terror, and faithfully kept to the post assigned him, whilst Monk and Athos turned behind a column at the foot of which, penetrating through a crack, was a moonbeam, reflected exactly on the stone which the Comte de la Fere had come so far in search.

“This is it,” said Athos, pointing out to the general the Latin inscription.

“Yes,” said Monk.

Then, as if still willing to leave the Frenchman one means of evasion, —

“Do you not observe that this vault has already been broken into,” continued he, “and that several statues have already been knocked down?”

“My lord, you have, without doubt, heard that the religious respect of