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But the Englishman raised his eye and uttered a sigh of relief. There, he saw the same mechanism and the same word as before. He had merely to work the three letters. He did so, and a block of granite swung out of place. On the other side, this granite block formed the tombstone of Duke Rollo, and the word "Thibermesnil" was engraved on it in relief.
At Rouen, in the antique-looking library of a vast and gloomy hotel, sat a venerable old man, seemingly engrossed in meditation and study. He was Laurence Bigot of Thibermesnil, king's counsel to the parliament of Normandy, a wise magistrate, and a learned and virtuous man.
"Louis the sixteenth was a clever locksmith. I have read a book he wrote about combination locks. It was a good idea on the part of the owner of Thibermesnil to show His Majesty a clever bit of mechanism. As an aid to his memory, the king wrote: 3-4-11, that is to say, the third, fourth and eleventh letters of the word." "Exactly. I understand that.
"All I can say is that the king stopped here one night in 1784, and that the famous Iron Casket found in the Louvre contained a paper bearing these words in the king's own writing: `Thibermesnil 3-4-11." Horace Velmont laughed heartily, and exclaimed: "At last! And now that we have the magic key, where is the man who can fit it to the invisible lock?"
This speech evoked another round of laughter, and the guests then passed into the ancient "Hall of the Guards," a vast room with a high ceiling, which occupied the entire lower part of the Tour Guillaume William's Tower and wherein Georges Devanne had collected the incomparable treasures which the lords of Thibermesnil had accumulated through many centuries.
Devanne, we should turn our attention to the two quotations," suggested Father Gelis. "Oh!" exclaimed Mon. Devanne, laughing, "our worthy father is fond of reading memoirs and delving into the musty archives of the castle. Everything relating to Thibermesnil interests him greatly. But the quotations that he mentions only serve to complicate the mystery.
"Place the ladder against the bookcase, to the left of the word Thibermesnil." Devanne placed the ladder as directed, and the Englishman continued: "More to the left....to the right....There!....Now, climb up.... All the letters are in relief, aren't they?" "Yes." "First, turn the letter I one way or the other." "Which one? There are two of them." "The first one."
"I will show you." He rose, and pointing to a small empty space between the two enormous folios on one of the shelves of the bookcase, he said: "There used to be a book there a book of the sixteenth century entitled `Chronique de Thibermesnil, which contained the history of the castle since its construction by Duke Rollo on the site of a former feudal fortress.
By that order, the second company of the fourth battalion were commanded to proceed to the crossroads of Halleux in the forest of Arques, gather up the furniture and other articles deposited there, and deliver same to Monsieur Georges Devanne, owner of the Thibermesnil castle, at three o'clock. Signed: Col. Beauvel.
The large dining-hall of the Chateau de Thibermesnil contained on this occasion, besides Valmont, the following guests: Father Gelis, the parish priest, and a dozen officers whose regiments were quartered in the vicinity and who had accepted the invitation of the banker Georges Devanne and his mother.
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