ink of his judicial comrade; and I've had no cause to
complain of him."

"Ah!" said Jacques, "and what has he done?"

"Why, first, two years ago, he himself brought, me, on horseback behind
him, his niece that thou'st seen out there."

"His niece!" cried Jacques, rising; "and thou treat'st her like a slave!
Demonio!"

"Drink," said Houmain, quietly stirring the brazier with his poniard;
"he himself desired it should be so. Sit down."

Jacques did so.

"I don't think," continued the smuggler, "that he'd even be sorry to
know that she was--dost understand?--to hear she was under the snow
rather than above it; but he would not put her there himself, because
he's a good relative, as he himself said."

"And as I know," said Jacques; "but go on."

"Thou mayst suppose that a man like him, who lives at court, does not
like to have a mad niece in his house. The thing is self-evident; if I'd
continued to play my part of the man of the robe, I should have done the
same in a similar case. But here, as you perceive, we don't care much
for appearances; and I've taken her for a servant. She has shown more
good sense than I expected, although she has rarely ever spoken more
than a single word, and at first came the delicate over us. Now she rubs
down a mule like a groom. She has had a slight fever for the last few
days; but 'twill pass off one way or the other. But, I say, don't tell
Laubardemont that she still lives; he'd think 'twas for the sake of
economy I've kept her for a servant."

"How! is he here?" cried Jacques.

"Drink!" replied the phlegmatic Houmain, who himself set the example
most assiduously, and began to half shut his eyes with a languishing
air. "'Tis the second transaction I've had with this Laubardemont--or
demon, or whatever the name is; but 'tis a good devil of a demon, at all
events. I love him as I do my eyes; and I will drink his health out of
this bottle of Jurangon here. 'Tis the wine of a jolly fellow, the late
King Henry. How happy we are here!--Spain on the right hand, France
on the left; the wine-skin on one side, the bottle on the other! The
bottle! I've left all for the bottle!"

As he spoke, he knocked off the neck of a bottle of white wine. After
taking a long draught, he continued, while the stranger closely watched
him:

"Yes, he's here; and his feet must be rather cold, for he's been waiting
about the mountains ever since sunset, with his guards and our comrades.
Thou knowest our ba