"Well, then," said Nicholas, "what change is that?"
"There is this change," replied Skeleton, "that if he has sold us, as Big Cripple says, he shall not escape with a small bleeding."
"Very good," said Barbillon.
"There must be an example," said Skeleton, becoming more animated. "Now it is no longer the grabs who find us out: it is the spies. Jacques and Gauthier guillotined the other day. Roussillon, sent to the galleys for life, sold!"
"And me, and my mother, and Calabash, and my brother at Toulon!" cried Nicholas, "have we not been sold by Bras-Rouge? That is certain now, since, instead of putting him here, they have sent him to La Roquette! They did not dare leave him with us; he knew his treachery, the sneak!"
"And," said Barbillon, "has not Bras-Rouge also sold me?"
"And me," said a young prisoner, in a shrill and reedy voice, lisping in an affected manner, "I was betrayed by Jobert, a man who proposed an affair in the Rue Saint Martin."
This last personage, with the reedy voice, a pale, fat, and effeminate face, and an insidious and cowardly expression, was dressed in a singular manner. He had on his head a red handkerchief, which allowed two locks of white hair to be seen plastered on his temples; the ends of the handkerchief formed a bow over his forehead; he wore, for a cravat, a shawl, of white merino with green palms in the corners on his bosom; his jacket, of maroon colored cloth, disappeared under the tight waistband of his ample trousers, made of gay Scotch plaid.
"If this is not an indignity! Must a man be a scoundrel?" resumed this gentleman with the pretty voice. "Nothing in the world would have made me suspect Jobert."
"I know that he informed against you," answered the Skeleton, who seemed to patronize this prisoner particularly. "The proof is, that they have done with him as they did with Bras-Rouge; they did not dare leave Jobert here; they locked him up at the Conciergerie. Well, this must be put a stop to: we must have an example. Our traitor brothers carve out work for the police. They think they are sure of their necks because they are put in a different prison from those they have betrayed."
"It is the truth."
"To prevent this, every prisoner must look upon all turncoats as deadly enemies: if they have blown on Tony, d.i.c.k, or Harry, it matters not which pounce on them. When we have done the job for four or five in the court, the others will wag their tongues twice before they blow the gaff!"
"You are right," said Nicholas; "Germain must die!"
"He shall die," answered the provost; "but let us wait until Big Cripple comes. When he shall have proved to everybody that" Germain is a spy, enough said: the sheep will bleat no more; his breath shall be stopped."
"And what shall we do with the warders, who watch us!" asked the prisoner whom the Skeleton called Ja-votte.
"I have my own idea. Pique-Vinaigre shall serve us."
"He? He is too cowardly."
"And not stronger than a mouse."
"Enough. I understand. Where is he?"
"He returned from the grate, some one came for him to go and patter with his Newgate lawyer."
"And Germain. Is he still at the grate?"
"Yes; with the little mot who comes to see him."
"As soon as he descends, attention. But we must wait for Pique-Vinaigre; we can do nothing without him."
"Without Pique-Vinaigre?"
"No."
"And Germain shall be--"
"I will take charge of it."
"But with what? They have taken away our knives."
"And these hooks--will you put your neck between them?" asked Skeleton, opening his long fingers, hard as iron.
"Choke him?"
"A little."
"But if they know it is you?"
"What"s the odds? Am I a calf with two heads, such as is shown in the fair?"
"That is true. One can only be made a head shorter once; and since you are sure of being--"
"Doubly sure; the lawyer told me so yesterday. I have been taken with my hand in the pocket, and my knife in the throat, of the stiff "un; I am a second comer; it is all over with me. I will send my head to see, in the basket, if it is true that they cheat the condemned, and put sawdust in, instead of bran, which the government allows us."
"It is true; the guillotined has a right to his bran. My father was cheated, I recollect," said Nicholas Martial, with a ferocious chuckle.
This abominable pleasantry made all the prisoners laugh loudly.
"A thousand thunders!" cried Skeleton. "I wish all the n.o.bs could hear us talk, who think to make us quake before the guillotine. They have only to come to the Barriere Saint Jacques the day of my benefit; they will hear me crack jokes with the crowd, and say to Jack, in a bold voice, "Open the door till I go down into the cellar!" Renewed laughter followed this sally.
"The fact is, that the affair lasts as long as it takes to swallow a mouthful. Draw the bolt; and he opens the devil"s door for you!" said Skeleton continuing to smoke his pipe.
"Ah, bah! is there a devil?"
"Fool! I said that for a joke. There is a knife; a head is placed under, and that is all."
"Besides, is that our business?"
"As for me, now that I know my road, and that I must stop at the tree, I would as soon go today as tomorrow," said Skeleton, with savage energy. "I wish I was there now. I feel my blood in my mouth when I think of the crowd who will be there to see me. There will be four or five thousand who will fight or quarrel for places. They will hire out windows and chairs as for a procession. I hear them already cry, "Window to let! Place to let!" And then there will be the troops, cavalry and infantry. And all this for me--for old Boulard. It is not for an honest man that they take all this trouble, hey, Sals! Here is something to make a man proud. Even he should be as cowardly as Pique-Vinaigre, it would make him resolute. All these eyes which are looking at you give you courage, and it is but a moment to pa.s.s, you die boldly; that vexes the judges and the duffers, and encourages a flash cove to die game."
"That is true," replied Barbillon, endeavoring to imitate the frightful boasting. "They think to make us afraid, and confess all, when they send Ketch to open shop on our account."
"Bah!" said Nicholas, in his turn. "One is not wrong to laugh at the scaffold; it is like the prison and the galleys; we laugh at them also; so long as we are all friends together, "A short life and a merry one!""
"For instance," said the prisoner with the lisping voice, "what would be tough would be to keep us in cells day and night."
"In cells!" cried Skeleton, with a kind of savage alarm. "Do not speak of it. In cells! All alone! I would rather they would cut off my arms and legs. All alone! Between four walls! All alone! No old mates to laugh with!
That cannot be! I prefer a hundred times the galleys to the prisons, because at the galleys, instead of being shut up, one is out of doors, sees company, moves about. Well! I would rather a hundred times be a head shorter than be put into a cell only for one year. See here, at this moment, I am sure of being cut down, am I not? Well, let them say to me, "Would you prefer a year in a cell?" I would stretch out my neck. A year all alone! Can this be possible? What would they have one think of when one is all alone?"
"If they were to put you there by force?"
"I would not remain. I would make such use of my feet and hands that I would escape," said Skeleton.
"But if you could not--if you were sure that you could not escape?"