great deal of friendly interest in Count Baldi, that
extremely handsome man and quondam friend of the Marquise Raversi. The
one thing certain was that he and the Marquise had separated, and he was
alleged to have behaved most shamefully toward the lady who for six
years had been to him a mother and given him his standing in society.

The next morning, long before the sun was up, Grillo entered Fabrice's
cell, laid down what seemed to be a pretty heavy package, and vanished
without saying a word. The package contained a good-sized loaf of bread,
plentifully ornamented with, little crosses made with a pen. Fabrice
covered them with kisses. Why? Because he was in love. Beside the loaf
lay a rouleau incased in many thicknesses of paper; it contained six
thousand francs in sequins. Finally, Fabrice discovered a handsome
brand-new prayer-book: these words, in a writing he was beginning to be
acquainted with, were written on the fly-leaf:--

"_Poison!_ Beware the water, the wine, everything; confine yourself to
chocolate. Give the untasted dinner to the dog; it will not do to show
distrust; the enemy would have recourse to other methods. For God's
sake, be cautious! no rashness!"

Fabrice made haste to remove the telltale writing which might have
compromised Clelia, and to tear out a number of leaves from the
prayer-book, with which he made several alphabets; each letter was
neatly formed with powdered charcoal moistened with wine. The alphabets
were quite dry when at a quarter to twelve Clelia appeared at the window
of the aviary. "The main thing now is to persuade her to use them," said
Fabrice to himself. But as it happened, fortunately, she had much to say
to the young prisoner in regard to the plan to poison him (a dog
belonging to one of the kitchen-maids had died after eating a dish
cooked for Fabrice), so that Clelia not only made no objection to the
use of the alphabets, but had herself prepared one in the highest style
of art with ink. Under this method, which did not work altogether
smoothly at the beginning, the conversation lasted an hour and a half,
which was as long as Clelia dared remain in the aviary. Two or three
times, when Fabrice trespassed on forbidden ground and alluded to
matters that were taboo, she made no answer and walked away to feed
her birds.

Fabrice requested that when she sent him his supply of water at evening
she would accompany it with one of her alphabets, which, being traced in
ink, w