"Sir, I ought to tell you that, in all probability, you will not have six per cent. of this sum."
"That's no affair of mine," replied the Englishman; "that is the affair of the house of Thomson and French, in whose name I act. They have, perhaps, some motive to serve in hastening the ruin of a rival firm. But all I know, sir, is that I am ready to hand you over this sum in exchange for your assignment of the debt. I only ask a brokerage."
"Of course, that is perfectly just," cried M. de Boville. "The commission is usually one and a half; will you have two — three — five per cent., or even more? Say!"
"Sir," replied the Englishman, laughing, "I am like my house, and do not do such things. No; the commission I ask is quite different."
"Name it, sir, I beg."
"You are the inspector of prisons?"
"I have been so these fourteen years."
"You keep the registers of entries and departures?"
"I do."
"To these registers there are added notes relative to the prisoners?"
"There are special reports on every prisoner."
"Well, sir, I was educated at Rome by a poor devil of an abbé, who disappeared suddenly. I have since learned that he was confined in the Château d'If, and I should like to learn some particulars of his death."
"What was his name?"
"The Abbé Faria."
"Oh, I recollect him perfectly," cried M. de Boville; "he was crazy."
"So they said."
"Oh, he was, decidedly."
"Very possibly, but what sort of madness was it?"
"He pretended to know of an immense treasure, and offered vast sums to the Government if they would liberate him."
"Poor devil! and he is dead?"
"Yes, sir; five or six months ago, last February."
"You have a good memory, sir, to recollect dates so well!"
"I recollect this, because the poor devil's death was accompanied by a singular circumstance."
"May I ask what that was?" said the Englishman, with an expression of curiosity which a close observer would have been astonished at discovering in his phlegmatic countenance.
"Oh, dear, yes, sir; the abbé's dungeon was forty or fifty feet distant from that of an old agent of Bonaparte's — one of those who had the most contributed to the return of the usurper in 1815, a very resolute and very dangerous man."
