"If you don't give us something to eat," cried Dessaignes, "sooner than die of hunger we will blow up the prison."
"To the gate of heaven. You have already said so," replied the voice of the governor.
"Then you mean to sacrifice all the innocent persons in the place?"
"Not at all! We have made our dispositions. The other prisoners have been removed. You two can ascend heavenwards as soon as you please."
Dessaignes glanced at his friend, and the expressions on both faces must have been interesting.
"To be candid," said Desforges, "my stomach sounds a parley."
"My own offers the same advice," said Dessaignes.
"Let us follow it," said Desforges.
"Gentlemen," called Dessaignes through the key-hole, "the war is over. Some bread, if you please, a bottle of wine, and a plate of meat. Those are our simple conditions of capitulation."
Agreed to; and the door was opened. A legal gentleman came from the King to hold an enquiry; but as Dessaignes' pistol had done no harm to anyone, and as the two prisoners had conducted their little campaign in a modest and inoffensive manner, no addition was made to their sentence,—which indeed was the equivalent of a "life" sentence at the present day. They were transferred to the Conciergerie, where their bonds were not too tight; their families kept them in money, and they received and dined their friends.