Dagobert and the two young girls had not fled from the inn of the White Falcon more than a quarter of an hour, when a long crash resounded through the house.  The door had yielded to the efforts of the burgomaster and Morok, who had made use of a heavy table as a battering ram.  Guided by the light, they ran to the chamber of the orphans, now deserted.  Morok saw the sheets floating from the casement, and cried:  “Mr. Burgomaster, they have escaped by the window—­they are on foot—­in this dark and stormy night, they cannot be far.”

“No doubt, we shall catch them, the miserable tramps!  Oh, I will be revenged!  Quick, Morok; your honor is concerned as well as mine.”

“My honor?—­Much more is concerned than that, Mr. Burgomaster,” answered the Prophet, in a tone of great irritation.  Then, rapidly descending the stairs, he opened the door of the court-yard, and shouted in a voice of thunder: 

“Goliath! unchain the dogs!—­and, landlord! bring us lanterns, torches—­arm your people—­open the doors!—­We must pursue the fugitives; they cannot escape us; we must have them—­alive or dead!”

CHAPTER XV.

The Despatches.

When we read, in the rules of the order of the Jesuits, under the title De formula scribendi (Institut. 2, 11, p. 125, 129), the development of the 8th part of the constitutions, we are appalled by the number of letters, narratives, registers, and writings of all kinds, preserved in the archives of the society.

It is a police infinitely more exact and better informed than has ever been that of any state.  Even the government of Venice found itself surpassed by the Jesuits:  when it drove them out in 1606, it seized all their papers, and reproached them for their great and laborious curiosity.  This police, this secret inquisition, carried to such a degree of perfection, may give some idea of the strength of a government, so well-informed so persevering in its projects, so powerful by its unity, and, as the constitutions have it, by the union of its members.  It is not hard to understand, what immense force must belong to the heads of this society, and how the general of the Jesuits could say to the Duke de Brissac:  “From this room, your grace, I govern not only Paris, but China—­not only China, but the whole world—­and all without any one knowing how it is done:”  (Constitution of the Jesuits, edited by Paulin, Paris, 1843.)

Morok, the lion-tamer, seeing Dagobert deprived of his horse, and stripped of his money and papers, and thinking it was thus out of his power to continue his journey, had, previous to the arrival of the burgomaster, despatched Karl to Leipsic, as the bearer of a letter which he was to put immediately into the post.  The address of this letter was as follows:  “A Monsieur Rodin, Rue du Milieu des Ursins, Paris.”