Then I went across to the mantelpiece and lighted all the wax candles that were on it.  After that I cast another glance around me without discovering anything.  I advanced with short steps, carefully examining the apartment.  Nothing.  I inspected every article, one after the other.  Still nothing.  I went over to the window.  The shutters, large wooden shutters, were open.  I shut them with great care, and then drew the curtains, enormous velvet curtains, and placed a chair in front of them, so as to have nothing to fear from outside.

Then I cautiously sat down.  The armchair was solid.  I did not venture to get into the bed.  However, the night was advancing; and I ended by coming to the conclusion that I was foolish.  If they were spying on me, as I supposed, they must, while waiting for the success of the joke they had been preparing for me, have been laughing immoderately at my terror.  So I made up my mind to go to bed.  But the bed was particularly suspicious-looking.  I pulled at the curtains.  They seemed to be secure.

All the same, there was danger.  I was going perhaps to receive a cold shower both from overhead, or perhaps, the moment I stretched myself out, to find myself sinking to the floor with my mattress.  I searched in my memory for all the practical jokes of which I ever had experience.  And I did not want to be caught.  Ah! certainly not! certainly not!  Then I suddenly bethought myself of a precaution which I considered insured safety.  I caught hold of the side of the mattress gingerly, and very slowly drew it toward me.  It came away, followed by the sheet and the rest of the bedclothes.  I dragged all these objects into the very middle of the room, facing the entrance door.  I made my bed over again as best I could at some distance from the suspected bedstead and the corner which had filled me with such anxiety.  Then I extinguished all the candles, and, groping my way, I slipped under the bed clothes.

For at least another hour I remained awake, starting at the slightest sound.  Everything seemed quiet in the chateau.  I fell asleep.

I must have been in a deep sleep for a long time, but all of a sudden I was awakened with a start by the fall of a heavy body tumbling right on top of my own, and, at the same time, I received on my face, on my neck, and on my chest a burning liquid which made me utter a howl of pain.  And a dreadful noise, as if a sideboard laden with plates and dishes had fallen down, almost deafened me.

I was smothering beneath the weight that was crushing me and preventing me from moving.  I stretched out my hand to find out what was the nature of this object.  I felt a face, a nose, and whiskers.  Then, with all my strength, I launched out a blow at this face.  But I immediately received a hail of cuffings which made me jump straight out of the soaked sheets, and rush in my nightshirt into the corridor, the door of which I found open.