“Well,” said the magistrate, “whatever Madame de Lamotte’s motives may have been, it ended in her coming to stay with you.  How did you persuade her to take this step?”

“My wife accompanied her first to the Hotel de France, and then to other hotels.  I said no more than might be deemed allowable in a friend; I could not presume to persuade her against her will.  When I returned home, I was surprised to find her there with her son.  She could not find a disengaged room in any of the hotels she tried, and she then accepted my offer.”

“What date was this?”

“Monday, the 16th of last December.”

“And when did she leave your house?”

“On the 1st of February.”

“The porter cannot remember having seen her go out on that day.”

“That is possible.  Madame de Lamotte went and came as her affairs required.  She was known, and no more attention would be paid to her than to any other inmate.”

“The porter also says that for several days before this date she was ill, and obliged to keep her room?”

“Yes, it was a slight indisposition, which had no results, so slight that it seemed unnecessary to call in a doctor.  Madame de Lamotte appeared preoccupied and anxious.  I think her mental attitude influenced her health.”

“Did you escort her to Versailles?”

“No; I went there to see her later.”

“What proof can you give of her having actually stayed there?”

“None whatever, unless it be a letter which I received from her.”

“You told Monsieur de, Lamotte that she was exerting herself to procure her son’s admission either as a king’s page or into the riding school.  Now, no one at Versailles has seen this lady, or even heard of her.”

“I only repeated what she told me.”

“Where was she staying?”

“I do not know.”

“What! she wrote to you, you went to see her, and yet you do not know where she was lodging?”

“That is so.”

“But it is impossible.”

“There are many things which would appear impossible if I were to relate them, but which are true, nevertheless.”

“Explain yourself.”

“I only received one letter from Madame de Lamotte, in which she spoke of her plans for Edouard, requesting me to send her her son on a day she fixed, and I told Edouard of her projects.  Not being able to go to the school to see him, I wrote, asking if he would like to give up his studies and become a royal page.  When I was last at Buisson-Souef, I showed his answer to Monsieur de Lamotte; it is here.”

And he handed over a letter to the magistrate, who read it, and passing it on to Monsieur de Lamotte, inquired—­

“Did you then, and do you now, recognise your son’s handwriting?”

“Perfectly, monsieur.”

“You took Edouard to Versailles?”

“I did.”

“On what day?”