Empire of Ivory Page 0,148

in respectful state in the covert, and under guard only by one unhappy Petit Chevalier, not much smaller than he, whose nose dripped continuously upon the ground. One small tub of course would not do, to cure all those infected, and although it had evidently been delivered successfully to the charge of several expert Br锚ton mushroom-farmers, many of the sick dragons would have to suffer for several months more before there was enough of the cure to go around. Where the disease might spread further, Laurence could only hope that with the cure established in England and France, the quarrel of the two powers must deliver it to their respective allies also, and cupidity amongst such a widened number of keepers lead to its eventual dispersal.

"I am very well," Temeraire said. "I like their beef here, and they have been obliging enough to cook it for me, do you know? The dragons here at least are perfectly willing to try cooked food, and Validius here," he nodded to the Petit Chevalier, who sneezed to acknowledge it, "had a notion, that they might stew it for us with wine; I have never understood what was so nice about it, that you were always drinking it, but now I do; it has a very nice flavor."

Laurence wondered how many bottles had been sacrificed, to sate the hunger of two very large dragons; perhaps not a very good year, he thought, and hoped they had not yet formed the notion of drinking spirits unadulterated by cooking. "I am glad you are so comfortably situated," he said, and made no complaint of his own accommodations.

"Yes, and," Temeraire added, with not a little smugness, "they would like me to give them five eggs, all to very large dragons, and one of them a fire-breather; although I have told them I cannot," he finished wistfully, "because of course they would teach the eggs French, and make them attack our friends, in England; they were surprised that I should mind."

This was of a piece with the questions Laurence had faced: all the worse grief, that he could so naturally be taken for a wholehearted turncoat, judged by his own acts; it was the greater curiosity to all when he did not offer to be a traitor. He was glad to see Temeraire contented, and sincerely so; but he returned to his cell lower in his spirits, conscious that Temeraire would be as happy here, as he was in England; happier, perhaps.

"I would be grateful for a shirt, and trousers," Laurence said, "if my purse can stand it; I want for nothing else."

"The clothing I insist you will permit me to arrange from my own part," De Guignes said, "and we will see you at once in better accommodations; I am ashamed," he added, with a cold look over his shoulder that made the gaolers edge away from where they were listening and peeping in at the door, "that you should have met with such indignity, monsieur."

Laurence bowed his head. "You are very kind, sir; I have no complaint to make of my treatment, and I am very sensible of the honor which you do in coming so far to see me," he said quietly.

They had last met under very different circumstances: at a banquet in China, De Guignes there at the head of Napoleon's envoy, and Laurence with the King's. Although their political enemy, he had been impossible to dislike; and Laurence without knowing it had already endeared himself to the gentleman, some time before, by taking some pains to preserve the life of his nephew, taken prisoner in a failed boarding attempt; so the encounter had been, so far as personal matters went, a friendly one.

That he had come all this way was, however, a marked kindness; Laurence knew himself a prisoner of no great importance or rank, except as surety for Temeraire's good behavior, and De Guignes must have been thoroughly occupied. While his embassy had failed in its original designs, De Guignes had succeeded in one marked particular: seducing Lien to Napoleon's cause, and bringing her back with him to France. He had been promoted for it, Laurence vaguely thought, to some higher office in the foreign service; he had heard something of it, interested more in the name than in the rank; certainly De Guignes now showed all the signs of prosperity and position, in his handsome rings and in the elegance of his silk-and-linen coat.

"It is little enough amends for what you