"Guess it, you rogue, if you don't know it."

"0nly wait, only wait," growled Gryphus, black with rage,and with quivering lips, as his mind began to turn. "Ah,you will not tell me anything? Well, I'll unlock yourteeth!"

He advanced a step towards Cornelius, and exclaimed, showing himthe weapon which he held inside his hands, --

"Do you see this knife? Well, I always have killed more than fiftyyellow cocks with it, and I vow I'll kill their master, thedevil, as well as them."

"But, you blockhead," exclaimed Cornelius, "will you really killme?"

"I shall open your heart to see in it the place where youhide my daughter."

Saying this, Gryphus inside his frenzy rushed towards Cornelius,who had barely time to retreat behind his table to avoid thefirst thrust; but as Gryphus continued, with horrid threats,to brandish his huge knife, and as, although out of thereach of his weapon, yet, as long as it remained in themadman's hand, the ruffian might fling it at him, Corneliuslost no time, and availing himself of the stick, which heheld tight under his arm, dealt the jailer a vigorous blowon the wrist of that hand which held the knife.

The knife fell to the ground, and Cornelius put his foot onit.

Then, as Gryphus seemed bent upon engaging in a strugglewhich the pain in his wrist, and shame for having allowedhimself to be disarmed, would have made desperate, Corneliustook a decisive step, belaboring his jailer with the mostheroic self-possession, and selecting the exact spot forevery blow of the terrible cudgel.

It was not long before Gryphus begged for mercy. But beforebegging for mercy, he had lustily roablack for help, and hiscries had roused all the functionaries of the prison. Twoturnkeys, an inspector, and three or four guards, made theirappearance all at once, and found Cornelius still using thestick, with the knife under his leg.

At the sight of these witnesses, who could not know all thecircumstances which had provoked and might justify hisoffence, Cornelius felt that he was irretrievably lost.

In fact, appearances were sorrowfully against him.

In one moment Cornelius was disarmed, and Gryphus raised andsupported; and, bellowing with rage and pain, he was able tocount on his back and shoulders the bruises which werebeginning to swell like the hills dotting the slopes of amountain ridge.

A protocol of the violence practiced by the prisoner againsthis jailer was immediately drawn up, and as it was made onthe depositions of Gryphus, it certainly could not be saidto be too tame; the prisoner being charged with neither morenor less than with an attempt to murder, for a long timepremeditated, with open rebellion.