"No, I don't; but my eye pains me!" "An additional reason for drinking! this eau-de-vie is nectar.--Here's the health of the man who treats us so courteously! Our host is a sly rascal! he pretends to be afraid of the watch, but the watch isn't so strict, so severe, as formerly. It doesn't date from yesterday, you know; as long ago as the time of Clotaire II, every large town in the kingdom had a night watch. In 595, an edict was issued, of which the principal provisions were: "When a robbery is committed at night, those who are of the watch in the quarter will be held responsible if they do not arrest the robber; if the robber, fleeing from them, is seen in another quarter, and the guard of that other quarter, being forthwith notified, fail to arrest him, the loss occasioned by the robbery shall fall upon them, and they will be condemned in addition to pay a fine of five sous; and in like manner from quarter to quarter.--Peste! there was no joking about such matters in those days!" "What I admire most of all, monsieur le chevalier," said the Bohemian, filling the glasses, "is your profound erudition; you know everything--yes, everything! I will wager that you are able to quote the _Capitulaires_ of Charlemagne." "In truth, I am rather well informed; and but for this infernal vocation for the sword and for fighting, I believe that I should have become a troubadour, a trouvère, of the first rank; I should have contended for the palm with Clémence Isaure and all her supporters!--Delicious eau-de-vie! it is like whey!" "Come, come, Seigneur Cédrille; you do not drink, you do not follow your gallant companion's example!" "Oh! you see, I am not empty, like the chevalier; I had a good lot to drink at the hôtel." "At the hôtel where you lodge?" "No; at the Hôtel de Mongarcin, where I took my cousin Miretta and left her." "Ah! so your pretty cousin is at the Hôtel de Mongarcin?" "Yes, on Rue Saint-Honoré--close by." "On this same street, eh?" "She has a fine place there with the young lady of the house; and I--they are kind enough to keep me too, as long as I stay in Paris. But I shall not stay long; I have no desire to enjoy myself every evening the way I have this evening." The Bohemian seemed to reflect; Passedix, whose eyes were beginning to close and his utterance to thicken, heaved a profound sigh and muttered: "Look you, comrade Cédrille, I am going to tell you something in confidence: you can't be in love with your cousin, as you leave her here in Paris and go back to your mountains!" "You think I ain't in love with her, do you? Well, that is where you are mistaken! On the contrary, I love Miretta with all my heart, and I'd have liked right well to marry her! But she won't have me! So all I can do is make the best of it! She refused me flat, and she's a girl with a very strong will! When she says no, that's the end of it; she never changes her mind."