s not even
at the beginning. He was bound to print the Decrees of the Republic
without mistakes and without delay.

In this strait Jerome-Nicolas Sechard had the luck to discover a noble
Marseillais who had no mind to emigrate and lose his lands, nor yet to
show himself openly and lose his head, and consequently was fain to earn
a living by some lawful industry. A bargain was struck. M. le Comte de
Maucombe, disguised in a provincial printer's jacket, set up, read, and
corrected the decrees which forbade citizens to harbor aristocrats under
pain of death; while the "bear," now a "gaffer," printed the copies and
duly posted them, and the pair remained safe and sound.

In 1795, when the squall of the Terror had passed over, Nicolas Sechard
was obliged to look out for another jack-of-all-trades to be compositor,
reader, and foreman in one; and an Abbe who declined the oath succeeded
the Comte de Maucombe as soon as the First Consul restored public
worship. The Abbe became a Bishop at the Restoration, and in after days
the Count and the Abbe met and sat together on the same bench of the
House of Peers.

In 1795 Jerome-Nicolas had not known how to read or write; in 1802 he
had made no progress in either art; but by allowing a handsome margin
for "wear and tear" in his estimates, he managed to pay a foreman's
wages. The once easy-going journeyman was a terror to his "bears" and
"monkeys." Where poverty ceases, avarice begins. From the day when
Sechard first caught a glimpse of the possibility of making a fortune, a
growing covetousness developed and sharpened in him a certain practical
faculty for business--greedy, suspicious, and keen-eyed. He carried
on his craft in disdain of theory. In course of time he had learned to
estimate at a glance the cost of printing per page or per sheet in every
kind of type. He proved to unlettered customers that large type costs
more to move; or, if small type was under discussion, that it was more
difficult to handle. The setting-up of the type was the one part of
his craft of which he knew nothing; and so great was his terror lest he
should not charge enough, that he always made a heavy profit. He never
took his eyes off his compositors while they were paid by the hour. If
he knew that a paper manufacturer was in difficulties, he would buy up
his stock at a cheap rate and warehouse the paper. So from this time
forward he was his own landlord, and owned the old house which had been
a prin