Dufresne, seeing that there was no way to avoid it, decided to open the door, after motioning to the others to be prudent; but Lampin could no longer see, and Murville had lost his head completely.
Several gendarmes and a sergeant entered the apartment. At sight of them Dufresne turned pale. Edouard uttered a cry of alarm, and Lampin rolled from his chair to the floor.
“You must come with us, monsieur,” said the sergeant, addressing Dufresne. He tried to put a bold face upon the matter and asked insolently by what right they came to disturb his rest.
“Yes, by what right do you disturb respectable people in their pleasures?” stammered Lampin; “why, I will answer for my friend, body for body!”
“Your guarantee is of no value; we know you, Master Lampin.”
“Well, then you have a pleasant acquaintance, I flatter myself.”
“You must come with us, too.”
“I? Ah! that will be rather hard; I wouldn’t walk a step for a bowl of punch; judge whether I will go to prison.”
“As for monsieur,” said the sergeant, turning to Edouard, “I have no orders to arrest him, but I advise him to select his acquaintances more wisely.”
Edouard stood in a corner of the room, trembling, and with downcast eyes. He did not hear what was said to him, he was so thoroughly convinced that they were going to take him away that he fancied himself already confined in a dungeon, and had decided to confess his crime, in the hope that his outspokenness would move his judges to pity.