.

"Can Monsieur Lemaitre be seen?" inquired my companion.

"Doubtless," replied the individual to whom the question was put. "Come
in, Jacques. What do you want with him?"

"That I will tell him myself, comrade, when I see him," responded
Jacques, passing through the wicket and beckoning me to follow; which of
course I did.

"As you please, _mon ami_," replied the other; and without further
parley he departed to apprise that important personage, the general's
cook, that he was wanted.

In the interval I employed myself in looking round me.

I found myself in a sort of entrance-hall of considerable size. The
wall opposite the door contained a huge fireplace, sunk in the thickness
of the masonry. The side walls were pierced, on my right and left, with
semicircular archways, deeply moulded, and closed with strong wooden
doors; and on the left, a massive and elaborately carved stone
staircase, of much more modern date than the building itself, led upward
to a stone gallery which ran all round the wall, with doors
communicating with the apartments above. The hall ceiling, two storeys
above the pavement, was of stone, groined; the ribs of the groins boldly
moulded, and massively keyed in the centre with a stone of considerable
size, boldly carved with the representation of a dragon or griffin
coiled into a circle. Over the great fireplace hung a trophy of rusty
and dinted armour, surmounted by another trophy of faded and dusty
silken banners; and two other flag trophies adorned the side walls.

By the time that I had completed my survey, a sound of shuffling
footsteps was heard; and immediately afterwards there emerged from a
passage underneath the staircase, a short, stout good-tempered-looking
personage, dressed in a blouse and military trousers, with a cook's cap
on his head, and a long white apron in front, reaching from his neck
almost to his feet. He held a huge meat-knife in one hand, and a
basting-ladle in the other. As he approached, my friend Jacques hastily
informed me in a whisper that this was Monsieur Lemaitre.

In answer to this individual's inquiries, the corporal related the story
of my pretended escape from the enemy, hinting also my desire to report
myself to the general; and winding up with a description of my anxiety
to procure Monsieur Lemaitre's acceptance, on behalf of the general, of
the pick of my basket.

I began dimly to see that the general--whoever he was--was a much-
dreaded