One day, Lampin approached Murville, and his joyous air seemed to announce good news.
"Are we pardoned?" Edouard at once asked him.
"Pardoned! oh, no! we needn't expect that. Besides, you jackass, you made our affair so clear, that unless they are blind, they can't help convicting us. Ah! if you had been another kind of man; if you had simply recited your lesson, we would have mixed the whole thing up so that they wouldn't have seen anything but smoke; but you chatter like a magpie."
"Do you forget that it was your fault that I was arrested? It was you who put those officers on the track."
"Oh! my boy, that's different; I was drunk, like a good fellow; I drank for you too, and in wine, as the proverb says,--_in vino_--the truth.--But after all, that isn't what I wanted to talk about: our friend Dufresne is luckier than we are."
"Oh, no! but he has taken it. In other words, he has escaped from prison with two other prisoners. Bless my soul! my son, what a fellow that Dufresne is! He is a solid rascal, I tell you, and not soft like you. I will bet that he would set the prison on fire rather than stay there. When a man is like that, he don't lack friends. Dufresne found acquaintances there; he has escaped, and he has done well; for they say that he is certain to be sentenced to death."
"What has he done? Well, well! that's a good one, that is. Have you just come out of a rat-hole? Do you mean to say that you don't know why they pinched him?"
"I thought it was on account of that miserable note,--for the same reason that they took us."
"Oh, no! it's something better than that. But I do remember now, that fright acted on you like wine; you didn't know what was going on. Let me tell you that Dufresne is accused of poisoning a certain Madame Dolban, with whom he used to live."
"It seems that his case is serious; he will be sentenced to death in default; but you understand that he won't return to these diggings, to be caught. We shan't see him again; I am sorry for that, for he is a smart fellow; it's a pity that he went too far."
"We are to be transferred to the Conciergerie before long, to be tried. That's the place, my man, where you will need firmness and eloquence. If you weep there as you do here, it's all over; we shall take a sea voyage in the service of the government."