stairs, by the hall and the courtyard to the little door into the Rue du Pot-de-fer, where his chair awaited him.
Very thankful he was to leave the strange, phantasmal house, and to arrive safely at his own abode. He could not understand the meaning of his adventure; whether some ghastly secret was imprisoned in that white chamber, or whether the whole affair had been a practical joke. At all events, the five crowns in his pocket were real enough. He resolved not to speak to anyone of what had happened. A doctor is privileged like a priest in confession; he would keep his own counsel. So he went to his bed, and had fantastic dreams.
In the morning, before he was up, Manette was called down to speak with a young gentleman, who inquired how M. Isez found himself, after his blood-letting of a white man.
Manette knew nothing about the matter. "But I will inquire of Monsieur;" for her curiosity was aroused on her own account.
"Madame need not trouble herself," said the young man; "it is of no consequence." And bowing politely, he disappeared down the Rue de l'Aubépine.
Manette returned to her kitchen, pondered a good deal, and while her master took his coffee, told him of the young gentleman's visit. Isez perceived that his adventure was known. His tongue was untied, and he talked of it wherever he went. It became the theme of Paris conversation during a few days, and came to the ears of the King, who was as much perplexed and amused as other people. The Cardinal de Fleury sent for Isez, and made him tell the whole story with his own lips.
Mlle. Aïssé,[1] writing to Madame Calandrini soon after the adventure, says:—
"There have been a thousand conjectures, but none seem probable; for myself, I believe that it was a practical joke of some young men, who amused themselves by frightening the surgeon."
It was quite true that the surgeon had been frightened. Probably those persons who laughed at his fears would have been still more alarmed had they been in his place. A day or two after the adventure Isez found time to walk along the Rue du Pot-de-fer; he found that the door by which he had entered the mysterious house had disappeared. The blank wall was there, blanker than ever. This was strange; and Isez was unable even to find any traces in the wall to indicate where the door had been. Moreover, Manette, who knew every street in Paris, and whose eyes, though aged, were remarkably keen, declared that there never had been before, and never was afterwards, any door whatever in that blank wall.
The fashionable surgeon might almost have forgotten his adventure in the Rue du Pot-de-fer had it not been kept in his mind by other singular persons and strange events.
Part II.—The Horseman in Black.
A summons came from the Duc de Gesvres, and Isez had no choice but to obey it immediately. This famous invalid was perpetually in need of a doctor, and as his ailments were incurable, he was a valuable patient.
When taking leave of the groom of the chambers, after seeing the sick man, he ventured to remind him of the fact that the Duc owed him a large sum of money.
"You are right, monsieur," was the reply, "and M. le Duc has instructed me to pay you fifty louis on account."
Isez would have preferred the whole amount due to him, but thought it as well to take what was offered. He placed the money, in notes and gold, within the purse hanging under the skirt of his coat, and then started through the dark night on his homeward journey.
Soon after leaving the Château of St. Ouen, the road passed through a small but thick wood. Isez could hardly see the track, and held his bridle very slackly, trusting to the eyes and the sagacity of his horse to find the way in safety. Isez was feeling comfortable after a very good supper and very acceptable payment; he was thinking over the white invalid of the Rue du Pot-de-fer, when suddenly a man clothed in black, and mounted on a black horse, sprang from among the trees and seized the bridle out of the surgeon's hand.
"Your money!" said the highwayman.
"No, no," gasped Isez, terrified and powerless.
"Your money!" repeated the robber, holding a pistol to the surgeon's head.
His teeth chattering too much to allow him to expostulate, and unarmed as he was, Isez, never very valorous, gave up his purse containing the fifty louis.
The highwayman then pulled out Isez'
- ↑ The story, up to this point, may be read in the Sixth Letter of Mlle. Aïssé, in the Edition arrange by Eugène Asse, and published by MM. Charpentier et Cie, Paris, 1873.
