"Ere long, monsieur, the doctor began to think all this very improper, so he rudely and abruptly put a stop to our studies; he locked Ovid up, and me out. _Tudieu!_ here was an outrage! I thought of inviting him to breathe the morning air on the Bois de Boulogne; but a duel between a first-year's student and an old doctor was not to be thought of. Madame had a tender heart, so she pitied me. She considered her husband's conduct cruel, ungrateful, outrageous, barbarous; so, as it was necessary that my classical studies should not be neglected, we arranged a little code of signals. Thus, Lisette, by simply keeping a drawing-room window open or shut, or a muslin curtain festooned or closely drawn, could inform me when Bluebeard was at home or abroad; whether the breach was practicable or not; and thus we circumvented our tyrant for a time, and I returned with ardour to the study of classical poetry; but as for the dissecting-room, diable! it saw no more of me. "Of the doctor I had always a wholesome dread, as he was a _Septembriseur_." "What is that?" asked Quentin, perceiving a dark expression shade the face of Ribeaupierre. "'Tis a name we have in Paris for those who were concerned as aiders or abettors of the horrible September massacres--he would have thought no more of slily putting a bullet into me, than of killing a wasp; thus, you see, I pursued the acquisition of knowledge under difficulties. "Now came out the edict issued about eight years ago, for raising two hundred thousand men for the army and marine, and every young man in France had to inscribe his name for the conscription. I omitted--we shall call it delayed--to inscribe mine; but my learned friend, M. le Docteur Thiebault, unknown to me, performed that little service in my behalf. He was extremely loth that the Republic--it was the glorious indivisible Republic of liberty, equality, fraternity, and tyranny then--should be deprived of my valuable aid by land or sea. "About the time when he usually returned from visiting his patients, I had bidden adieu to madame, for our studies were over, and in the dusk of the evening was on my way home when surprised by a patrol of the police under a commissaire, at the corner of the Rue Ecole de Médecine. To avoid them I shrunk into a porch, but they invited me rather authoritatively to come forth, and on my doing so, a sergeant passed his lantern scrutinizingly across my face. "'A young man,' said the commissaire, who was new in the quartier; 'who are you?' "'I am not obliged to say,' said I. "'Ah--we shall see that; what are you?' "'A student of the Faculty of Médecine. Vive la République! War to the cottage--peace to the castle!' I replied, waving my hat. "'Is your name inscribed for the levy, blunderer? You quote oddly for a student!' "'Of course my name is inscribed,' said I, boldly, though I little knew that it was so. "'Show me your card which certifies this.'