"Well, what the foul fiend do you want ?" he exclaimed rudely; and he rapped out half-a-dozen CORPOS before they could answer him.

"What have you brought him here for, when I left him in the guard-house?
Imbeciles!" "Captain Pallavicini," interposed the midmost of the three, speaking with patience--he was a man of about thirty, dressed with some richness, though his clothes were now disordered as though by a struggle--"I have induced these good men to bring me down--" "Then," cried the captain, brutally interrupting him, "you have lost your labour, Monsieur." "You do not know me," replied the prisoner with sternness--a prisoner he seemed to be.

"You do not understand that I am a friend of the Prince of Conde, and that--" He would have said more, but the Italian again cut him short.

"A fig for the Prince of Conde!" he cried; "I understand my duty.

You may as well take things easily.