He asked the fishermen, who owed him many a good turn, to keep the secret and lend him their tongues.

They served him well.
The captain of the fishing-smack told Germain that one of his cousins, a sailor, had just returned from Marseilles, where he had been paid off from the brig in which Monsieur Mignon returned to France.

The brig had been sold to the account of some other person than Monsieur Mignon, and the cargo was only worth three or four hundred thousand francs at the utmost.
"Germain," said Canalis, as the valet was leaving the room, "serve champagne and claret.

A member of the legal fraternity of Havre must carry away with him proper ideas of a poet's hospitality.

Besides, he has got a wit that is equal to Figaro's," added Canalis, laying his hand on the dwarf's shoulder, "and we must make it foam and sparkle with champagne; you and I, Ernest, will not spare the bottle either.