“I could not permit myself to blame your reverence,” said Rodin, cringing almost to the ground.  “But all that will be required is to confine this man for twenty-four hours.”

“And afterwards—­his complaints?”

“Such a scoundrel as he is will not dare to complain.  Besides, he left this house in freedom.  Morok and Goliath will bandage his eyes when they seize him.  The house has another entrance in the Rue Vieille-des-Ursins.  At this hour, and in such a storm, no one will be passing through this deserted quarter of the town.  The knave will be confused by the change of place; they will put him into a cellar, of the new building, and to morrow night, about the same hour, they will restore him to liberty with the like precautions.  As for the East Indian, we now know where to find him; we must send to him a confidential person, and, if he recovers from his trance, there would be, in my humble opinion,” said Rodin, modestly, “a very simple and quiet manner of keeping him away from the Rue Saint Francois all day to-morrow.”

The same servant with the mild countenance, who had introduced and shown out Faringhea, here entered the room, after knocking discreetly at the door.  He held in his hand a sort of game-bag, which he gave to Rodin, saying:  “Here is what M. Morok has just brought; he came in by the Rue Vieille.”

The servant withdrew, and Rodin, opening the bag, said to Father d’Aigrigny, as he showed him the contents:  “The medal, and Van Dael’s letter.  Morok has been quick at his work.”

“One more danger avoided,” said the marquis; “it is a pity to be forced to such measures.”

“We must only blame the rascal who has obliged us to have recourse to them.  I will send instantly to the hotel where the Indian lodges.”

“And, at seven in the morning, you will conduct Gabriel to the Rue Saint Francois.  It is there that I must have with him the interview which he has so earnestly demanded these three days.”

“I informed him of it this evening, and he awaits your orders.”

“At last, then,” said Father d’Aigrigny, “after so many struggles, and fears, and crosses, only a few hours separate us from the moment which we have so long desired.”

We now conduct the reader to the house in the Rue Saint-Francois.

[13] The doctrine of passive and absolute obedience, the principal tool in the hands of the Jesuits, as summed up in these terrible words of the dying Loyola—­that every member of the order should be in the hands of his superiors as a dead body—­’perinde ad cadaver’.

CHAPTER XVII.

The house in the Rue saint-Francois.