The letter was directed to "_The prisoner who finds this._" Monsieur the Viscount opened it at once.

This was the letter-- "_In prison, 24th Prairial, year 2_.
"_Fellow-sufferer, who are you?
how long have you been imprisoned?
Be good enough to answer_." Monsieur the Viscount hesitated for a moment, and then determined to risk all.

He tore off a bit of the paper, and with the little pencil hurriedly wrote this reply:-- "_In secret, June 12, 1794_.
"_Louis Archambaud Jean-Marie Arnaud, Vicomte de B., supposed to have perished in the massacres of September_, 1792.

_Keep my secret.

I have been imprisoned a year and nine months.