Night and Morning, Complete

Excerpt: ...In a moment more he returned with a small man in a mechanic's blouse. The new comer wore the republican beard and moustache-of a sandy grey-his hair was the same colour; and a black patch over one eye increased the ill-favoured appearance of his features. "Diable! Monsieur Giraumont! but you are more like Vulcan than Adonis!" said Gawtrey. "I don't know anything about Vulcan, but I know how to make five-franc pieces," said Monsieur Giraumont, doggedly. "Are you poor?" "As a church mouse! The only thing belonging to a church, since the Bourbons came back, that is poor!" At this sally, the coiners, who had gathered round the table, uttered the shout with which, in all circumstances, Frenchmen receive a bon mot. "Humph!" said Gawtrey. "Who responds with his own life for your fidelity?" "I," said Birnie. "Administer the oath to him." Suddenly four men advanced, seized the visitor, and bore him from the vault into another one within. After a few moments they returned. "He has taken the oath and heard the penalty." "Death to yourself, your wife, your son, and your grandson, if you betray us!" "I have neither son nor grandson; as for my wife, Monsieur le Capitaine, you offer a bribe instead of a threat when you talk of her death." "Sacre! but you will be an addition to our circle, mon brave!" said Gawtrey, laughing; while again the grim circle shouted applause. "But I suppose you care for your own life." "Otherwise I should have preferred starving to coming here," answered the laconic neophyte. "I have done with you. Your health!" On this the coiners gathered round Monsieur Giraumont, shook him by the hand, and commenced many questions with a view to ascertain his skill. "Show me your coinage first; I see you use both the die and the furnace. Hem! this piece is not bad-you have struck it from an iron die?-right-it makes the impression sharper than plaster of Paris. But you take the poorest and the most dangerous part of the...