val,
which, henceforth, will eclipse the old Carnival of Venice, unless some
ill-advised Prefect of Police is antagonistic.

Gambling ought to be allowed during the Carnival; but the stupid
moralists who have had gambling suppressed are inert financiers, and
this indispensable evil will be re-established among us when it is
proved that France leaves millions at the German tables.

This splendid Carnival brought us to utter penury, as it does every
student. We got rid of every object of luxury; we sold our second coats,
our second boots, our second waistcoats--everything of which we had a
duplicate, except our friend. We ate bread and cold sausages; we looked
where we walked; we had set to work in earnest. We owed two months'
rent, and were sure of having a bill from the porter for sixty or eighty
items each, and amounting to forty or fifty francs. We made no noise,
and did not laugh as we crossed the little hall at the bottom of the
stairs; we commonly took it at a flying leap from the lowest step into
the street. On the day when we first found ourselves bereft of tobacco
for our pipes, it struck us that for some days we had been eating bread
without any kind of butter.

Great was our distress.

"No tobacco!" said the Doctor.

"No cloak!" said the Keeper of the Seals.

"Ah, you rascals, you would dress as the postillion de Longjumeau, you
would appear as Debardeurs, sup in the morning, and breakfast at night
at Very's--sometimes even at the _Rocher de Cancale_.--Dry bread for
you, my boys! Why," said I, in a big bass voice, "you deserve to sleep
under the bed, you are not worthy to lie in it--"

"Yes, yes; but, Keeper of the Seals, there is no more tobacco!" said
Juste.

"It is high time to write home, to our aunts, our mothers, and our
sisters, to tell them we have no underlinen left, that the wear and
tear of Paris would ruin garments of wire. Then we will solve an elegant
chemical problem by transmuting linen into silver."

"But we must live till we get the answer."

"Well, I will go and bring out a loan among such of our friends as may
still have some capital to invest."

"And how much will you find?"

"Say ten francs!" replied I with pride.

It was midnight. Marcas had heard everything. He knocked at our door.

"Messieurs," said he, "here is some tobacco; you can repay me on the
first opportunity."

We were struck, not by the offer, which we accepted, but by the rich,
deep, full voice in which i