It is incomprehensible!" The current of his thoughts changed.

Seizing the half empty bottle, he drank its contents.
"Strange," said he, "how the bad effects of liquor are controlled by the emotions! I have taken enough to deprive me of consciousness, and I feel my mind as clear as though I had not touched a drop.

This last draught, however, has mounted to my brain.

So it is decreed that my master, Simon Turchi, must die upon the scaffold?
It is disagreeable for both of us, but I could not help it.

I shall not know what to do when the two hundred crowns are spent; necessity will force me to seek other resources, even at the risk of the gallows, and in all probability the fatal noose will encircle my neck.