the unravelling of the melancholy comedy, lasting now for eight years,
in the house of his silversmith; flattering himself that, in his
quality of king, he had enough penetration to discover the secret of
the robberies. Cornelius did not see the arrival of the escort of his
royal master without uneasiness.

"Are all those persons to take part in the inquiry?" he said to the
king.

Louis XI. could not help smiling as he saw the fright of the miser and
his sister.

"No, my old crony," he said; "don't worry yourself. They will sup at
Plessis, and you and I alone will make the investigation. I am so good
in detecting criminals, that I will wager you ten thousand crowns I
shall do so now."

"Find him, sire, and make no wager."

They went at once into the strong room, where the Fleming kept his
treasure. There Louis, who asked to see, in the first place, the
casket from which the jewels of the Duke of Burgundy had been taken,
then the chimney down which the robber was supposed to have descended,
easily convinced his silversmith of the falsity of the latter
supposition, inasmuch as there was no soot on the hearth,--where, in
truth, a fire was seldom made,--and no sign that any one had passed
down the flue; and moreover that the chimney issued at a part of the
roof which was almost inaccessible. At last, after two hours of close
investigation, marked with that sagacity which distinguished the
suspicious mind of Louis XI., it was clear to him, beyond all doubt,