ALLEGRIGNAC, Porc-en-Truie. Mont-Rognon, and Maragougnia continued to dwell in unconscious propinquity.

“Who can tell what has become of my companions?” said all four, each to himself. “They have perished beyond doubt, or are prisoners at best. Faith! that’s their look-out! Success is very properly the prize of superior intelligence.”

For a whole month Porc-en-Truie slept, Mont-Rognon ate, Allegrignac played the guitar in a whisper, and Maragougnia plotted impossible meannesses.

On the twenty-eighth day of his captivity Mont-Rognon greeted Ali with a smile which he struggled to make as gracious as possible. Ali was terrified to see it, dreading lest his customer should ask him for credit on the strength of such an act of condescension.

“Sit down here opposite to me,” said Mont-Rognon, growing every moment more agreeable to Ali, who was growing every moment more uncomfortable. “I am tired of eating alone. Besides, I have something to say to you.”

The landlord sat down, poured himself out a bumper, and listened.

“Since I have been here I have watched you closely, and the result of my examination is favourable to you. Occupied as I have been, it was impossible for us to exchange much talk, but it was enough to make me appreciate you. I recognise in you one of those bold spirits who, regarding life as a journey, reject from the outset whatever may encumber their progress. Conscience is to them a stranger whose name gives rise to a smile, and remorse a bugbear invented by the weak to restrain the strong. They only require in life that which it is able to offer, but they are not of the kidney to forego one single opening for enjoyment, let the price be what it may. People of my way of thinking are always ready to encourage that spirit. Do you comprehend?”

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“That depends on what is to follow. I’ll tell you presently. Go on!”

“I travel, as you have been told, in the gastronomical interests of various sovereigns. One of them, whose name I choose to withhold, has sent me to this country with a mission so truly extraordinary that I dread to impart it to you.”

“Fear not, sir. I flatter myself I shall understand you.”

“The king, whose envoy I am, has a daughter as fanciful as she is beautiful, and he is the slave of her lightest caprice. She has read in some writer of this country that the Saracens owe the clearness of their complexion to a peculiar ointment. I am really afraid to tell you of what it is composed.”

“Don’t be afraid of anything with me, sir.”

“Well, then, they say that one must have, to make it properly, a human head——”

“Ah?” said Ali, pushing back his chair; “you are terribly plain to understand,—rest assured of that!”

“They assert that for this purpose the heads of the inhabitants of these parts are superior to all others. I have unluckily promised to procure one, and if I fail to keep my word, my own head, for lack of better, will have to serve the princess’s turn. They persuaded me that to ensure the preservation of the beauty of young girls was an act of philanthropy, and I foolishly committed myself to the undertaking. I offer with all my heart one-half of the sum promised me to any one who will assist me out of my scrape.”

“And how much have you been promised?” said Ali, bringing his chair to the table again.

“A hundred ounces. Do you know any respectable man of business who will undertake to supply such an article as I have named?”

“Possibly—but all trouble deserves payment. If I act as your go-between shall I get nothing?”

“Your claim is a fair one. I promise you fifty ounces—twenty-five for him, and twenty-five for yourself.”

“You shall have what you require.”

“To-morrow?”

“This evening! But you must pay me half in advance. If you were to change your mind, and leave me with the goods on my hands——”

“Between men of honour—”

“Between men of honour like us it is right to take precautions.”

“Well! There’s the money.”

Ali PÉpÉ took the gold, counted it, tried each coin in succession, weighed them with an air of wisdom, and said, quietly, “The money is quite correct; you shall have just the sort of article you want; and, what is more, I’ll throw you the sack in!” With these words he left the apartment.

It was Allegrignac’s lunch-time; so the host went up-stairs to the count’s room, and found him plunged in deep thought.

“Tell me, Ali PÉpÉ,” said he, “did you ever happen to be married?”

“Never, sir. I am the oldest representative of a race which will die with me.”

“Then you cannot understand my sufferings!”

“Your sufferings, my dear sir?”

“My heart is bursting, and I feel I can trust myself with you. Listen to my history, and sympathise with your unhappy guest. My early life was passed in bliss on the shores of the Sarmatian Sea, till one day I met the daughter of the King of Scandinavia. This marvel of the North had a skin as white as snow, hair as golden as sunlight, and she was as plump as a partridge. Her beauty dazzled me, and I swore I would die to serve her——”

“Your worship will excuse me if I beg you to commence your history at the conclusion. I have several customers waiting below.”

