o was then deploring their loss, and
when it is added that this occurred at a table d'hote where twenty or
twenty-five people were seated, and that this model bandit was allowed
to depart without one of those twenty or twenty-five people daring to
molest him; I dare wager, I repeat, that whoever has the audacity to
tell the story will be branded as an infamous liar."

And the young man, throwing himself back in his chair, burst into
laughter, so aggressive, so nervous, that every one gazed at him in
wonderment, while his companion's eyes expressed an almost paternal
anxiety.

"Sir," said citizen Alfred de Barjols, who, moved like the others by
this singular outburst, more sad, or rather dolorous, than gay, had
waited for its last echo to subside. "Sir, permit me to point out to you
that the man whom you have just seen is not a highwayman."

"Bah! Frankly, what is he then?"

"He is in all probability a young man of as good a family as yours or
mine."

"Count Horn, whom the Regent ordered broken on the wheel at the Place
de Greve, was also a man of good family, and the proof is that all the
nobility of Paris sent their carriages to his execution."

"Count Horn, if I remember rightly, murdered a Jew to steal a note
of hand which he was unable to meet. No one would dare assert that a
Companion of Jehu had ever so much as harmed the hair of an infant."

"Well, be it so. We will admit that the Company was founded upon a
philanthropic basis, to re-establish the balance of fortunes, redress
the whims of chance and reform the abuses of society. Though he may be
a robber, after the fashion of Karl Moor, your friend Morgan--was it not
Morgan that this honest citizen called himself?"

"Yes," said the Englishman.

"Well, your friend Morgan is none the less a thief."

Citizen Alfred de Barjols turned very pale.

"Citizen Morgan is not my friend," replied the young aristocrat; "but if
he were I should feel honored by his friendship."

"No doubt," replied Roland, laughing. "As Voltaire says: 'The friendship
of a great man is a blessing from the gods.'"

"Roland, Roland!" observed his comrade in a low tone.

"Oh! general," replied the latter, letting his companion's rank escape
him, perhaps intentionally, "I implore you, let me continue this
discussion, which interests me in the highest degree."

His friend shrugged his shoulders.

"But, citizen," continued the young man with strange persistence, "I
stand in need of