UNCLE BERNAC

CONTENTS

Chapter
I. THE COAST OF FRANCE

II. THE SALT-MARSH

III. THE RUINED COTTAGE

IV. MEN OF THE NIGHT

V. THE LAW

VI. THE SECRET PASSAGE

VII. THE OWNER OF GROSBOIS

VIII. COUSIN SYBYLLE

IX. THE CAMP OF BOULOGNE

X. THE ANTE-ROOM

XI. THE SECRETARY

XII. THE MAN OF ACTION

XIII. THE MAN OF DREAMS

XIV. JOSEPHINE

XV. THE RECEPTION OF THE EMPRESS

XVI. THE LIBRARY OF GROSBOIS

XVII. THE END





CHAPTER I


THE COAST OF FRANCE

I dare say that I had already read my uncle's letter a hundred times,
and I am sure that I knew it by heart. None the less I took it out of
my pocket, and, sitting on the side of the lugger, I went over it again
with as much attention as if it were for the first time. It was written
in a prim, angular hand, such as one might expect from a man who had
begun life as a village attorney, and it was addressed to Louis de
Laval, to the care of William Hargreaves, of the Green Man in Ashford,
Kent. The landlord had many a hogshead of untaxed French brandy from
the Normandy coast, and the letter had found its way by the same hands.