The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. TitmarshThackeray, William Makepeace
General
The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Paris (France) -- Description and travel
Cartouche had a wonderful love for good eating, and put all the
apple-women and cooks, who came to supply the students, under
contribution. Not always, however, desirous of robbing these, he used
to deal with them, occasionally, on honest principles of barter; that
is, whenever he could get hold of his schoolfellows’ knives, books,
rulers, or playthings, which he used fairly to exchange for tarts and
gingerbread.
It seemed as if the presiding genius of evil was determined to
patronize this young man; for before he had been long at college, and
soon after he had, with the greatest difficulty, escaped from the
nightcap scrape, an opportunity occurred by which he was enabled to
gratify both his propensities at once, and not only to steal, but to
steal sweetmeats. It happened that the principal of the college
received some pots of Narbonne honey, which came under the eyes of
Cartouche, and in which that young gentleman, as soon as ever he saw
them, determined to put his fingers. The president of the college put
aside his honey-pots in an apartment within his own; to which, except
by the one door which led into the room which his reverence usually
occupied, there was no outlet. There was no chimney in the room; and
the windows looked into the court, where there was a porter at night,
and where crowds passed by day. What was Cartouche to do?—have the
honey he must.
Over this chamber, which contained what his soul longed after, and over
the president’s rooms, there ran a set of unoccupied garrets, into
which the dexterous Cartouche penetrated. These were divided from the
rooms below, according to the fashion of those days, by a set of large
beams, which reached across the whole building, and across which rude
planks were laid, which formed the ceiling of the lower story and the
floor of the upper. Some of these planks did young Cartouche remove;
and having descended by means of a rope, tied a couple of others to the
neck of the honey-pots, climbed back again, and drew up his prey in
safety. He then cunningly fixed the planks again in their old places,
and retired to gorge himself upon his booty. And, now, see the
punishment of avarice! Everybody knows that the brethren of the order
of Jesus are bound by a vow to have no more than a certain small sum of
money in their possession. The principal of the college of Clermont had
amassed a larger sum, in defiance of this rule: and where do you think
the old gentleman had hidden it? In the honey-pots! As Cartouche dug
his spoon into one of them, he brought out, besides a quantity of
golden honey, a couple of golden louis, which, with ninety-eight more
of their fellows, were comfortably hidden in the pots. Little Dominic,
who, before, had cut rather a poor figure among his fellow-students,
now appeared in as fine clothes as any of them could boast of; and when
asked by his parents, on going home, how he came by them, said that a
young nobleman of his schoolfellows had taken a violent fancy to him,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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