"'Here they are.'

"'Thank you, M. Rudolph; in two days you shall hear from me; your servant,
sirs.' Thunder! the king was not my master: I could render a service to M.
Rudolph by joining you; it was that which was famous."

"I begin to understand, or rather, I tremble to understand," cried Germain;
"such fidelity cannot be possible! to come to protect me, defend me in this
prison, you have, perhaps, committed a robbery? oh! this would be the
sorrow of my whole life."

"Stop a bit! M. Rudolph had told me that I had a heart and honor; these
words are my law, do you see; and he can tell me so yet; for if I am no
better than formerly, at least I am no worse."

"But this robbery? this robbery? If you have not committed it, how are you
here?"

"Stop a moment. Here is the plant; with my thousand francs I went and
bought a black wig; I shaved off my whiskers; I put on blue spectacles; I
stuck a pillow on my back, and made up a hump. I began at once to look for
one or two rooms on a ground floor in a retired street. I found my affair
in the Rue du Provence; I paid my rent in advance under the name of
Gregoire. The next day I went to the Temple to buy furniture for my two
rooms, always wearing my black wig, hump, and blue barnacles, so that I
might be well known. I sent the things to the Rue du Provence, and six
silver spoons and forks which I bought on the Boulevard Saint Denis, still
in my disguise as a hunchback. I returned to put all these in order in my
domicile, I said to the porter that I should not sleep there for two days,
and I carried away my key. The windows of the two rooms were fastened by