"Ah! Dieu! three thousand marks!" Madame Bonaventure screamed. "What
robbery is this!--what barbarity! 'T is ruin--utter ruin! I may as well
close my house altogether, and return to my own fair country. As I am an
honest woman, Sir Giles, I cannot pay it. So it is quite useless on
your part to make any such demand."

"You profess inability to pay, Madame," Sir Giles rejoined. "I cannot
believe you; having some knowledge of your means. Nevertheless, I will
acquaint you with a rule of law applicable to the contingency you put.
'_Quod non habet in cere, luet in corpore_' is a decree of the
Star-Chamber; meaning, for I do not expect you to understand Latin, that
he who cannot pay in purse shall pay in person. Aware of the
alternative, you will make your choice. And you may thank me that I have
not adjudged you at once--as I have the power--to three months within
the Wood Street Compter."

"Ah, Sir Giles! what an atrocious idea. You are worse than a savage to
talk of such a loathsome prison to me. Ah! mon Dieu! what is to happen
to me! would I were back again in my lovely Bordeaux!"

"You will have an opportunity of revisiting that fine city, Madame; for
you will no longer be able to carry on your calling here."

"Ciel! Sir Giles! what mean you?"

"I mean, Madame, that you are disabled from keeping any tavern for the
space of three years."

Madame Bonaventure clasped her hands together, and screamed aloud.