"How is this?" exclaimed La Hurière in an ecstasy. "I am at your service, my dear gentleman; I am at your service." "So it is a bargain, is it?" "With all my heart--and you, Monsieur de Coconnas," continued the landlord, "do you agree to the bargain?" "Yes; but, like my friend, I must add one small condition." "What is that?" "That you restore to Monsieur de la Mole the fifty crowns which I owe him, and which I put into your keeping." "To me, sir? When was that?" "A quarter of an hour before you sold my horse and my portmanteau." La Hurière showed that he understood. "Ah! I remember," said he; and he stepped toward a cupboard and took out from it, one after the other, fifty crowns, which he brought to La Mole. "Very well, sir," said that gentleman; "very well. Serve me an omelet. The fifty crowns are for Grégoire." "Oh!" cried La Hurière; "in truth, my dear gentlemen, you are genuine princes, and you may count on me for life and for death." "If that is so," said Coconnas, "make us the omelet we want, and spare neither butter nor lard." Then looking at the clock, "Faith, you are right, La Mole," said he, "we still have three hours to wait, and we may as well be here as anywhere else. All the more because, if I am not mistaken, we are already half way to the Pont Saint Michel." And the two young men went and sat down at table in the very same room and at the very same place which they had occupied during that memorable evening of the twenty-sixth of August, 1572, when Coconnas had proposed to La Mole to play each against the other the first mistress which they should have! Let us grant for the honor of the morality of our two young men that neither of them this evening had the least idea of making such a proposition to his companion. CHAPTER XIX. THE ABODE OF MAÎTRE RÉNÉ, PERFUMER TO THE QUEEN MOTHER. At the period of this history there existed in Paris, for passing from one part of the city to another, but five bridges, some of stone and the others of wood, and they all led to the Cité; there were le Pont des Meuniers, le Pont au Change, le Pont Notre-Dame, le Petit Pont, and le Pont Saint Michel. In other places when there was need of crossing the river there were ferries. These five bridges were loaded with houses like the Pont Vecchio at Florence at the present time. Of these five bridges, each of which has its history, we shall now speak more particularly of the Pont Saint Michel. The Pont Saint Michel had been built of stone in 1373; in spite of its apparent solidity, a freshet in the Seine undermined a part of it on the thirty-first of January, 1408; in 1416 it had been rebuilt of wood; but during the night of December 16, 1547, it was again carried away; about 1550, in other words twenty-two years anterior to the epoch which we have reached, it was again built of wood, and though it needed repairs it was regarded as solid enough.