At last he sent for me.
“All right,” he said; “I will give you four hundred francs, but only on condition that you become a convert to the Greek faith.”
I looked into his eyes with amazement, but those eyes expressed nothing, save an inflexibility that admits of no reply.
I cannot remember how the ceremony was performed.... I am even not quite certain whether it was a real ceremony, and whether the priest’s part was not played by the Pompadour’s adjutant disguised.
Justice compels me to add, however, that, after the ceremony was over, he behaved to me like a grand seigneur, that is, he gave me not only the whole of the sum agreed upon, but also two beautiful, hardly-worn suits, and ordered that I should be driven free of expense to the boundary of the next Pompadourdom. My hope did not deceive me. God had touched his heart at last!
Twelve days later I had reached the banks of the Seine, and, graciously received back into the service by Monseigneur Maupas, was strolling about the boulevards, humming merrily—
“Les lois de la France,
Votre Excellence!
Mourir, mourir,
Toujours mourir!”