never met Monsieur Nodier, so you have no comparison to fear.”

“Not long after the 18th Brumaire,” Etienne began, “there was, as you know, a call to arms in Brittany and la Vendee.  The First Consul, anxious before all things for peace in France, opened negotiations with the rebel chiefs, and took energetic military measures; but, while combining his plans of campaign with the insinuating charm of Italian diplomacy, he also set the Machiavelian springs of the police in movement, Fouche then being at its head.  And none of these means were superfluous to stifle the fire of war then blaring in the West.

“At this time a young man of the Maille family was despatched by the Chouans from Brittany to Saumur, to open communications between certain magnates of that town and its environs and the leaders of the Royalist party.  The envoy was, in fact, arrested on the very day he landed—­for he traveled by boat, disguised as a master mariner.  However, as a man of practical intelligence, he had calculated all the risks of the undertaking; his passport and papers were all in order, and the men told off to take him were afraid of blundering.

“The Chevalier de Beauvoir—­I now remember his name—­had studied his part well; he appealed to the family whose name he had borrowed, persisted in his false address, and stood his examination so boldly that he would have been set at large but for the blind belief that the spies had in their instructions, which were unfortunately only too minute.  In this dilemma the authorities were more ready to risk an arbitrary act than to let a man escape to whose capture the Minister attached great importance.  In those days of liberty the agents of the powers in authority cared little enough for what we now regard as legal.  The Chevalier was therefore imprisoned provisionally, until the superior officials should come to some decision as to his identity.  He had not long to wait for it; orders were given to guard the prisoner closely in spite of his denials.

“The Chevalier de Beauvoir was next transferred, in obedience to further orders, to the Castle of l’Escarpe, a name which sufficiently indicates its situation.  This fortress, perched on very high rocks, has precipices for its trenches; it is reached on all sides by steep and dangerous paths; and, like every ancient castle, its principal gate has a drawbridge over a wide moat.  The commandant of this prison, delighted to have charge of a man of family whose manners were most agreeable, who expressed himself well, and seemed highly educated, received the Chevalier as a godsend; he offered him the freedom of the place on parole, that they might together the better defy its dulness.  The prisoner was more than content.