"Ah! my hat had fallen. I sought for it, being my only resource, as I
had come out without money."

"But how could your hat be a resource?"

"Saudioux! it was a great one, for I must tell you that the plume of
this hat was fastened by a diamond clasp, that his majesty the emperor
Charles V. gave to my grandfather, when, on his way from Spain to
Flanders, he stopped at our castle."

"Ah! ah! and you have sold the clasp, and the hat with it. Then, my
dear friend, you ought to be the richest of us all, and you should have
bought another glove; your hands are not alike; one is as white as a
woman's, and the other as black as a negro's."

"But listen; as I turned to seek my hat I saw an enormous crow seize
hold of it."

"Of your hat!"

"Or rather of the clasp; attracted by the glitter, and in spite of my
cries, he flew away with it, and I saw it no more. So that, overwhelmed
by this double loss, I did not dare to return home, but came to seek my
fortune in Paris."

"Good!" cried a third, "the wind has changed into a crow. I heard you
tell M. de Loignac that the wind had carried it away while you were
reading a letter from your mistress."