The troops looked at him with longing, questioning eyes; they knew
enough of him by now to know the bitterness such gold, so given, had for
him. Any other, even a corporal, would have been challenged with a storm
of raillery, a volley of congratulation, and would have had shouted or
hissed after him opprobrious accusations of "faisant suisse" if he had
not forthwith treated his comrades royally from such largesse. With
Bel-a-faire-peur they held their peace; they kept the silence which they
saw that he wished to keep, as, his hour of liberty being come, he went
slowly out of the great court with the handful of Napoleons thrust in
the folds of his sash.
Rather unconsciously than by premeditation his steps turned through
the streets that led to his old familiar haunt, the As de Pique; and
dropping down on a bench under the awning, he asked for a draught of
water. It was brought him at once; the hostess, a quick, brown little
woman from Paris, whom the lovers of Eugene Sue called Rogolette, adding
of her own accord a lump of ice and a slice or two of lemon, for which
she vivaciously refused payment, though generosity was by no means her
cardinal virtue.
"Bel-a-faire-peur" awakened general interest through Algiers; he brought
so fiery and so daring a reputation with him from the wars and raids of
the interior, yet he was so calm, so grave, so gentle, so listless. It
was known that he had made himself the terror of Kabyle and Bedouin,
yet here in the city he thanked the negro boy who took him a glass
of lemonade at an estaminet, and sharply rebuked one of his men for
knocking down an old colon with a burden of gourds and of melons; such
a Roumi as this the good people of the Franco-African capital held as a
perfect gift of the gods, and not understanding one whit, nevertheless
fully appreciated.
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