rench have a possession across
the seas, we like to sit in Paris and to felicitate ourselves upon it.
With you it is different. You take your wives and your children, and
you run away to see what kind of place this may be, and after that we
might as well try to take that old Square of Bloomsbury away from you.

"Well, it was upon the first of October that the treaty was finally to
be signed. In the morning I was congratulating Monsieur Otto upon the
happy conclusion of his labours. He was a little pale shrimp of a man,
very quick and nervous, and he was so delighted now at his own success
that he could not sit still, but ran about the room chattering and
laughing, while I sat on a cushion in the corner, as I had learned to do
in the East. Suddenly, in came a messenger with a letter which had been
forwarded from Paris. Monsieur Otto cast his eye upon it, and then,
without a word, his knees gave way, and he fell senseless upon the
floor. I ran to him, as did the courier, and between us we carried him
to the sofa. He might have been dead from his appearance, but I could
still feel his heart thrilling beneath my palm. 'What is this, then?' I
asked.

"'I do not know,' answered the messenger. 'Monsieur Talleyrand told me
to hurry as never man hurried before, and to put this letter into the
hands of Monsieur Otto. I was in Paris at midday yesterday.'

"I know that I am to blame, but I could not help glancing at the letter,
picking it out of the senseless hand of Monsieur Otto. My God! the
thunderbolt that it was! I did not faint, but I sat down beside my
chief and I burst into tears. It was but a few words, but they told us
that Egypt had been evacuated by our troops a month before. All our
treaty was undone then, and the one consideration which had induced our
enemies to give us good terms had vanished. In twelve hours it would
not have mattered. But now the treaty was not yet signed. We should
have to give up the Cape. We should have to let England have Malta.
Now that Egypt was gone we had nothing left to offer in exchange.

"But we are not so easily beaten, we Frenchmen. You English misjudge us
when you think that because we show emotions which you conceal, that we
are therefore of a weak and womanly nature. You cannot read your
histories and believe that. Monsieur Otto recovered his senses
presently, and we took counsel what we should do.

"'It is useless to go on, Alphonse,' said he. 'This Engli