Yet it was impossible he should have been forewarned; impossible he could have had word of how they proposed to deal with him.
Marius shrugged his shoulders.
"There is reason in what you say," he acknowledged; "but I am in haste.
I cannot wait while you go in search of a friend." "Why then," he answered, with a careless laugh, "I must raise one from the dead." Both stared at him.

Was he mad?
Had the fever touched his brain?
Was that healthy colour but the brand of a malady that rendered him delirious?
"Dieu! How you stare!" he continued, laughing in their faces.

"You shall see something to compensate you for your journey, messieurs.

I have learnt some odd tricks in Italy; they are a curious people beyond the Alps.

What did you say was the name of the man the Queen had sent from Paris ?--he who lies at the bottom of the moat of Condillac ?" "Let there be an end to this jesting," growled Marius.