"I had scarcely heard the cry 'Grand conspiracy discovered by the Citizen Simon,'—that beast Simon (the wretch is everywhere),—than I wished to judge of the truth for myself. Then, they spoke of a subterranean passage."
"Does it really exist?"
"It does; I have seen it;
"'Seen it with both my eyes; that I call seeing,—'
There, why do you not hiss?"
"Because that is Molière; and besides, these events, I must confess, appear to me rather too serious for pleasantry."
"What can we jest about, if we do not jest about serious things?"
"You say, then, that you have seen it?"
"I repeat that I have seen the subterranean passage. It extends from the cellar of the Widow Plumeau to a house in the Rue de la Corderie, No. 12 or 14, I cannot remember which."
"Really? Have you passed through it, Lorin?"