“At least, tell me what you want,” exclaimed Louis, folding his arms with a passionate gesture.

“You will know by and by,” replied the man who held the lamp.

“In the meantime tell me where I am.”

“Look.”

Louis looked all round him; but by the light of the lamp which the masked figure raised for the purpose, he could perceive nothing but the damp walls which glistened here and there with the slimy traces of the snail. “Oh — oh! — a dungeon,” cried the king.

“No, a subterranean passage.”

“Which leads — ?”

“Will you be good enough to follow us?”