"Know what?"
"That the day before yesterday, as the admiral was passing along the place Saint Germain l'Auxerrois before the house of the Canon Pierre Piles, he was fired at"—
"And killed?" said La Mole.
"No; he had his arm broken and two fingers taken off; but it is hoped the balls were poisoned."
"How, wretch!" cried La Mole; "hoped?"
"Believed, I mean," said the landlord, winking at Coconnas; "do not take a word too seriously, it was a slip of the tongue."
And Maître La Hurière, turning his back on La Mole, poked out his tongue at Coconnas in the most insulting way, accompanying this action with a meaning wink.
"Really!" said Coconnas, joyfully.
"Really!" said La Mole, with sorrowful stupefaction.
"It is just as I have the honor of telling you, gentlemen," said the landlord.