, crowding around the persons employed in the distribution like
so many hungry cormorants.

Each prisoner received a piece of the meat employed in making the day's
soup, with about half a loaf of tolerably good bread. Such of the
_detenus_ as possessed the means were allowed to purchase drink at the
wineshop belonging to the prison, and even to go thither to regale
themselves with their lush; while persons who, like Nicholas, had
received provisions from their friends, generally made a sort of feast,
to which they invited their most intimate acquaintances. The guests
selected by the son of the executed felon upon the present occasion were
the Skeleton, Barbillon, and, at the suggestion of the latter,
Pique-Vinaigre, in order that good eating and drinking might quicken his
talent for "storytelling."

The ham, hard boiled eggs, cheese, and delicate white bread, wrung from
the forced generosity of Micou the receiver, were arranged most
temptingly on a bench in the day-room, and the Skeleton prepared himself
to do ample justice to the repast, without in the slightest degree
disturbing his appetite by the thoughts of the cold-blooded murder that
was to follow it.

"Just go and see whether Pique-Vinaigre is coming, will you, my fine
fellow?" cried he, addressing an individual who stood near him. "I tell
you what it is, while I'm waiting to choke that stuck-up young fool they
call Germain, I'm blowed if hunger and thirst won't choke me, if I have
to dawdle about much longer. And here; don't forget to work old Frank up
to do for the bum-bailiff, so that we may kill two birds with one stone,
as the saying is."

"Don't you be afraid, old Dead-Alive! If Frank don't make a stiff'un of
the bailey, it won't be our fault, that you may take your oath of!" And,
while uttering these words, Nicholas went forth from the day-room.

At this moment Maitre Boulard entered the yard, smoking a cigar, his
hands buried in the pockets of his gray duffle dressing-gown, his peaked
cap pulled down well over his ears, and a look of chuckling satisfaction
upon his fat, full-blown countenance. He quickly espied Nicholas, who
was busily occupied gazing around in search of Frank. That person was at
that precise period of time busily occupied, in company with his friend
Gros-Boiteux, in eating his dinner, and, from the position in which they
sat on one of the benches, they perceived not the presence of the
bailiff. Acting in implicit obedience to the d