He then saw standing in front of him, no less thunderstruck than himself, his former keeper, become his very humble servant. "Ah! is it you, Master Barrabas?" said he. "Myself, Monsieur le Gouverneur." "Will you explain what has happened? for I have all the difficulty in the world not to take it for a dream." "I will explain to you, monsieur, that when I talked about the extraordinary question and the ten pots of water I thought, on my honor, that I was gilding the pill." "You mean to say that you were convinced--?" "That I was bringing you here to be broken on the wheel, monsieur." "Thanks!" said Canolles, shuddering in spite of himself. "But have you any opinion now as to what has happened?" "Yes, monsieur." "Do me the favor to tell me what it is, monsieur." "It is this, monsieur. The queen must have realized what a difficult mission it was that she intrusted to you. As soon as the first angry outburst had spent itself, she must have repented, and as you are not a repulsive fellow, all things considered, her gracious Majesty has thought fit to reward you because she had punished you too severely." "Impossible!" said Canolles. "Impossible, you think?" "Improbable, at least." "Improbable?" "Yes." "In that case, monsieur, it only remains for me to offer you my very humble respects. You can be as happy as a king at Île Saint-Georges,--excellent wine, abundance of game, and fresh fish at every tide, brought by boats from Bordeaux and by the women of Saint-Georges. Ah, monsieur, this is a miraculous ending!" "Very good; I will try to follow your advice. Take this order signed by myself, and go to the paymaster, who will give you ten pistoles. I would give them to you myself, but since you took all my money as a measure of precaution--" "And I did well, monsieur," cried Barrabas; "for if you had succeeded in corrupting me you would have fled, and if you had fled you would naturally have sacrificed the elevated position which you have now attained, and I should never have forgiven myself." "Very cleverly argued, Master Barrabas. I have already noticed that you are a past master in logic. But take this paper as a token of my appreciation of your eloquence. The ancients, you know, represented Eloquence with chains of gold issuing from her mouth." "Monsieur," rejoined Barrabas, "if I dared I would remark that I think it useless to call upon the paymaster--" "What! you refuse?" cried Canolles. "No, God forbid! I have no false pride, thank Heaven! But I can see certain strings, which look to me much like purse-strings, protruding from a box on your chimney-piece." "You are evidently a connoisseur in strings, Master Barrabas," said Canolles. "We will see if your previsions are correct." There was a casket of old faience, incrusted with silver, upon the chimney-piece. Canolles raised the lid, and found within, a purse, and in the purse a thousand pistoles with this little note:--