In that comfortable and sumptuous bed, that strongly-marked, venerable face, martial still with all its gentleness, with its moustache bristling with curl-papers, and its night-cap of wadded silk in the shape of half a mortar, embellished with rich lace that stood erect like a crown, presented a most singular combination of absurdity and austerity in the bluish light of the night lamp. "Monsieur is sleeping quietly," said Adamas to himself; "but he forgot to say his prayers, and it is my fault. I will do it for him." He knelt and prayed very fervently; after which he withdrew to his own room, which was separated only by a partition from his master's. The arsenal that Adamas had arranged around the marquis's bed was only a matter of habit or luxury. Everything was perfectly quiet around the little château; within the château everybody was sleeping soundly. [Footnote 10: Bois-Doré said _voie_ lactée; Adamas understood him to say _voix_ lactée.] XIII The first to awake was Monsieur Sciarra d'Alvimar, who had also been the first to fall asleep, being thoroughly tired out. He did not like to remain in bed, and the habit born of straitened circumstances, skilfully concealed, made the attentions of his valet useless to him. This was the more fortunate, inasmuch as the old Spaniard who was in attendance upon him would not readily have consented to perform other functions than those of an esquire. And yet that man was as devoted to him as Adamas was to Bois-Doré; but there was as much difference in their relations as in their characters and their respective situations. They talked but little to each other, perhaps because they were disinclined, perhaps because they understood each other on all subjects at a single word. Moreover, the valet considered himself, up to a certain point, his master's equal, for their families were equally ancient and equally pure--such at least was their claim--of all admixture with the Moorish or Jewish races, so solemnly ostracized, and so solemnly persecuted in Spain. Sancho of Cordova--such was the old esquire's name,--had been present at young D'Alvimar's birth in the castle of the village where he himself was living, reduced by poverty to the trade of swineherd. The young châtelain, who was little richer than he, had taken him into his service on the very day when he had determined to go to seek his fortune in foreign lands. It was said in that Castilian village that Sancho had loved Madame Isabella, D'Alvimar's mother, and even that she had not been indifferent to his passion. In this way they explained the attachment of that taciturn and morose man for a cold and haughty youth, who treated him, not as a valet properly so-called, but as an unintelligent inferior.