Well, we're quits now!" Michu consoled himself by thinking that the discovery was of no consequence, as the young men were now safe, Frenchmen once more, and at liberty.

Yet his first presentiment was a true one.

The police, like the Jesuits, have the one virtue of never abandoning their friends or their enemies.
Old d'Hauteserre returned from Paris and was more than surprised not to be the first to bring the news.

Durieu prepared a succulent dinner, the servants donned their best clothes, and the household impatiently awaited the exiles, who arrived about four o'clock, happy,--and yet humiliated, for they found they were to be under police surveillance for two years, obliged to present themselves at the prefecture every month and ordered to remain in the commune of Cinq-Cygne during the said two years.

"I'll send you the papers for signature," the prefect said to them.