ng
tone, for which the place had not prepared me. "At eight we breakfast
here; at nine you are free to promenade in the garden or on the
terrace,--at least, all who are not _au secret_,--and I have to
felicitate monsieur on that pleasure."

"How, then? I am not a prisoner?"

"Yes, _parbleu!_ you are a prisoner, but not under such heavy imputation
as to be confined apart. All in this quarter enjoy a fair share of
liberty: live together, walk, chat, read the papers, and have an easy
time of it. But you shall judge for yourself; come along with me."

In a strange state of mingled hope and fear I followed the jailer along
the corridor, and across a paved courtyard into a low hall, where basins
and other requisites for a prison toilet were arranged around the walls.
Passing through this, we ascended a narrow stair, and finally entered a
large, well-lighted room, along which a table, plentifully but plainly
provided, extended the entire length. The apartment was crowded with
persons of every age, and apparently every condition, all conversing
noisily and eagerly together, and evidencing as little seeming restraint
as though within the walls of a cafe.

[Illustration: The Templars 341]

Seated at a table, I could not help feeling amused at the strange medley
of rank and country about me. Here were old _militaire_, with bushy
beards and mustaches, side by side with muddy-faced peasants, whose
long, yellow locks bespoke them of Norman blood; hard, weather-beaten
sailors from the coast of Bretagne, talking familiarly with venerable
seigneurs in all the pomp of powder and a queue; priests with shaven
crowns; young fellows, whose easy looks of unabashed effrontery betrayed
the careless Parisian,--all were mingled up together, and yet not one
among the number did I see whose appearance denoted sorrow for his
condition or anxiety for his fate.

The various circumstances of their imprisonment, the imputation they
lay under, the acts of which they were accused, formed the topics of
conversation, in common with the gossip of the town, the news of the
theatres, and the movements in political life. Never was there a society
with less restraint; each man knew his neighbor's history too well to
make concealment of any value, and frankness seemed the order of the
day. While I was initiating myself into so much of the habit of the
place, a large, flat, florid personage, who sat at the head of the
table, called out to me for my name.