"To the devil with justice! You must have come from Timbuctoo to use such old-fashioned metaphors."
"Make your deposition, witness; I require you to make your deposition," said the magistrate, whose increasing drunkenness appeared as dignified and solemn as the artist was noisy.
"I have nothing to state; I saw nothing."
Here the Baron drew a long breath, as if these words were a relief.
"But I saw something!" said Gerfaut to himself, as he gazed at the
Baron's face, upon which anxiety was depicted.
"I reason by hypothesis and supposition," continued the artist. "I had a little altercation with Lambernier a few days ago, and, but for my good poniard, he would have put an end to me as he did to this fellow to-day."
He then related his meeting with Lambernier, but the consideration due Mademoiselle Gobillot's honor imposed numberless circumlocutions and concealments which ended by making his story rather unintelligible to his auditors, and in the midst of it his head became so muddled that he was completely put out.
"Basta!" he exclaimed, in conclusion, as he dropped heavily into his chair. "Not another word for the 'whole empire. Give me something to drink! Notary, you are the only man here who has any regard for me. One thing is certain about this matter—I am in ten louis by this rascal's adventure."
These words struck the Baron forcibly, as they brought to his mind what the carpenter had said to him when he gave him the letter.
"Ten louis!" said he, suddenly, looking at Marillac as if he wished to look into his very heart.