"There’s just as many rooms on the second floor, master," mumbled Monsieur Cunette, standing at the door of the room in which the young men were. "It’s the same thing over again, except perhaps the ceilings are a little lower and there ain’t such pretty pictures as there is here."
"In that case it is unnecessary for us to inspect the second floor."
"Ah! messieurs, this gallery opens on a terrace from which we can see the whole neighborhood."
"The terrace is in rather bad condition."
"What are those slits in the wall?"
"They are loop-holes," said Edouard; "and there are machicoulis, I believe, in those sally-ports."
"Gachicoulis—that’s right," stammered the concierge.
"The devil!" said Robineau, "this was a stronghold! I am sure that it has sustained sieges. It’s strange that there’s no drawbridge."
"Oh! there was one, monsieur, a few years ago; but as the last owner had planted sugar-beets, for an experiment, in the garden yonder, it sickened me to do nothing but raise and lower the drawbridge for a few beets; so it occurred to me to fill up the ditch, and the bourgeois thought it was a good idea, and he just had a simple gate put up."
"That bourgeois could not have descended from the ancient owners of this château, if he had such commonplace ideas."