“Yes, monsieur.”
“I don’t see what he can have been doing there all night. But he must be somewhere. Come, my girl, take me to your storeroom.”
“I’ll go and get the master, because we ain’t allowed to go there.”
“I don’t care for the prohibition; I must find my companion, who can’t have gone to visit the Hermitage or to walk in the valley, in his shirt and drawers.”
“That’s so; it ain’t the custom.”
Paying no heed to the servant, who went to tell her master, I left my room, ascended the stairs, and walked through a long corridor, at the end of which I saw a door. It was at some distance from the inhabited portion of the house; and I could understand that Raymond might easily have called without making himself heard. But why had he remained there? That is what I was determined to know. I pushed the door, which was not locked, and saw Raymond with one leg in a trap, sitting upon a pile of hams, where he had fallen asleep.
My arrival made him open his eyes. He held out his arms with an expression which I cannot describe.
“Ah! my friend! my savior! set me free, I implore you!”
“What in the devil are you doing here?”
“I am caught like a rat in a trap, as you see; I can’t budge. I’ve been here since one o’clock this morning; I shouted and called, but no one came, and I had to make the best of it. When I found that no one heard me, I sat down on the first thing I could find, and at last I fell asleep; but I ache in every limb. I shan’t forget Montmorency!”