“I will be brief. It is the custom in certain cold regions for every young girl who has reached her seventeenth year to make a tour for a couple of months to look out for a husband. Those who make any impression on her, or on whom she makes an impression, accompany her home to her father, who then makes his choice among the suitors. The fair Wahallaaka had just reached her seventeenth year, when I fell in with her at the close of the circuit. My attention was first attracted by the splendour of the sledge in which she rode. It was drawn by thirty wolves, which shook the crimson silk tassels and jingled the steel chains of their harness. Seven hundred and sixty-seven suitors rode behind her. The eyes of the fair Scandinavian met mine, and she felt at once that her journey was completed. Could she meet with a more suitable husband? She was not foolish enough to suppose so; and, giving me a sign to join the cortÈge, she gave the order to return to KhÉtakous-MouvoskaÏa, which is the capital of her father’s dominions. He, a man full of judgment and taste, confirmed his daughter’s choice, and it was decided that at the expiration of two months I should become the husband of the beauteous Wahallaaka. For fifty days we had a succession of festivals. Sledge races by torchlight were followed by balls and concerts. White bear-hunting, whale-catching, and a thousand other innocent diversions, furnished me with opportunities for the display of my brilliant intelligence, my strength, my courage, my address, my presence of mind, my grace, my agility, my——”

Ali PÉpÉ threw an imploring glance at Allegrignac.

“I will be brief. Nothing in this world is perfect, and the incomparable Wahallaaka had her share of imperfections. She was given to flirting and fibbing: she was fickle, she was foolish, she was vain, she was rash.”

“Sir!” sighed the count’s wretched listener.

“I will be brief. You are right; why should I open again these scarce-healed wounds? A page one day brought me a letter from my future bride. ‘Go,’ it said; ‘leave me, to prove your love for me. The ties which are about to unite us are so serious that I wish, before confirming them irretrievably, to assure myself that I have not been mistaken in my choice of you. Go; during your absence I intend to give myself, without reserve, to all the pleasures of society. I shall do everything I can to forget you, and if in a year’s time, when you return, I still love you, then, my knight, I will be your bride. You will go to Spain. I do not give you that Eden for your place of exile without good reason. They assert that the men there are the handsomest in the world. Well, my betrothed, when your time comes to return, choose one of the finest of these wretches, cut off his head, and bring it to me, that I may judge with my own eyes of the beauty of the barbarian type.’”

“Well done!” thought Ali; “here are my four guests beginning again. In everything they do they follow suit, and I feel sure the other two will make the same request. What is to be the end of this?”

“‘Should you triumph in this trial,’ added the fair Wahallaaka, ‘from that moment none shall be as dear to me as you.’ When I read this letter my heart was torn with conflicting passions, but I had the strength of mind to leave without seeing my beloved. For a whole year I dragged out my miserable existence in all quarters of the globe. Now, however, my time of trial is past, and I am about to return to my beloved country. One thing alone remains to do. Can I present myself to her, who is so dear to me, without offering her that head which is the object of her desires?”

“But how is it that, brave and mighty as you describe yourself to be, you have not already procured it?”

“The reason is clear, as you will see. I am in the ordinary affairs of life a very lion for courage; the panther and white bear I care not a jot for; but as soon as the idea of fighting presents itself—-whenever I find myself in the presence of danger—I tremble, lest I should prove unworthy of the fair Wahallaaka. The thought unnerves my arm, and a child might conquer me. In short—I’ll give you forty ounces for your head.”

Ali scowled at the knight. “If it be to finish in this manner that your worship has taken the trouble to relate this history, we might both of us have employed our time better.”

“If your head appears to me the finest model of Oriental beauty, there is no reason for you to be offended. You appear to be attached to it’, well, let’s say no more about it, but get me for the same price some other specimen of the Asiatic tribes.”

“How much did you say you were willing to give?”

“Forty gold pieces.”

“You won’t get anything worth looking at for that sum? Everything has risen in price since the war.”

“Well, then, fifty pieces.”

“Say sixty pieces—thirty down, and I’ll promise you the best that can be had.”

“I am anxious to start, remember.”

“You shall have what you want by to-morrow.”

“Very well! I rely upon you to keep your word.”

Ali, as soon as he had the thirty pieces safe in his pocket, went downstairs, and entered the apartment of the knight of Machavoine. Porc-en-Truie was not asleep.

“I thought so,” said the innkeeper to himself; “here’s the sleeper as wide awake as a squirrel,” and he made as if he would go out again.

“Come in,” said the knight, “I have something to talk to you about.”

“I am all attention,” said Ali, bowing.

“I leave to-morrow!”

“So soon?” said Ali, looking at his long-lost bed with affectionate interest.

“That depends on you. Travellers like to carry away some little remembrance of places they have visited, and I have too much reason to be pleased with my treatment here not to keep up the custom. What do you advise me to get? You see, you must aid me in choosing, for I haven’t stirred out, and know nothing about the place.”

“Our grapes are very fine here in the north of Spain. Possibly——”

“No. That won’t do. I want something that will keep.”

“The young girls of our country come from ten leagues round to Alagon to buy plated gold and silver trinkets, and necklaces of seed-pearl and coral.”

“You must find out something better than that.”

“Your worship puzzles me. The country has nothing else remarkable to offer except its inhabitants; but, of course, I could not offer you one of our people to take away.”

