"To see you."
"What! to see me?"
"Yes ... send Charles away."
A single candle lighted la pistole; it stood on the table near the general's bed. He pretended to snuff it, and he extinguished it.
"Confound it!" he said, "I am clever.... Charles, go and light this candle again for us."
Charles took the candle and went into the lower room. We were left in the dark.
"What do you want with me, my lad?" asked the prisoner.
"General," I said, "I am commissioned by my mother and by friends of yours to give you a pair of double-barrelled pistols ready loaded, and a roll of fifty louis. I have them all in my pockets: will you have them?"
The general did not speak for a moment, then I felt him bring his face nearer to mine.
"Thank you, little friend," he said, and he kissed my forehead; "the emperor will be in Paris before our trial takes place."