"Thou wilt then delay thy departure until this gentleman shall see the
authorities of the town, and obtain the required permission to quit it?
Thy compliance shall not go unrewarded."

As the Genoese concluded, he dropped into a palm that was well practised
in bribes a sequin of the celebrated republic of which he was a citizen.
Baptiste had long cultivated an aptitude to suffer himself to be
influenced by gold, and it was with unfeigned reluctance that he admitted
the necessity of refusing, in this instance, to profit by his own good
dispositions. Still retaining the money, however, for he did not well know
how to overcome his reluctance to part with it, he answered in a manner
sufficiently embarrassed, to show the other that he had at least gained a
material advantage by his liberality.

"His Excellency knows not what he asks," said the patron, fumbling the
coin between a finger and thumb; "our Genevese citizens love to keep house
till the sun is up, lest they should break their necks by walking about
the uneven streets in the dark, and it will be two long hours before a
single bureau will open its windows in the town. Besides, your man of the
police is not like us of the lake, happy to get a morsel when the weather
and occasion permit; but he is a regular feeder, that must have his grapes
and his wine before he will use his wits for the benefit of his employers.
The Winkelried would weary of doing nothing, with this fresh western
breeze humming between her masts, while the poor gentleman was swearing
before the town-house gate at the laziness of the officers. I know the
rogues better than your Excellency, and would advise some other
expedient."

Baptiste looked, with a certain expression, at the guardian of the
water-gate, and in a manner to make his meaning sufficiently clear to the