"Wait!"
A second messenger was seen running toward the King. Hadgi-Stavros cried out to him: "Is it Pericles' company?"
"I do not know; I did not see their number." A shot was heard at a distance. "Listen!" commanded the King, taking out his watch. The men were silent. Four shots followed, a minute apart. The last one was followed by a thundering detonation which resembled platoon-firing. The King, with a smile, put his watch back in his pocket.
"It is all right! Return the baggage to the storeroom, and serve me with wine of Aegina; it is Pericles' company."
He saw me just as he finished the sentence. He called to me, in a jeering tone:
"Come, Monsieur German, you are not de trop. It is well to rise early; one sees curious things. Your thirst has awakened you! Will you drink a glass of wine of Aegina with our brave gendarmes?"
Five minutes later three enormous goat-skin bottles were brought from some secret hiding place. A sentinel approached the King.
"Good news! They are Pericles' men!"
A few of the bandits were in advance of the troops. The Corfuan, a fine talker, skipped along by the Captain's side, his tongue running. A drum was heard; then a blue flag was seen, and sixty men, fully armed, marched in double file to the King's Cabinet. I recognized M. Pericles, because I had admired him on the promenade at Athens. He was a young officer of thirty-five, dark, a coxcomb, admired by the ladies, the best waltzer at Court, and wearing his epaulets with grace. He put up his sword, ran to the King of the Mountains, who kissed him on the mouth, saying, "Good morning, godfather!"
"Good morning, little one," the King replied, caressing his cheek with his hand. "Thou art well?"