rosecutor, led and conducted these raids, assisted by that bloodthirsty
vampire, Merlin. They heard of a house in the Rue de l'Ancienne Comedie
where an Englishmen was said to have lodged for two days.

They demanded admittance, and were taken to the rooms where the
Englishman had stayed. These were bare and squalid, like hundreds of
other rooms in the poorer quarters of Paris. The landlady, toothless and
grimy, had not yet tidied up the one where the Englishman had slept: in
fact she did not know he had left for good.

He had paid for his room, a week in advance, and came and went as he
liked, she explained to Citizen Tinville. She never bothered about him,
as he never took a meal in the house, and he was only there two days.
She did not know her lodger was English until the day he left. She
thought he was a Frenchman from the South, as he certainly had a
peculiar accent when he spoke.

"It was the day of the riots," she continued; "he would go out, and I
told him I did not think that the streets would be safe for a foreigner
like him: for he always wore such very fine clothes, and I made sure
that the starving men and women of Paris would strip them off his back
when their tempers were roused. But he only laughed. He gave me a bit of
paper and told me that if he did not return I might conclude that he had
been killed, and if the Committee of Public Safety asked me questions
about me, I was just to show the bit of paper and there would be no
further trouble."

She had talked volubly, more than a little terrified at Merlin's scowls,
and the attitude of Citizen Tinville, who was known to be very severe if
anyone committed any blunders.

But the Citizeness--her name was Brogard and her husband's brother kept
an inn in the neighbourhood of Calais--the Citizeness Brogard had a
clear conscience. She held a license from the Committee of Public Safety
for letting apartments, and she had always given due notice to the
Committee of the arrival and departure of her lodgers. The only thing
was that if any lodger paid her more than ordinarily well for the
accommodation and he so desired it, she would send in the notice
conveniently late, and conveniently vaguely worded as to the
description, status and nationality of her more liberal patrons.

This had occurred in the case of her recent English visitor.

But she did not explain it quite like that to Citizen Foucquier Tinville
or to Citizen Merlin.

However, she was rather