"Its importance?" broke in Chauvelin quietly. "I dare say not. On the face of it, it appears foolish and childish: but it is intended as a taunt and is really a poor attempt at humour. They are a queer people these English. If you knew them as I do, you would not be surprised to see a man scribbling off a cheap joke before embarking on an enterprise which may cost him his head."
"And this inane rubbish is of that sort," concluded young Lalouët. And in his thin high treble he began reciting:
"We seek him here;
We seek him there!
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.
Is he in heaven?
Is he in h——ll?
That demmed elusive Pimpernel?"
"Pointless and offensive," he said as he tossed the paper back on the table.
"A cursed aristo that Englishman of yours," growled Carrier. "Oh! when I get him...."
He made an expressive gesture which made Lalouët laugh.
"What else have we got in the way of documents, citizen Chauvelin?" he asked.
"There is a letter," replied the latter.
"Read it," commanded Carrier. "Or rather translate it as you read. I don't understand the whole of the gibberish."
And Chauvelin, taking up a sheet of paper which was covered with neat, minute writing, began to read aloud, translating the English into French as he went along: