f he were amused by the
abruptness and directness of my question.

'You are a most amusing person, Monsieur--Monsieur--let me see, what did
you say your name was?'

'De Laval.'

'Ah, quite so, Monsieur de Laval. You have the impetuosity and the
ingenuousness of youth. You want to know what is up a chimney, you jump
up the chimney. You want to know the reason of a thing, and you blurt
out a question. I have been in the habit of living among people who
keep their thoughts to themselves, and I find you very refreshing.'

'Whatever the motives of your conduct, there is no doubt that you saved
my life,' said I. 'I am much obliged to you for your intercession.'
It is the most difficult thing in the world to express gratitude to a
person who fills you with abhorrence, and I fear that my halting speech
was another instance of that ingenuousness of which he accused me.

'I can do without your thanks,' said he coldly. 'You are perfectly
right when you think that if it had suited my purpose I should have let
you perish, and I am perfectly right when I think that if it were not
that you are under an obligation you would fail to see my hand if I
stretched it out to you just as that overgrown puppy Lasalle did. It is
very honourable, he thinks, to serve the Emperor upon the field of
battle, and to risk life in his behalf, but when it comes to living
amidst danger as I have done, consorting with desperate men, and knowing
well that the least slip would mean death, why then one is beneath the
notice of a fine clean-handed gentleman. Why,' he continued in a burst
of bitter passion, 'I have dared more, and endured more, with Toussac
and a few of his kidney for comrades, than this Lasalle has done in all
the childish cavalry charges that ever he undertook. As to service, all
his Marshals put together have not rendered the Emperor as pressing a
service as I have done. But I daresay it does not strike you in that
light, Monsieur--Monsieur--'

'De Laval.'

'Quite so--it is curious how that name escapes me. I daresay you take
the same view as Colonel Lasalle?'

'It is not a question upon which I can offer an opinion,' said I.
'I only know that I owe my life to your intercession.'

I do not know what reply he might have made to this evasion, but at that
moment we heard a couple of pistol shots and a distant shouting from far
away in the darkness. We stopped for a few minutes, but all was silent
once more.

'They must h