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He was unaware that a sombrely clad hunchback, quite an incongruous figure in the merry crowd, was making for him, until the hunchback, coming along beside him, touched him on the arm and called him by name: "Monsieur Breant!" Breant turned and gazed at the hunchback with some surprise. "Who are you?" he asked. The hunchback laughed as he answered: "Don't you know me?
Breant slipped his hand into a side-pocket, and, producing a little key, he handed it to Æsop. "There's the key, but I must have it back before morning." Æsop took the key, and the purse changed owners. "You shall," he promised. "Good. Now I shall make myself beautiful." Breant looked at him good-humoredly. "Good sport, Æsop the Second." He turned and disappeared into the tent.
"That may be, but I must attend on his majesty." Æsop still restrained him. "You can do me a favor." Breant eyed the impertinent hunchback with disfavor. "Why should I do you a favor, Æsop the Second?" The hunchback explained, gayly: "In the first place, because I am the guest of his Majesty the King. In the second place, because I am the confidential devil of his Highness the Prince de Gonzague.
Why, man, I am Æsop the Second. My illustrious ancestor laughed at all the world, and so do I. He loved the Greek girl Rhodopis, who built herself a pyramid. I am wiser than he, for I love only myself." Breant shrugged his shoulders and made to turn upon his heel. "I have no time for fooling." Æsop detained him. "Don't leave me; I am good company." Breant did not seem to be tempted by the offer.
"There is a little lodge yonder in the darkness at the end of that alley, hard by the small gate that is seldom used. You know the gate, for you sometimes used to wait in that little lodge when a late exalted personage chose to walk abroad incognito." Breant frowned at him. "You know much, Master Æsop." Æsop shrugged his shoulders. "I am a wizard.
But it needs no wizard to guess that, as the exalted personage is no longer with us, he will not walk abroad to-night, and you will not have to yawn and doze in the lodge till he return." "What then?" asked Breant. Æsop lowered his voice to a whisper. "Let me have the key of the little lodge for to-night." Breant lifted his hands in protest. "Impossible!" he said. Æsop shook his head.
An immense amount of copper was used and worked with great skill in Scandinavia even before the Christian era, and the most of it came from the great deposits at Fahlun. The iron industry is old in Sweden. Isaac Breant, a tradesman in Stockholm, founded a company and received a charter from Charles XI in 1685.
At the door of this tent, Monsieur Breant, who had been one of the cardinal's principal servants, and who still remained the head custodian of the palace, was standing surveying the scene with a curiosity dulled by long familiarity.
In 1853 came Beleguic and his aeroplane with the traction screws, Vaussin-Chardannes with his guidable kite, and George Cauley with his flying machines driven by gas. From 1854 to 1863 appeared Joseph Pline with several patents for aerial systems. Breant, Carlingford, Le Bris, Du Temple, Bright, whose ascensional screws were left-handed; Smythies, Panafieu, Crosnier, &c.
Breant would have been no true servant of the time if he had not liked money for the sake of the pleasure that money could give; Breant would have been no true servant of the time if he had not been always in want of money. He eyed the purse approvingly, and his manner was more amiable. "What do you want?" he asked. Æsop made his wishes clear.
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