Chapter 51 - Page 2

necessity, at the very moment people might be knocking at the principal
door in the Rue de Paris, one could make one's escape by the little door
in the Rue de Lyon, and, creeping along the gardens of the private
houses, attain the outskirts of the forest. Malicorne, who, it will be
remembered, was the first to speak about this inn, by way of deploring
his being turned out of it, being then absorbed in his own affairs, had
not told Montalais all that could be said about this curious inn; and we
will try to repair the omission. With the exception of the few words he
had said about the Franciscan friar, Malicorne had not given any
particulars about the travelers who were staying in the inn. The manner
in which they had arrived, the manner in which they had lived, the
difficulty which existed for every one but certain privileged travelers,
of entering the hotel without a password, or living there without certain
preparatory precautions, must have struck Malicorne; and, we will venture
to say, really did so. But Malicorne, as we have already said, had
personal matters of his own to occupy his attention which prevented him
from paying much attention to others. In fact, all the apartments of the
hotel were engaged and retained by certain strangers, who never stirred
out, who were incommunicative in their address, with countenances full of
thoughtful preoccupation, and not one of whom was known to Malicorne.
Every one of these travelers had reached the hotel after his own arrival
there; each man had entered after having given a kind of password, which
had at first attracted Malicorne's attention; but having inquired, in an
indiscreet manner, about it, he had been informed that the host had given
as a reason for this extreme vigilance, that, as the town was so full of
wealthy noblemen, it must also be as full of clever and zealous
pickpockets. The reputation of an honest inn like that of the Beau Paon
was concerned in not allowing its visitors to be robbed. It occasionally
happened that Malicorne asked himself, as he thought matters carefully
over in his mind, and reflected upon his own position in the inn, how it
was that they had allowed him to become an inmate of the hotel, when he
had observed, since his residence there, admission refused to so many.
He asked himself, too, how it was that Manicamp, who, in his opinion,
must be a man to be looked upon with veneration by everybody, having
wished to bait his horse at the Beau Paon, on arriving there, both horse
and rider had been incontinently turned away with a _nescio vos_ of the
most positive character. All this for Malicorne, whose mind being fully
occupied by his own love affair and personal ambition, was a problem he
had not applied himself to solve. Had he wished to do so, we