The foreman charged to get the articles, also acquainted Chon, who was going to join her sister in Paris, with the astonishing willingness of her pet. She was so pleased that she sent a little purse with some silver in it, to be added to the doctor's girdle along with the inkhorn.
Gilbert sent his thanks, and expressed a wish to be left alone to put on the costume.
"Make haste," said the steward, "that the young lady may see you before she is off to Paris."
Gilbert looked out of the window to see how the gardens were arranged. Returning to the table, he tore the long black doctoral gown into three strips, which he made a rope of by tying the ends together. On the table he laid the hat and the purse and the following declaration which he wrote:
"Lady: The foremost of boons is Liberty. The holiest of duties is to preserve it. As you do violence to my feelings, I set myself free. Gilbert."
He addressed this epistle to Chon, tied his twelve feet of serge rope to the window sill, glided down like a serpent, and dropped on the terrace at risk of breaking his neck. Though stunned a little by the fall, he ran to some trees, scrambled up among the boughs, slipped downward till he was on a lower level and could reach the ground where he ran away with all his might.
When they came for him half an hour after, he was far beyond their reach.
[CHAPTER XXVI.]
THE OLD BOTANIST.
On the trunk of a tree overthrown by a storm in Meudon Woods a man was seated.