"I don't know what is going on, but let us get back to Cinq-Cygne." While the happy party were employed in recovering the fortune saved by the old marquis, and guarded for so many years by Michu, an extraordinary scene was taking place in the chateau of Gondreville.
About two o'clock in the afternoon Malin and his friend Grevin were playing chess before the fire in the great salon on the ground-floor.
Madame Grevin and Madame Marion were sitting on a sofa and talking together at a corner of the fireplace.

All the servants had gone to see the masquerade, which had long been announced in the arrondissement.

The family of the bailiff who had replaced Michu had gone too.

The senator's valet and Violette were the only persons beside the family at the chateau.

The porter, two gardeners, and their wives were on the place, but their lodge was at the entrance of the courtyards at the farther end of the avenue to Arcis, and the distance from there to the chateau is beyond the sound of a pistol-shot.