id Goualeuse, with a bitterness of accent; "_now_ I do not
care ever to know my parents."

Whilst La Chouette was speaking, the Schoolmaster had resumed his
assurance, for, looking at Rodolph, he could not believe that a young
man of slight and graceful make could for a moment cope with him, and,
confident in his brutal force, he approached the defender of Goualeuse,
and said to the Chouette, in an imperious voice:

"Hold your jaw! I'll tackle with this swell, and then the fair lady may
think me more to her fancy than he is."

With one bound Rodolph leaped on the table.

"Take care of my plates!" shouted the ogress.

The Schoolmaster stood on his guard, his two hands in front, his chest
advanced, firmly planted on his legs, and arched, as it were, on his
brawny legs, which were like balusters of stone. At the moment when
Rodolph was springing at him, the door of the _tapis-franc_ opened with
violence, and the charcoal-man, of whom we have before spoken, and who
was upwards of six feet high, dashed into the apartment, pushed the
Schoolmaster on one side rudely, and coming up to Rodolph, said, in
German, in his ear:

"Monseigneur, the countess and her brother--they are at the end of the
street."

At these words Rodolph made an impatient and angry gesture, threw a
louis d'or on the bar of the ogress, and made for the door in haste. The
Schoolmaster attempted to arrest Rodolph's progress, but he, turning to
him, gave him two or three rapid blows with his fists over the nose and
eyes, and with such potent effect, that the beast staggered with very
giddiness, and fell heavily against a table, which alone prevented his
prostration on the floor.

"_Vive la Charte!_ those are _my_ blows,--I know them," cried the
Chourineur; "two or three more lessons like that, and I shall know all
about it."

Restored to himself after a few moments, the Schoolmaster darted off in
pursuit of Rodolph, but he had disappeared with the charcoal-man in the
dark labyrinth of the streets of the Cite, and the brigand found it
useless to follow.

At the moment when the Schoolmaster had returned, foaming with rage, two
persons, approaching from the opposite side to that by which Rodolph had
disappeared, entered into the _tapis-franc_, hastily, and out of breath,
as if they had been running far and fast. Their first impulse was to
look around the room.

"How unfortunate!" said one of them; "he has gone,--another opportunity
lost."

The two