hing."

"But I should also like to know," said Durassier, "whether your keeper
made you earn your bread properly?"

Valnebon, suspecting that he had been understood, could not hold from
swearing.

"God's grace!" said he. "Had I indeed comrades where I believed myself
alone?"

Perceiving this dispute, wherein he had part like the rest, Astillon
laughed and said--

"We all serve one master, and have been comrades and friends from
boyhood; if, then, we are comrades in the same good fortune, we can but
laugh at it. But, to see whether what I imagine be true, pray let me
question you, and do you confess the truth to me; for if that which I
fancy has befallen us, it is as amusing an adventure as could be found
in any book."

They all swore to tell the truth if the matter were such as they could
not deny.

Then said he to them--

"I will tell you my own fortune, and you will tell me, ay or nay, if
yours has been the same."

To this they all agreed, whereupon he said--

"I asked leave of the King to go on a journey."

"So," they replied, "did we."

"When I was two leagues from the Court, I left all my following and went
and yielded myself up prisoner."

"We," they replied, "did the same."

"I remained," said Astillon, "for seven or eight days, and lay in a
closet where I was fed on nothing but restoratives and the choicest
viands that I ever ate. At the end of a week, those who held me
captive suffered me to depart much weaker in body than I had been on my
arrival."

They all swore that the like had happened to them.

"My imprisonment," said Astillon, "began on such a day and finished on
such another."

"Mine," thereupon said Durassier, "began on the very day that yours
ended, and lasted until such a day."

Valnebon, who was losing patience, began to swear.

"'Sblood!" said he, "from what I can see, I, who thought myself the
first and only one, was the third, for I went in on such a day and came
out on such another."

Three others, who were at the table, swore that they had followed in
like order.

"Well, since that is so," said Astillon, "I will mention the condition
of our gaoler. She is married, and her husband is a long way off."

"'Tis even she," they all replied.

"Well, to put us out of our pain," said Astillon, "I, who was first
enrolled, shall also be the first to name her. It was my lady the
Countess, she who was so extremely haughty that in conquering her
affection I felt as though I