Leon took it, and pushed the door half open.
Must it be confessed?
Hope and joy spoke louder to him than fear.

He fancied himself already relieved of the Colonel.

But the spectacle presented to his eyes suddenly diverted the course of his ideas, and the inconsolable lover began laughing like a fool.

A noise of kicks, blows, and slaps; an undefined group rolling on the floor in the convulsions of a desperate struggle--so much was all he could see and understand at the first glance.

Soon Fougas, lit up by the ruddy glow of the candle, discovered that he was struggling with Gothon, like Jacob with the angel, and went back, confused and pitiable, to bed.
The Colonel had gone to sleep over the history of Napoleon, without putting out the candle.