"I hear that the Duke de Champdoce is seriously indisposed." "The Duke ill--impossible!" "This girl has just given me the information.

Tell us all about it, Francoise." "I heard to-day at the Chateau that the doctors had quite given him over." "But what is the matter with him ?" "I did not hear." M.de Puymandour stood perfectly aghast.
"It is always the way in this world," Daumon philosophically said.

"In the midst of life we are in death!" "Good morning, Counsellor," said De Puymandour; "I must try and find out something more about this." Breathless, and with his mind filled with anxiety, he hurried on.
All the servants and laborers on the Champdoce estate were gathered together in a group, talking eagerly to each other, and as soon as M.de Puymandour appeared, one of the servants, disengaging himself from his fellows, came towards him.

This was the Duke's old, trustworthy servant.
"Well ?" exclaimed M.de Puymandour.
"Oh, sir," cried the old man, "this is too horrible; my poor master will certainly die." "But I do not know what is the matter with him; no one has told me anything, in fact." "It was terribly sudden," answered the man.

"It was about this time the day before yesterday that the Duke was alone with M.Norbert in the dining-room.