ness more than by sleep."

"Be it so! if he only lie quiet, I care not," rejoined the jailor, and
proceeded to the next name on the list.

The monotonous roll-call, the heat, the attitude in which I was lying,
all conspired to make me drowsy; even the very press of sensations that
crowded to my brain lent their aid, and at last I slept as soundly as
ever I had done in my bed at night. I was dreaming of the dark alleys in
the wood of Belleville, where so often I had strolled of an evening with
Pere Michel; I was fancying that we were gathering the fresh violets
beneath the old trees, when a rude hand shook my shoulder, and I awoke.
One of the turnkeys and Boivin stood over me, and I saw at once that my
plan had worked well.

"Is this the fellow?" said the turnkey, pushing me rudely with his foot.

"Yes," replied Boivin, white with fear; "this is the boy; his name is
Tristan." The latter words were accompanied with a look of great
significance toward me.

"What care we how he is called; let us hear in what manner he came
here."

"I can tell you little," said I, staring and looking wildly around; "I
must have been asleep and dreaming, too."

"The letter," whispered Boivin to the turnkey--"the letter says that he
was made to inhale some poisonous drug, and that while insensible--"

"Bah!" said the other, derisively, "this will not gain credit here;
there has been complicity in the affair, Master Boivin. The
_commissaire_ is not the man to believe a trumped-up tale of the sort;
besides, you are well aware that you are responsible for these 'rats' of
yours. It is a private arrangement between you and the _commissaire_,
and it is not very probable that he'll get himself into a scrape for
you."

"Then what are we to do?" cried Boivin, passionately, as he wrung his
hands in despair.

"I know what I should, in a like case," was the dry reply.

"And that is--?"

"Laisser aller!" was the curt rejoinder. "The young rogue has passed for
a cure for the last afternoon; I'd even let him keep up the disguise a
little longer, and it will be all the same by this time to-morrow."

"You'd send me to the guillotine for another?" said I, boldly; "thanks
for the good intention my friend; but Boivin knows better than to follow
your counsel. Hear me one moment," said I, addressing the latter, and
drawing him to one side--"if you don't liberate me within a quarter of
an hour, I'll denounce you and yours to the commissary. I know we