"Yes, captain."
"Well then, let us go!"
"En voiture!" repeated the Abbé Rémy in the tones of a man who flings himself head-first into some unknown peril.
"En voiture!" repeated the two officers gaily.
They got into the carriage, travelled very fast all night, and by five next morning they were at Havre. Bougainville himself chose the room to be occupied by his friend, who, tired with the journey, and still a little heavy from the previous day's dinner, slept and did not wake till noon. Just as he was waking, Bougainville came into his room and opened the windows. The abbé uttered a cry of surprise and admiration: the windows looked out on the sea. A quarter of a league away la Boudeuse was riding gracefully in the roadstead, moored with two anchors down.
"Oh!" asked the Abbé Rémy, "what is that magnificent vessel?"
"My friend," said Bougainville, "that is la Boudeuse, where we are expected to dinner."
"What! Do you mean me to go on board?"
"Surely! You would not come all the way to Havre and return without having seen over a ship! Why, my dear friend, it is just as though you went to Rome without seeing the pope."
"True enough," said the Abbé Remy; "but when shall we return?"