The old nobleman seemed strangely agitated as it caught his eye.

He drew it gently from Isabelle's slender finger, with a trembling hand signed to one of the torch-bearers to bring his light nearer, and by it eagerly examined the device cut upon the stone; first holding it close to the light and then at arm's length; as those whose eyesight is impaired by age are wont to do.

The Baron de Sigognac, Herode and Lampourde anxiously watched the agitated movements of the prince, and his change of expression, as he contemplated this jewel, which he seemed to recognise; and which he turned and twisted between his fingers, with a pained look in his face, as if some great trouble had befallen him.
"Where is the Duke of Vallombreuse ?" he cried at last, in a voice of thunder.

"Where is that monster in human shape, who is unworthy of my race ?" He had recognised, without a possibility of doubt, in this ring, the one bearing a fanciful device, with which he had been accustomed, long ago, to seal the notes he wrote to Cornelia--Isabelle's mother, and his own youthful love.

How happened it that this ring was on the finger of the young actress, who had been forcibly and shamefully abducted by Vallombreuse?
From whom could she have received it?
These questions were torturing to him.
"Can it be possible that she is Cornelia's daughter and mine ?" said the prince to himself.