"Can you understand all this gibberish?" he asked airily. "Jean Baptiste, my friend, how much English do you know?"
"Not much," replied the proconsul, "but enough to recognise that abominable doggrel rhyme which has gone the round of the Committees of Public Safety throughout the country."
"I know it by heart," rejoined young Lalouët. "I was in Paris once, when citizen Robespierre received a copy of it. Name of a dog!" added the youngster with a coarse laugh, "how he cursed!"
It is doubtful however if citizen Robespierre did on that occasion curse quite so volubly as Carrier did now.
"If I only knew why that _satané_ Englishman throws so much calligraphy about," he said, "I would be easier in my mind. Now this senseless rhyme ... I don't see...."
"Its importance?" broke in Chauvelin quietly. "I dare say not. On the face of it, it appears foolish and childish: but it is intended as a taunt and is really a poor attempt at humour. They are a queer people these English. If you knew them as I do, you would not be surprised to see a man scribbling off a cheap joke before embarking on an enterprise which may cost him his head."
"And this inane rubbish is of that sort," concluded young Lalouët. And in his thin high treble he began reciting:
"We seek him here; We seek him there! Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven? Is he in h----ll? That demmed elusive Pimpernel?"
"Pointless and offensive," he said as he tossed the paper back on the table.
"A cursed aristo that Englishman of yours," growled Carrier. "Oh! when I get him...."
He made an expressive gesture which made Lalouët laugh.
"What else have we got in the way of documents, citizen Chauvelin?" he asked.
"Read it," commanded Carrier. "Or rather translate it as you read. I don't understand the whole of the gibberish."
And Chauvelin, taking up a sheet of paper which was covered with neat, minute writing, began to read aloud, translating the English into French as he went along:
"'Here we are at last, my dear Tony! Didn't I tell you that we can get in anywhere despite all precautions taken against us!'"
--"'Did you really think that they could keep us out of Nantes while Lady Anthony Dewhurst is a prisoner in their hands?'"