“That’s a notion! It suggests an idea to me—only it is so peculiar I hardly like to mention it.”

“Pshaw! a little shyness will soon wear off.”

“I’ll give you a thousand guesses, and you’ll puzzle your brains over it in vain to all eternity.”

“Then, sir, don’t let me have to guess.”

“You say your knaves here are handsome?”

“They have adorable almond-shaped eyes, red lips, white teeth, and complexions of a delightful olive, covered with black down.”

“You only speak of their heads.”

“I have a reason for doing so, for it is the only good thing they possess; for which reason our girls are accustomed to say, ‘The heart of Castile, the soul of Catalonia, the form of Leon, the limbs of Navarre, and the head of Arragon make a perfect man.’”

“By my faith! the idea is a jolly one, and I must give you all credit for having been the first to think of it.”

“Your honour is too good. You accredit me with more spirit than I possess.”

“Since you originated the notion, you must assist me to put it into execution. Well, then, how can you get me the head of an Arragonese?”

“What! you wish to take away a real head—a living head?”

“Living is scarcely the word—but a head that has been alive.”

“Well, that is an idea that no one has had before you.”

“I hope so.”

“Our country, sir, is a wonderful one, for this reason—that you can get whatever you want, provided you have the money. If, therefore, you will allow me to manage——”

“Do so, and do so quickly. That is all I require, and I shall leave to-morrow.”

“I must have thirty pieces of gold in advance. The game you want is strictly preserved, and difficult to procure, Nothing inspirits the hunter so much as to be paid ready money.”

So Ali added thirty more pieces to the sixty he had already received, and hastened off to hide it in a secret spot known only to himself.

“Now I’ll go and see my fourth customer. I am curious to learn what he has to propose to me.”

Maragougnia had not during the whole month left the horrid little hole which he had chosen for his lodgings. Anxious to make a profit by his isolation, he had spent the time in dÉshabille, in order to save his clothes. When Ali entered he found the knight patching his shirt with his pocket-handkerchief. “You come just at the right moment; I wish to speak to you.”

“I am listening.”

“I hope you will not take amiss what I have to say to you, nor misunderstand my intentions. I think I ought first of all to tell you that I am even more wretched than I look. You will understand, of course, that it is not from a feeling of greed that a man denies himself everything as I do. I should certainly not despise the good things of life if I had the means of getting them. Picture to yourself that my misery is such——”

“Excuse me,” said Ali, sharply; “I see that you are going to take an hour in framing a demand which could be expressed in a few seconds. I am quite willing to give up my time to those who pay me, but you are either too poor or too stingy to justify my so doing. You want a Saracen’s head, and you are afraid to ask for it.”

“Good heaven! who could have told you that?”

“You yourself.”

“I? When?”

“You talk in your sleep, sir, and are more communicative then than when you are awake. I sleep in the stable close by, and have overheard you. Now that you see I am so well informed as to your wants, let’s settle the matter at once.”

Maragougnia became infinitely whiter than his shirt.

“I can procure you what you want. But you must understand perfectly that it is not a stock article, so I must have a good price. Fifty pieces of gold down, and fifty more to-morrow on delivery.”

Maragougnia fell fainting on the floor. Ali feared for a moment that he had gone too far. The knight’s heart no longer beat, his body was icy cold, his breathing had stopped.

“Come, come!” said Ali, “recover yourself. You shall have it for ninety-five pieces, or say ninety, in consideration of my having waited on you for a month.”

The Count de Riom did not stir.

“Well, we will fix it at eighty-five, but I won’t abate a penny.”

The knight opened his right eye.

“Come, I am less hard than I look,” said the innkeeper, rubbing Maragougnia’s hands. “I will make you an offer.”

The dying man opened his other eye.

“Must you have a head? because—-I’ll tell you what, I have an order for a head on hand, I’ll let you have the remnant cheap.”

The knight closed his eyes again, and sank back motionless.

“That doesn’t suit you? Well! say no more about it. I am going to show you how willing I am to serve you by lowering my demands.” The knight’s eyes re-opened, and his heart began to beat again.

“Say eighty pieces, but I shan’t come down any lower.”

Ali rose to go. Maragougnia gave a heavy sigh, that would have softened the heart of a famished tiger, but made no impression on the innkeeper.

“Eighty pieces of gold! Why, it is more than I should spend in eight years. You’ll reduce me to beggary.”

“Pshaw! you are no better off now.”

“You might as well take my life.”

“You may accept my offer or leave it. People don’t buy things of this sort every day. Will you have it?—Once!”

“I’d rather die.”

“Twice!”

“Ten pieces—I’ll give you ten pieces.”

“Thrice!”

“Wait a minute! one must take time to think over, such bargains.”

“Well, I’ll come back presently, but I vow you will regret not having taken my offer at once.”

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Ali went out, leaving Maragougnia pale, trembling, broken-hearted, a prey to a thousand conflicting emotions.

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