hungry he
ordered supper.

Coconnas was in the two moods necessary for a good supper--his mind was
relieved and his stomach was empty; therefore he supped so well that the
meal lasted till eight o'clock. Then strengthened by two bottles of
light wine from Anjou, of which he was very fond and which he tossed off
with a sensual enjoyment shown by winks of his eyes and repeated
smacking of his lips, he set out again in his search for La Mole,
accompanying it through the crowd by kicks and knocks of his feet in
proportion to the increasing friendship inspired in him by the comfort
which always follows a good meal.

That lasted one hour, during which time Coconnas searched every street
in the vicinity of the Quay of the Greve, the Port au Charbon, the Rue
Saint Antoine, and the Rues Tizon and Cloche Percee, to which he thought
his friend might have returned. Finally he bethought himself that there
was a place through which he had to pass, the gate of the Louvre, and he
resolved to wait at this gate until his return.

He was not more than a hundred steps from the Louvre, and had just put
on her feet a woman whose husband he had already overturned on the Place
Saint Germain l'Auxerrois, when in the distance he perceived before him
in the doubtful light of a great lantern near the drawbridge of the
Louvre the cherry-colored velvet cloak and the white plume of his
friend, who like a shadow was disappearing under the gate and returning
the sentinel's greeting.

The famous cherry-colored cloak was so well known to every one that he
could not be mistaken in it.

"Well! by Heaven!" cried Coconnas; "it is really he this time, and he is
returning. Well! well! La Mole, my friend! Plague it! Yet I have a good
voice. How does it happen that he does not hear me? Fortunately I have
as good legs as I have voice, so I will join him."

In this hope Coconnas set out as fast as he could, and reached the
Louvre in an instant, but, fast as he was, just as he stepped into the
court the red cloak, which seemed in haste also, disappeared in the
vestibule.

"Hi there! La Mole!" cried Coconnas, still hastening. "Wait for me. It
is I, Coconnas. What in the devil are you hurrying so for? Are you
running away?"

In fact the red cloak, as though it had wings, scaled the stairs rather
than mounted them.

"Ah! you will not hear me!" cried Coconnas. "I am angry with you! Are
you sorry? Well, the devil! I can run no further." It was from the foot