6
THE SEMI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE SECTION
llement. Lupin showed himself to be wonderfully
disinterested, lie was prepared to sign, the papers
said, with his eyes dosed, without knowing the
figure of the dowry.
All these things drove the old duke crazy. His
hatred of Lupin assumed morbid proportions. Much
as it went against the grain, be called on the prefect
of police, who advised him to be on his guard :
" We know the gentleman's ways; he is employing
one of his favorite dodges. Forgive the expres
sion, monsieur U due, but he is 'nursing' you.
Don't fall into the trap."
" What dodge? What trap? " asked the duke,
anxiously.
" He is trying to make you lose your head and
to lead you, by intimidation, into doing something
that you would refuse to do in cold blood."
" Still, M. Arsene Lupin can hardly hope that
I will offer him my daughter's hand ! "
" No 5 but he hopes that you will commit, to put
it mildly, a blunder."
" What blunder? "
" Exactly the blunder that he wants you to com
mit." "Then you think, monsieur le prifet -t"
" I think the best thing you can do, monsieur le
due, is to go home; or, if all this noise worries
you, to go down to the country and stay there
quietly, without upsetting yourself."
This conversation only increased the old duke's
fears. Lupin appeared to him in the light of a
terrible person, who employed diabolical methods
and kept accomplices in every sphere of society.
Prudence was the watchword.
And life from that moment became intolerable.
The duke grew more crabbed and silent than ever
and denied his door to all his old friends and even
to Angelique's three suitors her cousins de
Mussy, d'Emboise and de Caorches, none of whom
was on speaking terms with the others, in conse
quence of their rivalry, and who were in the habit
of calling, turn and turn about, every week.
For no earthly reason, he dismissed his butler
and his coachman. But he dared not fill their
places, for fear of engaging creatures of Arsene
Lupin; and his own man, Hyacinthe, in whom he
had every confidence, having retained him in his
service for more than forty years, had to take upon
himself the laborious duties of the stables and the
pantry. " Come, father," said Angelique, trying to make
him listen to commonsense, " I really do not see what
you are afraid of. No one can force me into this
ridiculous marriage."
" Well, of course, that 's not what I 'm afraid of."
"What then, father? "
"How can I tell? An abduction! A burglary!
An act of violence ! There is no doubt that the vil
lain is scheming something; and there is, also, no
doubt that we are surrounded by spies."
One afternoon, he received a newspaper in which
the following paragraph was marked in red pencil:
The signing of the marriage-contract Is fixed for
this evening1, at the Saraeau-Vendome town house. It
will be quite a private ceremony, and only a few
mi
privileged friends will be present to congratulate the
happy pair. The witnesses to the contract on behalf
of Mile, de Sarzeau-Vendome the Prince de La
Kochefoucauld-Limours and the Comte de Chartres
will be introduced by M. Arsene Lupin to the two
gentlemen who have claimed the honor of acting as
his groomsmen; namely, the prefect of police and the
governor of the Santfi Prison.
Ten minutes later, the duke sent his servant Hya
cinthe to the postoffice with three express messages.
At four o'clock, in Angelique's presence, he saw the
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m totaled"
H went without word, bowing Vary low as ha paued
three cousins: Mussy, fat, heavy, pasty-faced;
d'Emboise, slender, fresh-colored and shy ; Caorches,
short, thin and unhealthy-looking all three, old
bachelors by this time, lacking distinction in dress
or appearance.
The meeting was a short one. The duke had
worked out his whole plan of campaign, a defensive
campaign, of which he set forth the first stage in
explicit terms :
" Angelique and I will leave Paris tonight for our
place in Brittany. I rely on you, my three nephews,
to help us to get away. You, d'Emboise, will come
and fetch us in your car, with the hood up. You,
Mussy, will bring your big motor and kindly see to
the luggage with Hyacinthe, my man. You, Caorches,
will go to the Gare d'0rl6ans and book our berths
in the sleeping-car for Vannes by the 10:40 train.
Is that settled?"
The rest of the day passed without incident. The
duke, in order to avoid any chance indiscretion,
waited until after dinner to tell Hyacinthe to pack
a trunk and a portmanteau. Hyacinthe, as well as
Angelique's maid, was to accompany them.
At nine o'clock, all the other servants went to bed
by their master's order. At ten minutes to ten, the
duke, who was completing his preparations, heard
the sound of a motor-horn. The
porter opened the gates of the
courtyard. The duke, stand
ing at the window, recognized
d'Emboise 's landaulette.
