"Parbleu! do you think the lark paté came by itself?"
"Who says one cannot escape from the Bastille?" said Gaston joyously.
"My young friend," said Dubois, stopping on the third step, "take my advice; don't get in there again without me; you might not be as fortunate the second time as the first."
They continued to mount the wall, on the platform of which a sentinel walked, but instead of opposing them, he held his hand to La Jonquiere to assist him, and in three minutes they were on the platform, had drawn up the ladder, and placed it on the other side of the wall.
The descent was as safely managed, and they found themselves on another frozen moat.
"Now," said the captain, "we must take away the ladder, that we may not compromise the poor devil who helped us."
"We are then free?"
"Nearly so," said La Jonquiere.
Gaston, strengthened by this news, took up the ladder on his shoulder.
"Peste, chevalier! the late Hercules was nothing to you, I think."