“Thank Heaven!”

“But your goodness of heart is also known.”

“Ah!

don’t speak of it!”

“And your obedience to your superiors. Once a soldier, you see, Baisemeaux, always a soldier.”

“And I shall directly obey; and to-morrow morning, at daybreak, the prisoner referred to shall be set free.”

“To-morrow?”

“At dawn.”

“Why not this evening, seeing that the lettre de cachet bears, both on the direction and inside, ‘urgent’?”

“Because this evening we are at supper, and our affairs are urgent, too!”