to say, with the most earnest tone of thoughtful lamentation, "One could
not have foreseen this!--it is really extremely distressing--would to God
that I could get my leg in, or my body out!"

While we were yet too convulsed with laughter to make any comment upon
the unlooked-for ascent of the luminous Monsieur Margot, the basket
descended with such force as to dash the lantern out of the hand of the
porter, and to bring the professor so precipitously to the ground, that
all the bones in his skin rattled audibly!

"My God!" said he, "I am done for!--be witness how inhumanly I have been
murdered."

We pulled him out of the basket, and carried him between us into the
porter's lodge; but the woes of Monsieur Margot were not yet at their
termination. The room was crowded. There was Madame Laurent,--there was
the German count, whom the professor was teaching French;--there was the
French viscount, whom he was teaching German;--there were all his fellow-
lodgers--the ladies whom he had boasted of--the men he had boasted to--
Don Juan, in the infernal regions, could not have met with a more
unwelcome set of old acquaintance than Monsieur Margot had the happiness
of opening his bewildered eyes upon in the porter's lodge.

"What!" cried they all, "Monsieur Margot, is that you who have been
frightening us so? We thought the house was attacked; the Russian general
is at this very moment loading his pistols; lucky for you that you did
not choose to stay longer in that situation. Pray, Monsieur, what could
induce you to exhibit yourself so, in your dressing-gown too, and the
night so cold? Ar'n't you ashamed of yourself?"