"Ah!" said the colonel, "we must not let anyone die of hunger, not even prisoners." "Yes, it is better to fatten them up before you shoot them, is it not?" remarked Charras. "Who is talking of shooting you? Come," exclaimed the colonel, opening a door, "breakfast." A table was brought in, fully laid as on the stage. The colonel departed from his usual custom and breakfasted in his drawing-room instead of his dining-room--or, rather, he did not breakfast, for he did not sit down to the table. Charras roused Lothon, who was in a bad temper at being waked, specially since he did not know for what purpose he had been awakened. When he knew that it was for breakfast, he softened. They had just finished the cutlets when the door opened quickly and a man of about fifty dressed in uniform appeared. "Pardon, colonel," he said, "but I am Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau of the Engineers and second in command at the École polytechnique under the Empire.... I have been told that you are keeping two of my old boys prisoners, and have come to see if it is so." Then, addressing himself to Charras and Lothon, he said-- "Good-day, messieurs; I bid you welcome." "Welcome?" repeated the colonel. "Yes, yes, that is what I said.... And to you, colonel, I say that you have no right to detain these gentlemen. I am told they have been sent on a mission from the Provisional Government.... They are officers with a flag of truce, and it is the universal custom not to arrest those intrusted with missions of that nature." So saying, he shook Charras's hand with such heartiness as to make him cry out, for it caused his wound to re-open. "What is the matter?" asked Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau. "Nothing, nothing at all, merely that I have a wound under my arm." "Indeed, and it looks as though your friend had one in his head, too.... We must have all these wounds dressed before anything else, colonel." "I have thought of that, monsieur," replied the colonel, "and I do not know why the surgeon-major has not yet come." At that moment he came in. "Here, monsieur," the colonel said to him, "these are the young men I spoke of.... See if they require your services." Charras wanted to refuse, but Lieutenant-Colonel Duriveau signed to him to allow it, and took the colonel and major away into an adjoining room. The surgeon-major first dressed Lothon's head; the bullet had penetrated to the bone, which it had twisted and left bare. He must have been bewitched to be out of his bed after receiving such an injury. The surgeon wanted to bleed the wounded man, but to this he positively objected. "I may at any moment require the use of both my arms," he said, "so leave them intact.... My head is quite bad enough without other hurt!" Then came Charras. "Good gracious, monsieur," said the surgeon-major, "you had a lucky escape! An inch or two more to the left and you would have had the artery severed."