The four friends remained in anxious silence. After a lapse of ten minutes the door opened, and the jailer reappeared, pale with terror.
"A courier has just entered the castle court," said he; "he comes from Paris, he has delivered his dispatches, and immediately the guards were doubled, and the drums beat in all the barracks."
"Oh, oh," said Montlouis, "that concerns us."
"Some one is ascending the stairs," said the jailer, more pale and trembling than those to whom he spoke. In fact, they heard the butt ends of the muskets clanging on the stones of the corridor, and at the same time several voices were heard speaking hastily.
The door opened, and the usher reappeared.
"Gentlemen," said he, "how long do you desire to set your worldly affairs in order, and to undergo your sentence?"
A profound terror froze even the hearers.
"I desire," said Montlouis, "time for the sentence to reach Paris and return, approved by the regent."
"I," said Talhouet, "only desire the time necessary for the commission to repent of its iniquity."
"As for me," said Du Couëdic, "I wish for time for the minister at Paris to commute the sentence into eight days' imprisonment, which we deserve for having acted somewhat thoughtlessly."