"Tell him I shall be down
presently," he said to Hya
cinthe, "and let mademoiselle
know."
In a few minutes, as Hya
cinthe did not return, he left
his room. Instantly, he was at
tacked on the landing by two
masked men, who gagged and
bound him before he could
utter a cry. And one of the
men said to him, in a low voice :
"Take this as a first warn
ing, monsieur le due. If you
persist in leaving Paris and re
fusing your consent, it will be a
more serious matter."
And the same man said to
his companion :
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7
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" Keep an eye on him. I shall see to the voting
lady."
By that time, two other confederates had overpow
ered the lady's maid; and Angelique, herself gagged,
ky in a swoon on a couch in her boudoir.
She revived almost immediately, under the stimu
lus of a bottle of salts held to her nostrils; and,
when she opened her eyes, she saw bending over her
a young man, in evening clothes, with a smiling and
friendly face, who said :
" I implore your forgiveness, mademoiselle. All
these happenings are a trifle sudden, and this be
havior rather out of the way. But circumstances
often compel us to deeds of which our conscience
does not approve. Pray pardon me."
He took her hand very gently and slipped a
ring on the girl's finger, saying:
"There, now we are engaged! Never forget
the man who gave you this ring. He entreats you
not to run away from him . . . but to stay in
Paris and to await the proofs of his devotion.
Have faith in him."
He said all this in so serious and respectful a
voice, with so much authority and deference, that
she had not the strength to resist. Their eyes
met. He whispered :
" The exquisite purity of your eyes ! It would
be heavenly to live with those eyes upon one.
Now, close them. . . "
He withdrew. His accomplices followed suit.
The car drove off; and the house in the Rue de
Varennes remained still and silent until the mo
ment when Angelique, regaining her complete
consciousness, called out for the servants.
They found the duke, Hyacinthe, the lady's
maid, and the porter and his wife all tightly
bound. A few very valuable ornaments had dis
appeared, as well as the duke's pocket-book and
all his jewelry: tie-pins, pearl studs, watch and
so on.
The police were advised without delay. In the
morning, it appeared that, the evening before,
d'Emboise, when leaving his house in the motor
car, had been stabbed by his own chauffeur and
thrown, half-dead, in a deserted street. Mussy
and Caorches had received telephone messages
purporting to come from the duke, countermand
ing their presence.
Next week, without troubling further about the
police investigation, without obeying the summons of
the examining-magistrate, without even reading Ar
sene Lupin's letters to the papers on " the Varennes
Flight," the duke, his daughter and his valet stealth
ily took a slow train for Vannes and arrived one
evening at the old feudal castle that towers over the
headland of Sarzeau. The duke at once organized a
defense with the aid of the Breton peasants, true
medieval vassals every one of them. On the fourth
day, Mussy arrived; on the fifth, Caorches; and, 011
the seventh, d'Emboise, whose wound was not as se
vere as had been feared.
The duke waited two days longer before commu
nicating to those about him what he called, since his
escape had succeeded in spite of Lupin, the second
part of his plan. He expounded his views, in the
presence of the three cousins, in accordance with a
dictatorial order to Angelique, expressed in these
peremptory terms:
" All this bother is upsetting me terribly. I have
entered on a struggle with this man, whose daring
you have seen for yourself; and the struggle is kill
ing me. I want to end it at all costs. There is only
one way of doing this, Angelique, and that is for you
to release me from all my responsibility by accepting
the hand of one of your cousins. Before a month is
out, you must be the wife of Mussy, Caorches or
d'Emboise. You have a free choice. Make your de
cision." Angelique wept and entreated her father for four
whole days; but in vain. She felt that he would be
inflexible, and that she must end by submitting to his
wishes. She accepted :
" Whichever you please, father. I do not love any
of them. So, I may as well be unhappy with one as
with another."
Thereupon, a fresh discussion ensued, as the duke
wanted to compel her to make her own choiee. She
stood firm. Reluctantly and for financial reasons, he
named d'Emboise.
The banns were published without delay.
From that moment, the watch in and around the
castle was increased twofold, all the more inasmuch
as Lupin's silence and the sudden cessation of the
campaign that he had been conducting in the press
could not but alarm the Due de Sarzeau-Vendome.
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