“Sir! you bade me call you in good time. The sun has been up some hours. Are not you going to start?”
“Come in!” said the Lord of Machavoine. “I want to have a word with you.”
“But, my dear sir, I can’t come in. You shut yourself in when you turned me out, and I know from experience that one cannot break in the door.”
Porc-en-Truie was reluctantly compelled to get out of bed and open the door, jumping into bed again, however, immediately, and turning his face to the wall.
“Do you know this bed is delicious! I have slept splendidly in it, and I am not such a fool as to go scouring the highways while I can get a good rest here. Listen to me attentively, and don’t let me have to repeat anything, for I’m dying for sleep. You will place beside me on a table a venison pasty, two cold dishes, some preserved fruit, and thirty bottles of wine. Thirty—you hear?”
“Only too well!”
“Once a week you will come in on tip-toe, and lay the repast afresh. I am going to take a nap—you may call me in a month’s time.”
“I trust you won’t think of doing so—keeping me out of my bedroom for a month-”
“I warn you that I do not know how much money there is in my purse, and that I sleep so soundly, you might rob me of it without my opening my eyes. Ah, by the way, I forgot! As I don’t wish to be disturbed, I command you not to tell a soul that I am here. I don’t care a bit if your inn is on fire, if the enemy is coming, or an earthquake happens. I mean to have my sleep out. Above all, don’t let my fellow-travellers know of my determination. Nothing less than your life or death depends on that. Now, set everything out properly here, and don’t let me hear any more of you for a month.”
“Sir—sweet sir—dear sir—great sir!” sighed the host, little elated at the prospect of sleeping for the next thirty nights in the stable, “can’t you choose some other resting-place? I can assure you, that if you go nearly as far as Montella—about half a day’s journey from here—you will find a magnificent hotel, where you will be infinitely better lodged than here. Are you listening to me, my dear sir?”