"There are honors and honors, my young rascal; the honor of a noble maiden is valued at imprisonment; the honor of a grisette is worth twenty Paris sous. If you want to go to the Châtelet, you must try your arts on a duchess, and then the affair will take care of itself." "But this is frightful! immoral! outrageous!" cried the student. "My dear friend," said the judge, "pay your fine and begone!" "I won't pay my fine, and I won't go." "Then I shall call a couple of archers and commit you to prison until you do pay it." "That's all I ask." The judge summoned two guards:-- "Take this scoundrel to the Grands-Carmes!" "The Grands-Carmes!" cried Jacques; "why not the Châtelet, pray?" "Because the Châtelet is not a debtor's prison, my friend; because the Châtelet is a royal fortress, and one must have committed some heinous crime to be sent there. The Châtelet! Ah! yes, my little fellow, you'll get to the Châtelet soon enough, just wait!" "One moment," said Aubry, "one moment." "What is it?" "If I am not to be sent to the Châtelet, I will pay." "Very well; if you pay, there's nothing more to be said. You may go, you fellows, the young man will pay." The archers went out and Jacques Aubry took from his wallet twenty Paris sous, which he spread out in a line on the judge's desk. "See if that is right," said the lieutenant criminal. The clerk rose, and to execute the order bent his back like a how, embracing in the half-circle described by his body, which seemed to possess the power of lengthening itself out indefinitely, his table and the papers which lay upon it. As he stood with his feet on the floor and his hands on the judge's desk, he reminded one of a sombre-hued rainbow. "It is right," he said. "Then off with you, my young rascal," said the magistrate, "and give place to others; the court has no more time to waste on you. Go." Jacques saw that he had nothing to gain by remaining there, and withdrew in despair. XIII IN WHICH JACQUES AUBRY RISES TO EPIC PROPORTIONS "Well, upon my word," said the student to himself as he left the Palais de Justice, and mechanically crossed the Pont aux Moulins, which brought him out almost opposite the Châtelet; "upon my word, I am curious to know what Gervaise will say when she learns that her honor is valued at twenty Paris sous! She will say that I have been indiscreet, and told things I shouldn't have told, and she'll tear my eyes out. But what do I see yonder?" What the student saw was a page belonging to the amiable nobleman to whom he was accustomed to confide his secrets, and whom he looked upon as one of his dearest friends. The boy was leaning up against the parapet of the bridge and amusing himself by performing sleight-of-hand tricks with pebbles.