smissed his female servant and was waited upon by an old trooper, with
one arm. Though perfectly respectful, Joseph received us with a broad
grin, which, as the repast progressed, was contracted into a proud
smile. He had evidently co-operated with his master in the concoction of
the dishes, all of which, I am bound to say, were very savoury. In fact,
I was like that new tenant of the house haunted by a laughing ghost. But
for the knowledge that there was something uncanny about it, I would
have been intensely gratified and amused. Our host told us, with great
glee, that Joseph had been up since a quarter-past four that morning;
and that before five he was at the Halles. As we could distinctly taste
the onions in the stew that served as an entree, and as the potatoes
round the next dish were visible to the naked eye, we concluded that the
old trooper had got up so early to buy vegetables, and were
correspondingly grateful. There was no mystery whatsoever about the
fish, and about the entremets. The first was dry cod--but with a sauce
such as I had never tasted before or have since. The latter was a
delicious dish of sweet macaroni, fit to set before a prince. I repeat,
but for my knowledge that there was something uncanny about that meal, I
would have asked permission to come every day. Yet I felt almost equally
convinced that, with regard to one dish, we had been doubly
mystified--that they were larks, which our host had managed to procure
somehow, though I missed the bones.

True to his word, our Amphitryon revealed the real ingredients of the
menu forty-eight hours after. The entree had been composed of very small
mice--field-mice, I think we call them in England; the second dish was
rat. Not a single ounce of butter or lard had been used in the sauces or
for the macaroni. The dried cod was still plentiful enough to be had at
any grocer's or salted provision shop. Instead of butter, Joseph used
horse-marrow. The horse-butchers sold the bones ridiculously cheap, not
having the slightest idea what to do with them. The mice, Joseph caught
round about the fortifications, whither he went almost every day. The
rats he caught in the cellarage of the Halles. He had a cousin there in
a large way of business, and access to the underground part of the
market was never refused to him.

"From what you have tasted at my rooms," concluded the ex-lieutenant,
"you will easily see that our vaunted superiority as cooks is so much
humb