He said that if we would let him go, he would return in two hours, and that his honor and life were involved." The Duke listened with a sarcastic smile.

He cared nothing about the frantic struggles of his son, for his heart had grown cold and hard from the presence of the fixed idea which had actuated his conduct for so many years, and it was with the solemn face of a man who was fulfilling a sacred duty that he ascended to the room in which his son was imprisoned.

Jean threw open the door, and the Duke paused for a moment on the threshold.

The furniture had been overturned, some of it broken, and there were evident signs of a furious struggle having taken place.
A powerful laborer stood near the window, and Norbert was lying on the bed, with his face turned to the wall.
"Leave us," said the Duke, and the man withdrew at once.
"Get up, Norbert," he added; "I wish to speak to you." His son obeyed him.

Any one but the Duke would have been alarmed by the expression of the young man's face.
"What is the meaning of all this ?" asked the old nobleman in his most severe voice.