Rennepont, who had also been Duke of Cardoville, was the lady who had
been unwarrantably placed in the lunatic asylum. The fifth, unaware of
the medal, was Gabriel, a youth, who had been brought up, though a
foundling, in Dagobert's family, as a brother to Agricola. He had entered
holy orders, and more, was a Jesuit, in name though not in heart. Unlike
the others, his return from abroad had been smoothed. He had signed away
all his future prospects, for the benefit of the order of Loyola, and,
moreover, executed a more complete deed of transfer on the day, the 13th
of February, 1832, when he, alone of the heirs, stood in the room of the
house, No. 3, Rue St. Francois, claiming what was a vast surprise for the
Jesuits, who, a hundred and fifty years before, had discovered that Count
Marius de Rennepont had secreted a considerable amount of his wealth, all
of which had been confiscated to them, in those painful days of
dragoonings, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. They had
bargained for some thirty or forty millions of francs to be theirs, by
educating Gabriel into resigning his inheritance to them, but it was two
hundred and twelve millions which the Jesuit representatives (Father
d'Aigrigny and his secretary, Rodin) were amazed to hear their nursling
placed in possession of. They had the treasure in their hands, in fact,
when a woman of strangely sad beauty had mysteriously entered the room
where the will had been read, and laid a paper before the notary. It was
a codicil, duly drawn up and signed, deferring the carrying out of the
testament until the first day of June the same year. The Jesuits fled
from the house, in rage and intense disappointment. Father d'Aigrigny was
so stupor-stricken at the defeat, that he bade his secretary at once
write off to Rome that the Rennepont inheritance had escaped them, and
hopes to seize it again were utterly at an end. Upon this, Rodin had
revolted, and shown that he had authority to command where he had, so
far, most humbly obeyed. Many such spies hang about their superior's
heels, with full powers to become the governor in turn, at a moment's