"We need only lances, to have the aspect of genuine knights-errant."
"We haven’t even a stick, which would be much better!—Monsieur Edouard! where on earth are you? Don’t go so fast, or you’ll lose us! that would be the last straw—to be separated! I can’t walk fast when I don’t see where I am going.—Hello! Monsieur Edouard!"
Edouard halted and exclaimed in a sepulchral tone:
"Où suis-je? Quelle nuit
Couvre d’un voile affreux la clarte qui nous luit?
Ces murs sont teints de sang! je vois les Euménides
Secouer leurs flambeaux vengeurs des parricides!
Le tonnerre en éclats semble fondre sur moi,
L’enfer s’ouvre!"[5]
"Monsieur Edouard! don’t joke like that, I beg! What do you see?"
As he spoke, Robineau overtook Edouard and passed his arm through his.
"I don’t see anything at all, I am waiting for you," replied Edouard calmly.
"Fear must have deprived you of memory, Robineau, since you don’t remember what you have heard so often at the Français."
"Fear?—You are unique, messieurs, to accuse a man of fear because he doesn’t care to pass the night out of doors! My constitution is not of iron, and I am sure that it would do me much harm!"
"I advise you to complain; you’re as plump as a partridge!"