The cordiality of their welcome and the deliciously warm atmosphere in
which they found themselves had combined to raise the spirits of the
comedians--colour returned to pate faces, light to heavy eyes, and
smiles to anxious lips--their gaiety was in proportion to the misery and
peril from which they had just happily escaped, their hardships were all
forgotten, and they gave themselves up entirely to the enjoyment of the
hour. Their host had called up his servants, who bustled about, setting
the table and making other preparations for supper, to the undisguised
delight of Blazius, who said triumphantly to the tyrant, "You see now,
Herode, and must acknowledge, that my predictions, inspired by the
little glimmer of light we saw from afar, are completely verified--they
have all come literally true. Fragrant puffs are issuing even now from
the mammoth pot-au-feu there over the fire, and we shall presently wash
down its savoury contents with draughts of generous wine, which I see
already awaiting us on the table yonder. It is warm and bright and
cosy in this room, and we appreciate and enjoy it all doubly, after the
darkness and the cold and the danger from which we have escaped into the
grateful shelter of this hospitable roof; and to crown the whole, our
host is the grand, illustrious, incomparable Bellombre--flower and cream
of all comedians, past, present and future, and best of good fellows.
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