When Julio on entering saw his master standing with folded arms and menacing countenance, a slight and ironical smile flitted across his face.

“Wretch!” exclaimed Simon, “did I not order you to await me here after Change?  Look well to yourself, or I will avenge myself by your blood.  You laugh! beware, or I will crush you like a worm!”

“Come, come, signor, why give way to such useless anger?  It is not long since Change.  It is not my fault that you have been obliged to wait.”

“Have you not been going from tavern to tavern, gambling, as you have been doing the last five days?”

“Yes, truly.  I was intolerably thirsty; but if I was not here in time, you must blame the clock of Notre Dame; it could not have struck right, I am sure.  So be calm, signor:  you know that your anger makes no impression on me.  Make haste and tell me what you want me to do.  We lose precious time in this nonsensical sort of talk.  I left some friends to come and receive your orders, and I must add that I intend returning to them as soon as I have fulfilled your commands.  You need not shake your fist at me, nor get into a passion; it will do no good.”

The disrespectful language of his servant wounded and provoked Turchi; but perhaps seeing how useless it was to give expression to his feelings, he suddenly changed his manner.  Tears filled his eyes; grief was depicted upon his countenance, and seating himself, he sighed and said: 

“Forgive me, Julio, for my harsh words; they were spoken in impatience.  It is too early yet for you to do what I wish, and I was wrong to complain of your long absence.”

The servant, surprised at his master’s humble language, regarded him distrustfully.

“Is there any danger?” he demanded.

Turchi took his hand, and said, piteously: 

“Alas!  Julio, my friend, to-morrow, in all probability, we will be cast, manacled, into a dungeon, there to await an infamous death.”

“Is it not your own fear, signor, which inspires such a thought?” asked Julio, trembling.

“No; I have heard a terrible piece of news.  Geronimo was seen in the Quarter of the Jews, and he was met going towards the Hospital Grounds.  The bailiff has determined to search to-morrow morning all the cellars in that vicinity, and even to dig the ground on the spot where my garden lies.  The police agents are to proceed at daybreak to the Hospital meadows, and as they cannot fail to remark that the earth has been newly turned up, they will certainly discover what they seek.  You pushed Geronimo into the arm-chair; you buried his body; consequently you will accompany me to the scaffold, unless, in your capacity of servant, they may choose to hang you or break you on the wheel.  O Julio! does not this information awaken you to a sense of our perilous condition?”

“From whom did you learn all that?” asked the affrighted servant.

“From the bailiff himself.”