you tell me is impossible. You must have received a false report, or you have gone mad."
"Alas! sire, it is but too true!"
Louis made a gesture of indescribable anger and alarm, and then drew himself up as if this sudden blow had struck him at the same moment in heart and countenance.
"In France!" he cried, "the usurper in France! Then they did not watch over this man. Who knows? they were, perhaps, in league with him."
"Oh, sire!" exclaimed the Comte de Blacas, "M. Dandré is not a man to be accused of treason! Sire, we have all been blind, and the minister of police has shared the general blindness; that is all."
"But———" said Villefort, and then, suddenly checking himself, he was silent; then he continued. "Your pardon, sire," he said, bowing, "my zeal carried me away. Will your majesty deign to excuse me?"
"Speak, sir, speak boldly," replied Louis. "You alone forewarned us of the evil; now try and aid us with the remedy!"
"Sire," said Villefort, "the usurper is detested in the south; and it seems to me that if he ventured into the south, it would be easy to raise Languedoc and Provence against him."
"Yes, assuredly," replied the minister; "but he is advancing by Gap and Sisteron."
"Advancing! he is advancing!" said Louis XVIII. "Is he then advancing on Paris?" The minister of police kept a silence which was equivalent to a complete avowal.
"And Dauphiné, sir?" inquired the king of Villefort. "Do you think it possible to rouse that as well as Provence?"
"Sire, I am sorry to tell your majesty a cruel fact; but the feeling in Dauphiné is far from resembling that of Provence or Languedoc. The mountaineers are Bonapartists, sire."
"Then," murmured Louis, "he was well informed. And how many men had he with him?"
"I do not know, sire," answered the minister of police.
"What! you do not know? Have you neglected to obtain information of this circumstance? It is true this is of small importance," he added, with a withering smile.
"Sire, it was impossible to learn; the dispatch simply stated the fact of the landing and the route taken by the usurper."
"And how did this dispatch reach you?" inquired the king.
The minister bowed his head, and whilst a deep color overspread his cheeks, he stammered out:
