Part 24 (1/2)
”A franc and a half”
”Baisemeaux, you're an honest fellow; in honest truth I say so”
”Thank you, my lord But I feel most for the small tradesmen and bailiffs' clerks, who are rated at three francs They do not often see Rhine carp or Channel sturgeon”
”But do not the five-franc gentlemen sometimes leave some scraps?”
”Oh! ht the heart of so of a red partridge, a slice of venison, or a slice of a truffled pasty, dishes which he never tasted except in his dreas of the twenty-four-franc prisoners; and as he eats and drinks, at dessert he cries 'Long live the King,' and blesses the Bastile; with a couple bottles of chane, which cost me five sous, I make him tipsy every Sunday That class of people call down blessings upon me, and are sorry to leave the prison Do you know that I have remarked, and it does me infinite honor, that certain prisoners, who have been set at liberty, have, alain? Why should this be the case, unless it be to enjoy the pleasures of my kitchen? It is really the fact”
Aramis smiled with an expression of incredulity
”You smile,” said Baisemeaux
”I do,” returned Aramis
”I tell you that we have names which have been inscribed on our books thrice in the space of two years”
”I must see it before I believe it,” said Arah it is prohibited to coers; and if you really wish to see it with your own eyes-”
”I should be delighted, I confess”
”Very well,” said Baiseister Aramis followed him most anxiously with his eyes, and Baiseister upon the table, and turned over the leaves for a minute, and stayed at the letter M
”Look here,” said he, ”Martinier, January, 1659; Martinier, June, 1660; Martinier, March, 1661 Mazarinades, etc; you understand it was only a pretext; people were not sent to the Bastile for jokes against M Mazarin; the fellow denounced hiet imprisoned here”
”And as his object?”
”None other than to return to my kitchen at three francs a day”
”Three francs-poor devil!”
”The poet, s to the lowest scale, the same style of board as the small tradesman and bailiff's clerk; but I repeat, it is to those people that I give these little surprises”
Araister, continuing to read the na to take any interest in the names he read
”In 1661, you perceive,” said Baisehty also”
”Ah!” said Aramis ”Seldon; I seem to know that na man?”
”Yes, a poor devil of a student, who ether?”
”A distich”
”Yes; that is it”
”Poor fellow; for a distich”
”Do you know that he ainst the Jesuits?”
”That makes no difference; the punishment seems very severe Do not pity him; last year you seemed to interest yourself in him”
”Yes, I did so”
”Well, as your interest is all-powerful here, my lord, I have treated him since that time as a prisoner at fifteen francs”
”The sa over the leaves, and who had stopped at one of the names which followed Martinier
”Yes, the same as that one”
”Is that Marchiali an Italian?” said Araer to the name which had attracted his attention
”Hush!+” said Baise his white hand
”I thought I had already spoken to you about that Marchiali”
”No, it is the first time I ever heard his name pronounced”
”That may be, but perhaps I have spoken to you about hi hi to s”
”Is his crime, then, very heinous?”
”Unpardonable”
”Has he assassinated any one?”
”Bah!”
”An incendiary, then?”
”Bah!”
”Has he slandered any one?”