"Why do you come here to watch me sleep?" he asked, and was surprised to find that his voice was so weak.
"You must be quiet; you have been very ill," said she.
"I ill? Now that is a queer thing, a very queer thing! What made me ill?"
"Do not trouble your head about it. It is best for you to remain perfectly silent."
"I will not be quiet until you have answered my questions. If anybody ought to be interested in this affair, it seems to me I ought to be the one."
The nun reflected a moment, then she said thoughtfully, "Perhaps it might be better to tell you, after all. You fell off of the bridge into the river. You were saved by two boatmen, but you seemed to be in a stupor."
"I remember all about it now," cried the jester. "It was that old black spider of a doctor who pushed me in. Let me up and I will break every bone in his body!"
The sister put her hand to his breast and pushed him back to his pillow again, and he was astonished to find how easily this delicate woman could manage him. "You must not grow excited," she said gently.
"He came there and talked to me about his old elixir of life," said Le Glorieux. "Did it of his own accord; I never invited him; then he said I doubted him, which I did, and he pushed me over."
"Don Velerio is very sensitive about his discovery," said the nun, "but he did not intend really to harm you."