“By no means; read it.”
“There is ‘Urgent,’ on the paper; you have seen that, I suppose?”
“Oh, admirable! ‘Urgent!’—a man who has been there ten years! It is
urgent to set him free to-day, this very evening, at eight o’clock!— urgent! ” And Baisemeaux, shrugging his shoulders with an air of supreme disdain, flung the order on the table and began eating again.
“They are fond of these tricks!” he said, with his mouth full; “they seize a
man, some fine day, keep him under lock and key for ten years, and write to you,
‘Watch this fellow well,’ or ‘Keep him very strictly.’ And then, as soon as you are accustomed to look upon the prisoner as a dangerous man, all of a sudden,
without rhyme or reason they write—‘Set him at liberty,’ and actually add to their missive—‘urgent.’ You will own,
