truck by the falling lamp,
whereupon Charlot fell to cursing lamps and crumblings with horrid
volubility. That done he would have risen, but that La Boulaye, entering
at that moment, insisted that he should remain abed.

"Are you mad?" the Deputy expostulated, "or is it that you do not
appreciate the nature of your hurt? Diable! I have known a man die
through insisting to be about with a cracked skull that was as nothing
to yours."

"Name of a name!" gasped Charlot, who in such matters was profoundly
ignorant and correspondingly credulous. "Is it so serious?"

"Not serious if you lie still and sleep. You will probably be quite
well by to-morrow. But if you move to-night the consequences may well be
fatal."

"But I cannot sleep at this hour," the Captain complained. "I am very
wakeful."

"We will try to find you a sleeping potion, then," said La Boulaye.
"I hope the hosteen may have something that will answer the purpose.
Meanwhile, Guyot, do not allow the Captain to talk. If you would have
him well to-morrow, remember that it is of the first importance that he
should have utter rest tonight."

With that he went in quest of Dame Capoulade to ascertain whether she
possessed any potion that would induce sleep. He told her that the
Captain was seriously injured, and that unless he slept he might die,
and, quickened by the terror of what might befall her in such a case,
the woman presently produced a small phial full of a brown, viscous
fluid. What it might be he had no notion, being all unversed in the
mysteries of the pharmacopoeia; but she told him that it had belonged to
her now defunct husband, who had always said that ten drops of it would
make a man sleep the clock round.

He experimented on the Captain with ten drops, and within a quarter of
an hour of taking the draught of red wine in which it was administered,
Charlot's deep breathing proclaimed him fast asleep.

That done, La Boulaye sent Guyot below to his post once more, and
returning to the room in which they had supped, he paced up and down for
a full hour, revolving in his mind the matter of saving Mademoiselle and
her mother. At last, towards ten o'clock, he opened the casement, and
calling down to Guyot, as Charlot had done, he bade him bring the women
up again. Now Guyot knew of the high position which Caron occupied in
the Convention, and he had seen the intimate relations in which he stood
to Tardivet, so that unhesitatingly he now obeyed him.