[19] So here I am, gentlemen, at fifty years old, without bread to eat. But it is not that which troubles me—If I could get a comfortable place for my poor Madelon, all would be well!

[20] Your name?

[21] Baptiste La Fere. But the name under which I served as a soldier and as a servant is Le Limosin.

[22] Tell me then.

[23] See, my Lord; have the goodness to look at this watch.

[24] Yes, my Lord; be so good as to observe. There is his cypher, H. C. M. and there the family crest.


VOLUME IV