. Unfortunately, Cut-in-Half had seen him, and, seizing him by the
wrist, lugged him up again into the loft. Poor Gringalet, thinking of
what must befall him, shuddered all over, although he was by no means at
the end of his troubles. Apropos of Gringalet's troubles, I must now
mention to you Gargousse, the large and favourite ape of Cut-in-Half.
This mischievous brute was, _ma foi!_ taller than Gringalet; only
imagine what a size for a monkey! I must tell you why he was never taken
into the streets to be shown, like the other animals of the menagerie:
it was because Gargousse was so wicked and powerful that there was not
one amongst all the show-boys, except an Auvergnat of fourteen, a
determined chap, who, after many skirmishes and contests with Gargousse,
had mastered him, and could lead him about with a chain; and even with
him Gargousse frequently got up some fights, which ended in bloodshed
produced by Gargousse's bites. Enraged at this, the little Auvergnat
said, one fine day, 'Very well, I will revenge myself on this infernal
monkey;' and so, one morning, having gone out with the brute as usual,
he, in order to appease its savageness, bought a sheep's heart. Whilst
Gargousse was eating it, he put a rope through the end of his chain,
tied it to a tree, and, when he had got the brute quite at his mercy, he
gave it an outrageous walloping."

"Well done! Bravo the Auvergnat! Go it, my lad! Skin the beast alive!"
said the prisoners.

"He did whack him gloriously!" continued Pique-Vinaigre. "And you should
have seen how Gargousse cried, ground his teeth, leaped, danced, and
skipped hither and thither; but the Auvergnat used his stick famously!
Unfortunately, monkeys, like cats, are very tenacious of life. Gargousse
was as crafty as he was vicious; and when he saw, as they say, how the
wood was on fire, at a heavy blow he made a final bound, and fell flat
at the foot of a tree, shook for a moment, and then shammed dead, lying
as motionless as a log. The Auvergnat believed he had done for him, and,
thinking the ape dead, he cut away, resolved never again to return to
Cut-in-Half. But the beast Gargousse watched him out of the corner of
his eye, and, bruised and wounded as he was, as soon as he saw himself
alone he rent the cord asunder with his teeth. The Boulevard Monceaux,
where he had had this hiding, was close to La Petite Pologne, and the
monkey knew his way as easy as his paternoster; and, making off in that
dire