"Who is the lady?" asked Anselmo. "She is very handsome."
Benedetto remained silent and the ex-priest looked distrustfully at him.
Toward evening the blacksmith came, and Benedetto was freed from Anselmo.
"Keep up your spirits," said the jailer to the ex-priest, "and I will see what can be done for you. In a few days a new column will arrive, and if you conduct yourself properly, I will see that you get no new comrade."
"I will let my little rat-king intercede for me," said Anselmo, laughing, and the jailer nodded.
The 24th of February dawned, and Benedetto, who had not closed an eye during the night, looked so miserable in the morning that Anselmo became frightened.
"Come, now, you are frightened, perhaps?" he maliciously asked. The look he received from his comrade made him pause.
The prisoners went as usual to work, and gradually Benedetto calmed down. The night was to bring the decision, and if Anselmo lied he would make him pay dearly for it.
During this time a carriage with four horses rode from Aubagne to Beaussuet. At the inn of the latter place it stopped, and while the guard put fresh horses in the traces, the occupant of the coach, a heavily veiled woman, got out and asked of the postmaster who advanced how far it was to the nearest vicarage.