Give me back our son).'" Hortebise snatched up the paper and glanced at it.
"You are right," said he; "it is the art of cipher writing in its infancy." "I had succeeded in reading it,--but how to make use of it! The mass of waste paper in which I found it had been purchased from a servant in a country house near Vendome.

A friend of mine, who was accustomed to drawing plans and maps, came to my aid, and discovered some faint signs of a crest in one corner of the paper.

With the aid of a powerful magnifying glass, I discovered it to be the cognizance of the ducal house of Champdoce.

The light that guided me was faint and uncertain, and many another man would have given up the quest.

But the thought was with me in my waking hours, and was the companion of my pillow during the dark hours of the night.