the very
moment people might be knocking at the principal door in the Rue de
Paris, one could make one's escape by the little door in the Rue de
Lyon, and, creeping along the gardens of the private houses, attain the
outskirts of the forest. Malicorne, who, it will be remembered, was the
first to speak about this inn, by way of deploring his being turned out
of it, being then absorbed in his own affairs, had not told Montalais
all that could be said about this curious inn; and we will try to repair
the omission. With the exception of the few words he had said about
the Franciscan friar, Malicorne had not given any particulars about
the travelers who were staying in the inn. The manner in which they
had arrived, the manner in which they had lived, the difficulty which
existed for every one but certain privileged travelers, of entering the
hotel without a password, or living there without certain preparatory
precautions, must have struck Malicorne; and, we will venture to say,
really did so. But Malicorne, as we have already said, had personal
matters of his own to occupy his attention which prevented him from
paying much attention to others. In fact, all the apartments of the
hotel were engaged and retained by certain strangers, who never stirred
out, who were incommunicative in their address, with countenances full
of thoughtful preoccupation, and not one of whom was known to Malicorne.
Every one of these travelers had reached the hotel after his own arrival
there; each man had entered after having given a kind of password, which
had at first attracted Malicorne's attention; but having inquired, in
an indiscreet manner, about it, he had been informed that the host had
given as a reason for this extreme vigilance, that, as the town was so
full of wealthy noblemen, it must also be as full of clever and zealous
pickpockets. The reputation of an honest inn like that of the Beau Paon
was concerned in not allowing its visitors to be robbed. It occasionally
happened that Malicorne asked himself, as he thought matters carefully
over in his mind, and reflected upon his own position in the inn, how it
was that they had allowed him to become an inmate of the hotel, when he
had observed, since his residence there, admission refused to so many.
He asked himself, too, how it was that Manicamp, who, in his opinion,
must be a man to be looked upon with veneration by everybody, having
wished to bait his horse at the Beau Paon, on arriving