s without doubt
making a visit to Blue Beard, who, in order to receive him, is lighting
the furnaces of her kitchen."

Little by little these warm tints disappeared, they became pale red,
then violet, and were swallowed up in the amethyst of the evening skies.
As soon as the shadows wrapped the forest in their arms, the plaintive
cries of the jackals, the sinister hooting of the owls, proclaimed the
return of night. The sea breeze, which always rises after the setting of
the sun, passed like a great sigh over the tops of the trees; the leaves
shivered. The thousand nameless, vague and distant cries which one hears
only at night, began to resound from all quarters.

"Of a truth," said the chevalier, "this is a pretty figure to cut! To
think I am not a hundred steps, perhaps, from Devil's Cliff, and that I
am compelled to sleep under the stars!"

Croustillac, fearing the serpents, directed himself toward an enormous
mahogany tree which he had observed; by the aid of the vines which
enveloped this tree on all sides, he succeeded in reaching a kind of
fork, formed by two large branches; here he installed himself,
comfortably, placed his sword between his knees, and commenced a supper
of the bananas, which fortunately, he had kept in his pockets. He did
not experience any of the fears which would have assailed many men, even
the bravest, placed in such a critical situation. Beside, in extreme
cases the chevalier had all kinds of reasoning for his use; he said:
"Fate is implacable against me, it chooses well--it cannot
mistake--instead of addressing itself to some rascal; to some wretch,
what does it do? It bethinks itself of the Chevalier de Croustillac
thus: 'Here is my man--he is worthy of struggling with me.'"

In the situation in which he found himself the chevalier saw another
providential circumstance no less flattering to him. "My good fortune is
assured," he said: "the treasures of Blue Beard are mine; this is the
final trial to which the aforesaid Fate subjects me; it would be bad
grace in me to revolt. A brave man does not complain. I could not merit
the inestimable recompense which awaits me."

By means of these reflections the chevalier combated sleep with success;
he feared if he yielded to it he would fall from the tree; he ended by
being enchanted by the obstacles which he had surmounted in his course
to Blue Beard. She would know how to value his courage, he thought, and
be alive to his devotion. In this