good and worthy fellow. You live in the same house. How
is he?"

"Alas, sir! he and his family have had many misfortunes. He is in
prison."

"In prison!" cried Cephyse.

"Agricola in prison! what for?" said Sleepinbuff.

"For a trifling political offence. We had hoped to get him out on bail."

"Certainly; for five hundred francs it could be done," said Sleepinbuff.

"Unfortunately, we have not been able; the person upon whom we relied--"

The Bacchanal Queen interrupted the speaker by saying to her lover: "Do
you hear, Jacques? Agricola in prison, for want of five hundred francs!"

"To be sure! I hear and understand all about it. No need of your
winking. Poor fellow! he was the support of his mother."

"Alas! yes, sir--and it is the more distressing, as his father has but
just returned from Russia, and his mother--"

"Here," said Sleepinbuff, interrupting, and giving Mother Bunch a purse;
"take this--all the expenses here have been paid beforehand--this is
what remains of my last bag. You will find here some twenty-five or
thirty Napoleons, and I cannot make a better use of them than to serve
a comrade in distress. Give them to Agricola's father; he will take the
necessary steps, and to-morrow Agricola will be at his forge, where I
had much rather he should be than myself."

"Jacques, give me a kiss!" said the Bacchanal Queen.

"Now, and afterwards, and again and again!" said Jacques, joyously
embracing the queen.

Mother Bunch hesitated for a moment; but reflecting that, after all,
this sum of money, which was about to be spent in follies, would restore
life and happiness to the family of Agricola, and that hereafter these
very five hundred francs, when returned to Jacques, might be of the
greatest use to him, she resolved to accept this offer. She took the
purse, and with tearful eyes, said to him: "I will not refuse your
kindness M. Jacques; you are so good and generous, Agricola's father
will thus at least have one consolation, in the midst of heavy sorrows.
Thanks! many thanks!"

"There is no need to thank me; money was made for others as well as
ourselves."

Here, without, the noise recommenced more furiously than ever, and Ninny
Moulin's rattle sent forth the most doleful sounds.

"Cephyse," said Sleepinbuff, "they will break everything to pieces,
if you do not return to them, and I have nothing left to pay for the
damage. Excuse us," added he, laughing, "but you see that royalty has
its dutie