rother at Toulon," cried
Nicholas; "have we not all been nosed by Bras-Rouge? To be sure we have;
because, instead of shutting him up here with us, he has been sent to La
Roquette. They daren't put him with us; he knew he had done us wrong,
the old--"

"Well," added Barbillon, "and didn't Bras-Rouge nose upon me, too?"

"And I, too," said a young prisoner, in a thin voice, and lisping
affectedly. "I was split upon by Jobert, who had proposed to me a little
affair in the Rue St. Martin."

The latter personage, with a fluty voice, pale, fat, and effeminate
face, and with a sly and treacherous glance, was singularly attired. He
wore as a head-dress a red pocket-handkerchief, which exposed two locks
of light brown hair close to his temples; the two ends of his
handkerchief formed a projecting rosette over his forehead; his cravat
was a merino shawl, with a large pattern, which crossed over his chest;
his mulberry-coloured waistcoat almost disappeared beneath the tight
waistband of a very large pair of trousers of plaid, with very large and
different-coloured checks.

"And was not that shameful? Such a man to turn against me!" he added, in
his shrill voice. "Yet, really, nothing in the world would have made me
distrust Jobert."

"I know very well that he sold you, Javatte," replied the Skeleton, who
seemed to protect the prisoner peculiarly; "and as a proof that they
have done for thy nose the same as they have done for Bras-Rouge, they
have not dared to leave Jobert here, but sent him to the stone jug of
the Conciergerie. Well, there must be an end put to this! There must be
an example; for traitors are doing the work of the police, and believe
themselves safe in their skins because they are put in a different
prison from those on whom they have nosed."

"That's true."

"To prevent this, every prisoner should consider every nose as his
deadly enemy. Whether he informs against Peter or James, here or there,
that's nothing; fall on him tooth and nail. When we have made cold meat
of four or five in the prisons, the others will think twice before they
turn 'snitch.'"

"You're right, Skeleton," said Nicholas; "and let Germain be number
one."

"And no mistake," replied the _prevot_; "but let us wait until the
Gros-Boiteux arrives. When, for instance, he has proved to all the world
that Germain is a nose the thing shall be settled out of hand; the calf
shall bleat no more, we'll stop his wind."

"And what shall we do