"It was I; it was Monsieur de Juvigny," I replied, giving myself the name by which he had known me in Paris; "stay, and speak to me for one moment." "But where are you?" cried Gourville, looking up towards the aperture through which I spoke. "Here in the prison," replied I; but ere I could add another word, I found myself suddenly grasped by the arm, and thrown down upon the floor of the dungeon, with a degree of violence which hurt me much in the fall, though my head luckily lighted on the straw which composed my bed. The first object on which my eyes lighted after my compelled descent, was the grim and unshaved face of the gaoler, which, however, showed me, without further explanation, that my voice had been overheard by his jealous and watchful ear. He deigned no observation, but a few curses pretty equally divided between myself and his wife; and, snatching up the settle, he turned away from the dungeon and locked the door. CHAPTER XXVII. Although this was a sad and bitter disappointment to me, yet I could not help still entertaining a hope that I had made my situation sufficiently known to Gourville to urge him at least towards farther inquiries; and with that thought I consoled myself for the rest of the evening. No one came, however; and, when the next day rose and set without the appearance of my acquaintance, I began again to give myself up to despair, the more dark for the ray of light that had broken in upon me for a time. The sun rose and set, I have said; and, sitting down upon the straw which had been given me for my bed, I covered my eyes with my hands, and could have wept; but the very fountain of tears seemed dried up; and I could only brood over my situation with a sort of gloomy horror, which I do believe would have ended in depriving me of my faculties: but, about an hour after nightfall, the bolts and bars of the dungeon began to move, and I started up with joy; for the hour was not one at which the gaoler ever visited the cell: and the slightest change in the usual current of events seemed to speak of hope. As soon as the door was opened, a light broke in from the turnkey's lantern, and his own face was the first thing I beheld; but the moment after, I perceived another figure behind; and, to my inexpressible satisfaction, saw, as soon as my eyes were a little more accustomed to the light, that it was Gourville himself.