“I asked leave of the King to go on a journey.”
“So,” they replied, “did we.”
“When I was two leagues from the Court, I left all my following and went and yielded myself up prisoner.”
“We,” they replied, “did the same.”
“I remained,” said Astillon, “for seven or eight days, and lay in a closet where I was fed on nothing but restoratives and the choicest viands that I ever ate. At the end of a week, those who held me captive suffered me to depart much weaker in body than I had been on my arrival.”
They all swore that the like had happened to them.
“My imprisonment,” said Astillon, “began on such a day and finished on such another.”
“Mine,” thereupon said Durassier, “began on the very day that yours ended, and lasted until such a day.”
Valnebon, who was losing patience, began to swear.
“‘Sblood!” said he, “from what I can see, I, who thought myself the first and only one, was the third, for I went in on such a day and came out on such another.”