ip held him back, he would have been only too glad to have
given them such a dressing in my presence as they deserved. But I could
not allow him any license on this point; so I requested him to give me
an account of my property, which he did with intelligence, accuracy, and
honesty.

As he withdrew I noticed that the Madeira had had considerable effect on
him; he seemed to have no control over his legs, which kept catching
in the furniture; and yet he had been in sufficient possession of his
faculties to reason correctly. I have always observed that wine acts
much more powerfully on the muscles of peasants than on their nerves;
that they rarely lose their heads, and that, on the contrary, stimulants
produce in them a bliss unknown to us; the pleasure they derive from
drunkenness is quite different from ours and very superior to our
febrile exaltation.

When Marcasse and I found ourselves alone, though we were not drunk, we
realized that the wine had filled us with gaiety and light-heartedness
which we should not have felt at Roche-Mauprat, even without the
adventure of the ghost. Accustomed as we were to speak our thoughts
freely, we confessed mutually, and agreed that we were much better
prepared than before supper to receive all the bogies of Varenne.

This word "bogey" reminded me of the adventure which had brought me into
far from friendly contact with Patience at the age of thirteen. Marcasse
knew about it already, but he knew very little of my character at that
time, and I amused myself by telling him of my wild rush across the
fields after being thrashed by the sorcerer.

"This makes me think," I concluded by saying, "that I have an
imagination which easily gets overexcited, and that I am not above fear
of the supernatural. Thus the apparition just now . . ."

"No matter, no matter," said Marcasse, looking at the priming of my
pistols, and putting them on the table by my bed. "Do not forget that
all the Hamstringers are not dead; that, if John is in this world, he
will do harm until he is under the ground, and trebly locked in hell."

The wine was loosening the hidalgo's tongue; on those rare occasions
when he allowed himself to depart from his usual sobriety, he was not
wanting in wit. He was unwilling to leave me, and made a bed for himself
by the side of mine. My nerves were excited by the incidents of the day,
and I allowed myself, therefore, to speak of Edmee, not in such a way as
to deserve the shadow