"He has been their evil genius." Moreover, who could know as well as the Messieurs de Simeuse the ins and outs of the chateau.

None of the assailants seemed to have blundered in their search; they had gone through the house in a confident way which showed that they knew what they wanted to find and where to find it.
The locks of none of the opened closets had been forced; therefore the delinquents had keys.

Strange to say, however, nothing had been taken; the motive, therefore, was not robbery.

More than all, when Violette had followed the tracks of the horses as far as the _rond-point_, he had found the countess, evidently on guard, at the pavilion.

From such a combination of facts and depositions arose a presumption as to the guilt of the Messieurs de Simeuse, d'Hauteserre, and Michu, which would have been strong to unprejudiced minds, and to the director of the jury had the force of certainty.