ptain saw the shine of the three gold pieces one after another,
and quickly reckoned up what might be had at the "Bois de Boulogne" for
seventy-two francs; but as he knew whom he had to deal with, he judged
that a little advice from him would not be useless; consequently, in his
turn approaching the maitre d'hotel--

"Listen, my friend," said he; "you know that I understand the price of
things, and that no one can deceive me about the amount of a tavern
bill. Let the wines be good and varied, and let the breakfast be
copious, or I will break your head! Do you understand?"

"Be easy, captain," answered Durand, "it is not a customer like you whom
I would deceive."

"All right; I have eaten nothing for twelve hours. Arrange accordingly."

The hotel-keeper bowed, as knowing what that meant, and went back to his
kitchen, beginning to think that he had made a worse bargain than he had
hoped.

As to the captain, after having made a last sign of recognition, half
amicable, half threatening, he quickened his pace, and rejoined the
chevalier and the baron, who had stopped to wait for him.

The chevalier was not wrong as to the situation of the hired carriage.
At the turn of the first alley he saw his three adversaries getting out
of it. They were, as we have already said, the Marquis de Lafare, the
Comte de Fargy, and the Chevalier de Ravanne.

Our readers will now permit us to give them some short details of these
three personages, who will often reappear in the course of this history.
Lafare, the best known of the three, thanks to the poetry which he has
left behind him, was a man of about thirty-six or thirty-eight years, of
a frank and open countenance, and of an inexhaustible gayety and good
humor. Always ready to engage with all comers, at table, at play, or at
arms, and that without malice or bitterness; much run after by the fair
sex, and much beloved by the regent, who had named him his captain of
the guards, and who, during the ten years in which he had admitted him
into his intimacy, had found him his rival sometimes, but his faithful
servant always. Thus the prince, who had the habit of giving nicknames
to all his boon companions, as well as to his mistresses, never called
him any other than "bon enfant." Nevertheless, for some time the
popularity of Lafare, established as it was by agreeable antecedents,
was fast lowering among the ladies of the court and the girls of the
opera. There was a report current that