"Your highness, since you command it, I will not awaken the captain, and I shall have the honor of conducting you to your cabin."
Croustillac inclined his head.
"Till to-morrow, your highness," said De Chemerant.
"Till to-morrow," responded the adventurer.
The officer descended by the hatchway to the gun-deck, opened the door of a large, wide cabin perfectly lighted by a skylight, and said to the Gascon: "Your highness, there is your cabin; there are two other small rooms to the right and left."
"This is admirable, sir; do me the favor, I pray you, to give the strictest orders that no one enters my cabin to-morrow until I call. No one, sir, you understand—absolutely no one!—this is of the last importance."
"Very well, my lord. Your highness does not wish that I should send one of the people to assist you to disrobe?"
"I am a soldier, sir," said Croustillac proudly, "and I disrobe without assistance."
The young officer bowed, taking this response for a lesson in stoicism; he went out, ordering one of the orderlies to allow no one to enter the cabin of the duke, and again ascended on deck to rejoin De Chemerant.
"Your duke is a veritable Spartan, my dear De Chemerant," said he to him. "Why! he has not brought even a lackey."