ing the cherries.

"Ah!" said Dubois; "only five! At St. Germain-en-Laye they give six."

"Possibly, monsieur; for at St. Germain-en-Laye they have no excise to
pay."

"Yes, I forgot that," and he began to eat a cherry, which he could not,
however, accomplish without a grimace.

"Where does the captain lodge?" asked Dubois.

"There is the door of his room; he preferred the ground-floor."

"Yes," murmured Dubois; "the windows look into the public road."

"And there is a door opening into the Rue des Deux-Boules."

"Oh, how convenient! And does not the noise annoy him?"

"There is another room above: sometimes he sleeps in one, sometimes in
the other."

"Like Denis the tyrant," said Dubois, who could not refrain from Latin
or historical quotations.

"What?" said mine host.

Dubois bit his lip. At this moment one of the soldiers called for wine,
and the host darted off to wait upon him.

Dubois turned to the two guards.

"Thank you," said he.

"What is it, bourgeois?" asked they.

"France and the regent," replied Dubois.

"The watchword!" cried both, rising.

"Enter this room," said Dubois, showing La Jonquiere's room. "Open the
door into the Rue des Deux-Boules, and hide behind a curtain, under a
table, in a closet, wherever you can. If, when I come in, I can see so
much as an ear, you will have no pay for six months."

The two men emptied their glasses, and entered the room, while Dubois,
who saw they had forgotten to pay, put a piece of twelve sous on the
table, then, opening the window, and calling to the driver of a hackney
carriage standing before the door--"L'Eveille," said he, "bring the
carriage to the little door in the Rue des Deux-Boules, and tell Tapin
to come up when I knock on the windows with my fingers; he has his
orders; be off."

The host reappeared.

"Hola!" cried, "where are my men?"

"A sergeant came and called them away."

"But they have not paid."

"Yes, they left a twelve-sou piece on the table."

"Diable! twelve sous; and my wine is eight sous the bottle."

"Ah!" said Dubois, "no doubt they thought that as they were soldiers you
would make a reduction."

"At any rate," said the host, consoling himself, "it is not all lost;
and in our trade one must expect this kind of thing."

"You have nothing of the sort to fear with Captain la Jonquiere?"

"Oh, no, he is the best of lodgers; he pays without a word, and ready
money. True, he never likes anything."

"Oh, th