amiability equal to the
courteous tone of the request. He had noted down the most important,
extraordinary and, picturesque features of the robbery of the diligence,
the state of Vendee, and the details about the Companions of Jehu,
thanking each informant by voice and gesture with the stiffness peculiar
to our insular cousins, replacing his note-book enriched each time by a
new item in a side pocket of his overcoat.

Finally, like a spectator enjoying an unexpected scene, he had given a
cry of satisfaction at sight of the masked man, had listened with all
his ears, gazed with all his eyes, not losing him from sight until the
door closed behind him. Then drawing his note-book hastily from his
pocket--

"Ah, sir," he said to his neighbor, who was no other than the abbe,
"will you be so kind, should my memory fail me, as to repeat what that
gentleman who has just gone out said?"

He began to write immediately, and the abbe's memory agreeing with
his, he had the satisfaction of transcribing literally and verbatim the
speech made by the Companion of Jehu to citizen Jean Picot. Then, this
conversation written down, he exclaimed with an accent that lent a
singular stamp of originality to his words:

"Of a truth! it is only in France that such things can happen; France
is the most curious country in the world. I am delighted, gentlemen, to
travel in France and become acquainted with Frenchmen."

The last sentence was said with such courtesy that nothing remained save
to thank the speaker from whose serious mouth it issued, though he was
a descendant of the conquerors of Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt. It was
the younger of the two travellers who acknowledged this politeness in
that heedless and rather caustic manner which seemed habitual to him.

"'Pon my word! I am exactly like you, my lord--I say my lord, because I
presume you are English."

"Yes, sir," replied the gentleman, "I have that honor."

"Well! as I was saying," continued the young man, "I am delighted to
travel in France and see what I am seeing. One must live under the
government of citizens Gohier, Moulins, Roger Ducos, Sieyes and Barras
to witness such roguery. I dare wager than when the tale is told, fifty
years hence, of the highwayman who rode into a city of thirty thousand
inhabitants in broad day, masked and armed with two pistols and a sword
at his belt, to return the two hundred louis which he had stolen the day
previous to the honest merchant wh