“Ah, pardieu! ” said Beauchamp, “with the paper in your hand, my friend, I need not tell you the cause of my visit.”
“Are you interested in the sugar question?” asked the editor of the ministerial paper.
“No,” replied Beauchamp, “I have not considered the question; a totally different subject interests me.”
“What is it?”
“The article relative to Morcerf.”
“Indeed? Is it not a curious affair?”
“So curious, that I think you are running a great risk of a prosecution for defamation of character.”
“Not at all; we have received with the information all the requisite proofs, and we are quite sure M. de Morcerf will not raise his voice against us; besides, it is rendering a service to one’s country to denounce these wretched criminals who are unworthy of the honor bestowed on them.”
Beauchamp was thunderstruck.
“Who, then, has so correctly informed you?” asked he; “for my paper, which gave the first information on the subject, has been obliged to stop for want of proof; and yet we are more interested than you in exposing M. de Morcerf, as he is a peer of France, and we are of the opposition.”
“Oh, that is very simple; we have not sought to scandalize. This news was brought to us. A man arrived yesterday from Yanina, bringing a formidable array of documents; and when we hesitated to publish the accusatory article, he told us it should be inserted in some other paper.”