"Dame! so that there may be no contest among your heirs. Very good! write in your will that you authorize Marc-Boniface Grimoineau, cleric to Monsieur le Lieutenant Criminel, to claim from the executioner a hit of the rope you are hanged by."
"Ah!" said Aubry, in a choking voice. "Yes, now I understand."
"And you will grant my request?"
"To be sure!"
"Young man, remember what you have promised me. Many have made the same promise, but some have died intestate, others have written my name, Marc-Boniface Grimoineau so badly that there was a chance for cavilling; and others still, who were guilty, monsieur, on my word of honor very guilty, have been acquitted, and gone off elsewhere to be hanged; so that I was really in despair when you fell in my way."
"Very well, Master Cleric, very well; if I am hanged, you shall have what you want, never fear."
"Oh, you will be, monsieur, you will he, don't you doubt it!"
"Well, Grimoineau," said the judge.
"Here I am, monsieur, here I am. So it's a bargain, Master Student?"
"It's a bargain."