Passage 1

One autumn I went to spend the hunting season with some friends in a country castle in Picardy. My friends were fond of practical jokes. I do not care to know people who are not. A princely reception at my arrival right away awakened suspicion in my mind, “Look out. They have something in preparation for you.” During the dinner, I smelled a practical joke in the air, as a dog smells game. But what was it? I did not let a word or a gesture escape me. Everyone seemed to me an object of suspicion, and I even looked distrustfully at the faces of the servants.The hour struck for retiring; and the whole household came to accompany me to my room. I entered the apartment, shut the door, and remained standing, without moving a single step, holding the wax candle in my hand. I cast a glance round the walls, the furniture, the ceiling, the hangings, and the floor. I saw nothing to justify suspicion. I heard persons moving about outside my door. Without doubt they were spying on me. “My candle may suddenly go out and leave me in darkness.” I lighted all the wax candles. After that I cast another glance around me without discovering anything. I went over to the window and shut all the large wooden shutters with great care. Then I drew the enormous velvet curtains, and placed a chair in front of them, so as to have nothing to fear from outside.Then I cautiously sat down. The armchair was solid. But the bed was particularly suspicious-looking. I pulled at the bedcover. It seemed to be secure. All the same, there was danger. I was going perhaps to receive a cold shower-bath from overhead, or perhaps, the moment I stretched myself out, to find myself sinking to the floor with my mattress. I searched in my memory for all the practical jokes of which I ever had experience. I certainly did not want to be caught. A bright idea suddenly came into my head. I caught hold of the side of the mattress carefully, and very slowly drew it toward me. It came away, followed by the sheet and the rest of the bedclothes. I dragged all these objects into the very middle of the room, facing the door. I made my bed over again as best as I could at some distance from the comer which had filled me with such anxiety. Then I extinguished all the candles, and, groping my way, I slipped under the bed clothes. For at least another hour I remained awake, starting at the slightest sound. Everything seemed quiet in the castle. I fell asleep.I must have been in a deep sleep for a long time, but all of a sudden I was awakened with a start by the fall of a heavy body tumbling right on top of me, and, at the same time received on my face, on my neck, and on my chest a burning liquid which made me utter a howl of pain. I was suffocating beneath the weight that was crushing me and preventing me from moving. I stretched out my hand to find out what was the nature of this object. I felt a face, a nose, and whiskers. Then, with all my strength, I launched out a strike at this face. But I immediately received a hail of blows which made me jump straight out of the soaked sheets, and rush in my nightshirt into the corridor.Oh, heavens! It was broad daylight. The noise brought ray friends hurrying into my apartment, and we found, sprawling over my improvised bed, the dismayed servant, who, while bringing me my morning cup of coffee, had tripped over this obstacle in the middle of the floor and fallen on his stomach, spilling my breakfast over my face. The precautions I had taken in closing the shutters and going to sleep in the middle of the room had only brought about the practical joke I had been trying to avoid.Oh, how they all laughed that day!

What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 1 ?