"Captain, captain, you're nearly asleep! Take care, or you're going to break your nose, begging your pardon. I think you want another song to wake you up. Shall I sing you the Complaint of Biron?" "Who was Biron?" inquired Lochiel. "Uncle Raoul, who is so learned, told me that he was a prince, a great warrior, the relative and friend of our late King Henry IV; which did not prevent the latter from having him executed just as if he was a nobody. When I made my lament upon his death, Uncle Raoul and the captain told me that he had proved a traitor to the king, and forbid me even to sing the complaint in their presence. This struck me as rather droll, but I obeyed them all the same." "I have never heard of this lament," said Archie; "and as I am not particularly sensitive in regard to the kings of France, I wish you would sing it for me." Thereupon José struck up, in a voice of thunder, the following lament: "The king he had been warned by one of his _gens d'armes_, (His name it was La Fin, that gave him the alarm,) 'Your Majesty, I pray you, of Prince Biron beware, For he's plotting wicked deeds, and there's treason in the air.' "La Fin had hardly spoke when Prince Biron came in, His cap was in his hand, and he bowed before the king. Said he: 'Will't please Your Majesty to try your hand at play? Here's a thousand Spanish doubloons that I have won this day.' "'If you have them with you, prince,' replied His Majesty, 'If you have them with you, prince, go find the queen, and she Will play you for the Spanish gold you have not long to see!' "He had not played two games when the constable came in, And bowing, cap in hand, right courtly said to him: 'Oh, will you rise up, prince, and come along with me? This night in the Bastile your bed and board shall be!' "'Oh, had I but my sword, my weapon bright and keen, Oh, had I but my saber, my knife of golden sheen, No constable could capture me that ever I have seen!' "It might have been a month, or may be two weeks more, That no friends came to see him or passed his prison door; At last came judges three, pretending not to know, And asked of him, 'Fair prince, oh, who has used you so?' "'Oh, they who used me so had power to put me here; It was the king and queen, whom I served for many a year; And now for my reward my death it draweth near! "'And does the king remember no more the Savoy War? And has the king forgotten the wounds for him I bore? And is it my true service now that I must suffer for? "'And has the king forgotten that if I have to die, The blood of Biron may to Heaven for vengeance cry? Or does the king remember I have a brother yet? But when _he_ sees the king he will not me forget.'" By this time Lochiel was thoroughly awake. The tremendous voice of José would have awakened the sleeping beauty herself from the depths of her hundred years' slumber.