"How lucky they paid me beforehand for their pint!" said the ogress. "Won't you take a dram o' nothin' 'short,' M. Narcisse? Just a 'go' of 'Ratifi' of the Column.'" "Thanks, Mother Ponisse, but I must make sure of my game; one fellow shows fight still." The assassin in the Greek cap was furious with rage, and when they tried to get him into a hackney-coach which was waiting in the street, he resisted so stoutly that they were obliged to carry him. His accomplice, seized with a nervous tremor, could hardly support himself, and his blue lips trembled as though he were speaking. They threw him, helpless and unresisting, into the vehicle. Before he left the _tapis-franc_, the head officer looked attentively at the other guests assembled, and said to the Chourineur, in a tone almost kind: "What, you here, you bad lot? Why, it is a long time since we heard anything of you. What, no more rows? Are you growing steady?" "Steady as a stone figure. Why, you know that now I never break a head, even if I am begged to do so!" "Oh, I don't think that would cost you much trouble, strong as you are." "Yet here is my master," said the Chourineur, laying his hand on Rodolph's shoulder. "Stay, I do not know him," said the _agent de police_, looking steadfastly at Rodolph. "And I do not think we shall form an acquaintance now," replied he. "I hope not, for your sake, my fine fellow," said the agent; then, turning to the ogress, "Good night, Mother Ponisse; your _tapis-franc_ is a regular mouse-trap; this is the third assassin I have taken here." "I hope it won't be the last, M. Narcisse; it is quite at your service," said the ogress, making a very insinuating nod with her head. After the departure of the police, the young vagabond with the haggard visage, who was smoking and drinking brandy, refilled his pipe, and said in a hoarse voice to the Chourineur: "Didn't you 'twig' the 'cove' in the Greek cap? He's Boulotte's man. When I saw the traps walk in, I says to myself, says I, there's something up; and then, too, I saw him keep his hand always under the table." "It's lucky for the Schoolmaster and Gros-Boiteux that they were not here," said the ogress; "Greek cap asked twice for him, and said they had business together; but I never turn 'nose' (informer) on any customer. If they take them, very well,--every one to his trade; but I never sell my friends. Oh, talk of the old gentleman, and you see his horns," added the hag, as at the moment a man and woman entered the cabaret; "here they are,--the Schoolmaster and his companion. Well, he was right not to show her, for I never see such an ugly creetur in my born days. She ought to be very much obliged to him for having taken up with such a face."