14.' It's on the third shelf," and he proceeded to open a small closet in which Rodolphe perceived, with terror, a great quantity of manuscripts.

Carolus took out one of these, shut the closet, and seated himself in front of the poet.
Rodolphe cast a glance at one of the four piles of elephant paper of which the work was composed.

"Come," said he to himself, "it's not in verse, but it's called 'Don Lopez.'" Carolus began to read: "On a cold winter night, two cavaliers, enveloped in large cloaks, and mounted on sluggish mules, were making their way side by side over one of the roads which traverse the frightful solitudes of the Sierra Morena." "May the Lord have mercy on me!" ejaculated Rodolphe mentally.
Carolus continued to read his first chapter, written in the style above throughout.

Rodolphe listened vaguely, and tried to devise some means of escape.
"There is the window, but it's fastened; and beside, we are in the fourth story.

Ah, now I understand all these precautions." "What do you think of my first chapter ?" asked Carolus.