"It was no use for me to promise not to say anything to the other one; he wouldn't listen to me. He went up to his room, packed his valise, came down again, paid me my money, and went off. But Monsieur Ronflard had seen him through the window. So he comes running down again.
"'What!' he says; 'has he gone? didn't he wait for me? Oh! but I'll catch him!'
"And with that, he ran out to try to overtake his friend. He saw him in front of him, but the other turned and, seeing that he was being followed, began to run as if the devil was after him. Monsieur Ronflard was obstinate; he ran after him, and it seems that he kept calling to him:
"'Stop, don't run like that, Seringat! it's Ronflard; don't you know me?'
"The man from Pontoise ran all the faster. Somebody who saw them scurrying through the streets told me he thought they were running for the firemen. To cut it short, Monsieur Miflorès came to the river; he went down to the shore, saw a boatman pulling down stream, and motioned to him to take him aboard. The man rowed to the bank and laid a plank for him to come aboard. At that moment, Monsieur Ronflard came up and began to sing at the top of his lungs:
| "'Ce pauvre Seringat! |
| Il a fait tant d'éclat, |
| Que tout Pontoise a su |
| Qu'il était, ma foi, cornu!' |
"Poor Monsieur Miflorès no sooner heard that song than he rushed onto the plank; but he made a misstep and fell into the water. The current dragged him away—it seems that he couldn't swim. And when they succeeded in fishing him up, he was dead!"
"Dead! Can it be that he is dead? Poor Seringat!—for that really was his true name.—Well! there's no doubt that your Monsieur Ronflard did a good stroke of business then!"
"Why, monsieur, he seemed to be terribly distressed; he had the jaundice on account of it, and he only left Paris yesterday.—'I must go and tell Madame Seringat she's a widow,' he says to me, when he went away; 'I feel sure that it won't make her feel so badly as I do.'"
Dodichet did not recover for several minutes from the shock he had received. Then he sat down at a table and said: