, and there's an end of that."

"What do you earn a day?"

"Thirty-five sous for taking in the river foot-baths, up to the stomach
from twelve to fifteen hours a day, summer and winter; but let me be
just, and tell the truth; so if, through having my toes in the water, I
get the _grenouille_,[7] I am allowed to break my arms in breaking up
old vessels, and unloading timber on my back. I begin as a beast of
burden, and end like a fish's tail. When I lose my strength entirely, I
shall take a rake and a wicker basket, like the old rag-picker whom I
see in the recollections of my childhood."

[7] A disease of the skin to which all who work in the water are
liable.

"And yet you are not unhappy."

"There are worse than I am; and without my dreams of the sergeant and
soldiers with their throats cut,--for I have the dream still
sometimes,--I could quietly wait for the moment when I should drop down
dead at the corner of some dunghill, like that at which I was born; but
the dream--the dream--by heaven and earth! I don't like even to think of
that," said the Chourineur, and he emptied his pipe at the corner of the
table.

The Goualeuse had hardly listened to the Chourineur; she seemed wholly
absorbed in a deep and melancholy reverie. Rodolph himself was pensive.
A tragic incident occurred, which brought these three personages to a
recollection of the spot in which they were.

CHAPTER V.

THE ARREST.

The man who had gone out for a moment, after having requested the ogress
to look after his jug and plate, soon returned, accompanied by a tall,
brawny man, to whom he said, "It was a chance to meet in this way, old
fellow! Come in, and let us have a glass together."

The Chourineur said, in a low voice, to Rodolph and the Goualeuse,
pointing to the newcomer, "We shall have a row. He's a 'trap.' Look out
for squalls."

The two ruffians, one of whom, with the Greek skull-cap pulled over his
brows, had inquired several times for the Schoolmaster and the
Gros-Boiteux, exchanged rapid glances of the eye, and, rising suddenly
from the table, went towards the door; but the two police officers,
uttering a peculiar note, seized them. A fierce struggle ensued. The
door of the tavern opened, and all of the policemen dashed into the
room, whilst, outside, were seen the muskets of the _gens-d'armes_.
Taking advantage of the tumult, the charcoal-seller, of whom we have
spoken, advanced to the threshold of the _tapis-fra