The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-16
COPYRIGHT. 1907, BY IRVING kl

NenHepont naQ lntruSted the remnant of his fortune, the sum of 50,000 crowns, to a faithful Jew to be invest cd, and the resulting fortune was to be distributed among his heirs on Febru- ary IS, 1892. But an evil power more formidable than the passionate good wishes of Herodias and the Wandering Jew was actively opposing itself to the assembling of the Rennepont heirs on the designated date.
 In a large and plainly furnished room in an unpretentious house in the Rue du Milieu-des -ursins, M. Rodin sat at an ebony table filtered with papers, busily writing. M. Rodin was fifty years old. His gray hairs fell limp and flat on his temples and crowned his bald forehead; his eyebrows were scarcely marked; his upper eyelids were chriveled and fell low like the membrane of @ serpents eye. His eyes were small and black, sharp and piercing; his lips, thin and absolute ly colorless, were lost in the wan hue of his lank visage. His finger nails needed cleaning and his hands wash ing.
 M. Rodin was not pleasant to look upon. Yet within that unlovely ex- terior was concealed a boundless ann bition, strong and remorseless will and such an absolute penetration into
  upon them as upon stringed instru- ments.
 M Rodin was secretary to M. rAbbe dAigringny. Provincial of the Jesuits. who presently entered the room and haughtily began dictating some letters. M. rAbbe was formerly M. le Marquis dAigrigny, an emigre in the days of the Revolution and the Empire, colonel serving against France, who re- ceived his reward upon the Restora- tion. But though not yet forty, the Marquis d'Aigrigny had suddenly for saken the army and the world to take upon himself the habit of a Jesuit.
 The Abbe d'Aigrigny fancied himself powerful and a master of intrigue. As matter of fact, he was a tool in the hands of Rodin. who used him until the time should come to destroy him.
 Well, Rodin,' said the Marquis loftily. "all goes we'll with regard to the Rennepont inheritance. The daughters of General Simon have ar rived in Paris in spite of my endeavors, it is true; but the wife of Dagobert is a pious woman, and in her husbands temporary absence I have persuaded her to place the girls in convent for religious instruction-where they will be kept until after tomorrow"
 And M. Hardy" insinuated the secre- tary, lis, I believe. now travelling in the South of France"
 "Yes," replied d'Aigrigny, with a smile. T have certain discriminating papers concerning his bosom friend M. de Blessac, and by this means have in duced that estimable person to lure M. Hardy away from Paris. Jaques Rennepont is in jail for debt and Adrienne de Cardoville has been placed by her aunt, the Princess Saint -Dizier, in an insane asylum. Prince Djalma, as you know, will not trouble us. though my agent in Batavia blundered and let him arrive in Paris. Gabriel has returned from his mission to orders to appear tomorrow and receive the inheritance which he had already assigned to me. It is success, Rodin. success!"
 The snaky little eyes of the secretary regarded the vain Marquis with side- long glance of contempt. An. that Rodin! In his room he had a picture of a peasant youth, a swineherd, sur rounded by his charges. Under 1t was written, "The Youth of Sixtus Quintus."
 Opposite 1t hung another represent ing a peasant woman holding her boy by the hand while a sybil was telling the child's fortune. Under 1t was written "Sera Papa! He will be Pope" It was the prediction of the papacy of the subject of the first picture-Sixtus Quintus. Rodin Mixed to look at these two pictures and dream; for, like all strong characters, he liked sometimes to shut himself up alone with his day dreams.
 Sixtus Quintus was Pope-Rodin would be Pope. This master of in- trigue conspired against his own order, the Jesuits. and against the papacy. He would first become General of the Order. then Pope; and being Pope he would destroy the Order He was using the order now; subsequently, he would be to 1t what Mahmud II. was to the Janizaries and Mehemet Ali to the Mamelukes.
 The possession of the Rennepont in- heritance, which must now have grown to an enormous sum, was the lever by which he would move those wheels that had not already been set in motion in his complicated machinery. The vast wealth once in his hands, added to his own marvellous skill in intrigue, would give him that which alone he coveted Power.
 The morning of February 1S saw the custodian of the closed house in the Rue St. Francois, an aged Jew named Samuel, seated In the porter's lodge in the wall which divided the disused garden from the street, and putting his papers in final order for the cere- monies of the day. For three genera tions his family had been the custodlans of the walled-up house and of the in heritance of the Renneponts. Owing to their remarkable longevity this guardianship had extended over 16O years.
 "Bathesheba," said the old man to his wife, check off the items as read" and when this had been done he said: That is all. The inheritance has grown from the 50.000 crowns in- trusted to my ancestor to 212,175,000 francs" (more than s40,000,000)
 Soon there arrived M. I Aboe d Aigrigny and his secretary, Rodin. Then arrived Father Gabriel, the wood priest, the missionary recently returned from the Rocky Mountain; and fol- lowing him came the notary and work men to open the doors of the house Tn the courtyard and take the leaden covering from the windows of one room, the red chamber. according to the written instructions left by Marius Rennepont century and half before.
 Gabriel Rennepont had the counte- nance of an angel and a disposition as sweet as his countenance. His virtues were solid and rare, and though now only 25 years old, he had done heroic work as a missionary in tho wiIds of America.
 With no regard for wealth, he had given up willingly to the Marquis d'AlGrigny his part of the family in-