This was not a reflection very welcome to me at the moment.
Nevertheless, for three days it was all the company I had. At
the end of that time, the knave of a jailor who attended me, and
who had never grown tired of telling me, after the fashion of his
kind, that I should be hanged, came to me with a less assured
air.
'Perhaps you would like a little water?' he said civilly.
'Why, rascal?' I asked.
'To wash with,' he answered.
'I asked for some yesterday, and you would not bring it,' I
grumbled. 'However, better late than never. Bring it now. If I
must hang, I will hang like a gentleman. But depend upon it, the
Cardinal will not serve an old friend so scurvy a trick.'
'You are to go to him,' he announced, when he came back with the
water.
'What? To the Cardinal?' I cried.
'Yes,' he answered.
'Good!' I exclaimed; and in my joy and relief I sprang up at
once, and began to refresh my dress. 'So all this time I have
been doing him an injustice,' I continued. 'VIVE MONSEIGNEUR!
Long live the little Bishop of Luchon! I might have known it,
too.'
'Don't make too sure!' the man answered spitefully.
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