CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

The Secret Letter

Marquis de la Mole called him. The marquis looked young. "Let's talk about your memory. I hear it's good. Could you learn four pages and recite them perfectly in London?"

"Yes," Julien answered.

"Without changing a single word?"

"Yes. If you want, tomorrow I could tell you everything that's in today's paper."

"I will take you to a salon. Twelve people will speak. You will make notes of what each person says," said the marquis. "You will then write four pages from these notes, and then you'll leave Paris. You'll pretend to be a person traveling for fun. You'll meet a duke, and you will need to fool all of his staff. The duke himself will copy those four pages.

"You won't be bored, because some people will want to kill you.

"Go buy some clothes. I want you to look foolish tonight."

Julien came back wearing silly-looking clothes. The marquis laughed. He knew he could trust Julien. If I can't trust Julien, he thought, who can I trust? My son is brave, but he could never do this job.

At the salon, Julien stayed at one side. He watched people enter the salon. The host was a very large man. Another man was short and broad; his face looked cruel, like a wild pig. A thin man came in; he was wearing many vests. Julien recognized the Bishop of Agde. Soon a small, dark man came in talking quickly.

Julien was not comfortable. He was hearing some very strange things. This is some kind of conspiracy, he thought.

(end of section)