Page:Ninety-three.djvu/67

 "When was that?"

"Ten years ago."

"Under the king?"

"Indeed it was."

"Did you fight under the king then?"

"Indeed I did."

"Against whom?"

"Faith, I don't know. I was a salt smuggler."

"Good."

"They called that fighting against the gabelles. Are the gabelles the same thing as the king?"

"Yes, no. But it isn't necessary for you to understand that."

"I beg pardon of monseigneur, for having asked monseigneur a question."

"Let us go on. Do you know la Tourgue?"

"Do I know la Tourgue! I come from there."

"How is that?"

"Because I am from Parigné."

"To be sure, la Tourgue adjoins Parigné."

"Do I know la Tourgue! The big round castle which belongs to my seigneur's family. There is a great iron door separating the new building from the old; it couldn't be burst open with a cannon. In the new building is the famous book about Saint Bartholomew, that people come to see out of curiosity. There are frogs in the grass. I played with the frogs there when I was a little boy. And the underground passage! I know. There is, perhaps, no other person but myself who knows it."

"What underground passage? I don't know what you mean."

"It was made for other days, for the times when la Tourgue was besieged. The people inside could escape by passing through a tunnel under the ground which comes out in the forest."

"To be sure there is a subterranean passage of this kind from the castle of "la Jupellière," and one from the castle of la Hunaudaye, and from the tower of Champéon; but there is nothing of the kind at la Tourgue."

"Yes, there is, monseigneur. I don't know the passages which monseigneur mentions. I know the one at la Tourgue, because I belong to that country. And besides, there is nobody but myself who knows this way. It is