endeavoring to smile,
"I have brought you a diversion and an extra,--the one for the mind, the
other for the body; this gentleman has come to take your measure, and
here are some preserves for your dessert."

"Oh, monsieur," exclaimed the young man, "keep me in solitude for a
year, let me have nothing but bread and water for a year, but tell me
that at the end of a year I shall leave this place, tell me that at the
end of a year I shall see my mother again."

"But I have heard you say that your mother was very poor, and that you
were very badly lodged when you were living with her, while here--upon
my word!"

"If she were poor, monsieur, the greater reason to restore her only
means of support to her. Badly lodged with her! Oh, monsieur, every one
is always well lodged when he is free."

"At all events, since you yourself admit you have done nothing but write
that unhappy distich----"

"But without any intention, I swear. Let me be punished--cut off the
hand which wrote it, I will work with the other--but restore my mother
to me."

"My boy," said Baisemeaux, "you know very well that it does not depend
upon me; all I can do for you is to increase your rations, give you a
glass of port wine now and then, slip in a biscuit for you between a
couple of plates."

"Great heaven!" exclaimed the young man, falling backward and rolling on
the ground.

Aramis, unable to bear this scene any longer, withdrew as far as the
landing. "Unhappy, wretched man," he murmured.

"Yes, monsieur, he is indeed very wretched," said the jailer; "but it is
his parents' fault.

"In what way?"

"No doubt. Why did they let him learn Latin? Too much knowledge, you
see; it is that which does harm. Now I, for instance, can't read or
write, and therefore I am not in prison." Aramis looked at the man,
who seemed to think that being a jailer in the Bastile was not being in
prison. As for Baisemeaux, noticing the little effect produced by his
advice and his port wine, he left the dungeon quite upset. "You have
forgotten to close the door," said the jailer.

"So I have," said Baisemeaux, "there are the keys, do you do it."

"I will solicit the pardon of that poor boy," said Aramis.

"And if you do not succeed," said Baisemeaux, "at least beg that he may
be transferred to the ten-franc list, by which both he and I shall be
gainers."

"If the other prisoner calls out for his mother in a similar manner,"
said Aramis, "I prefer not to enter at