ity that offered; but she wept, raved, tore her hair. No;
without her Jules life would be unendurable; her husband, her country,
her king, nay, even the allurements and sparkle of the court, had grown
disgusting; and so on, and so on. And I think a monkey would have burst
into laughter to see the bald-headed old satyr beat his bosom, flourish
his arms, ogle, languish, and simper, all with a cut-throat expression,
too, soften his voice, and act in short as if he was not telling me as
big a lie as was ever related on shipboard.

It naturally rendered me very melancholy to reflect that I had restored
this old villain to life, and I protest it was a continuous shock to
such religious feelings as I had managed to preserve to reflect that
what had been as good as nearly half a century of death had done nothing
for this elderly rogue's morals. It entered my head once to believe that
if I could succeed in getting him to believe he had lain frozen for
eight-and-forty years, he might be seized with a fright (for he was a
white-livered creature), and in some directions mend, and so come to a
sense of the service I had done him, of which he appeared wholly
insensible, and qualify me to rid my mind of the fears which I
entertained concerning our association, should we manage to escape with
the treasure. I said to him bluntly--not _apropos_ (to use his own
lingo) of anything we were talking about,--

"'Tis odd, Mr. Tassard, you should doubt my assurance that this is the
year eighteen hundred and one."

He stared, grinned, and said, "Do you think so?"

"Well," said I, "perhaps it is not so odd after all; but you should
suffer me to have as good an idea of the passage of time as yourself.
You cannot tell me how long your stupor lasted."

"Two days if you like!" he interrupted vehemently. "Why more? Why longer
than a day? How do you know that I had sunk into the condition in which
you found me longer than an hour or two when you landed? How do you
know, hey? How do you know?" and he snapped his fingers.

"I know by the date you name and by the year that this is," said I
defiantly.

He uttered a coarse French expression and added, "You want to prove that
I have been insensible for forty-eight years."

"It is the fact," said I.

He looked so wild and fierce that I drew myself erect ready for him if
he should fall upon me. Then, slowly wagging his head whilst the anger
in his face softened out, he said, "Who reigns in France now?