sword or cut of sabre would goad him to madness. In _La France, au contraire_, blows cause the madness. Jean or Pierre, if "nobbled" upon the sconce, would rave about the affront put upon his honour. Men ready to cry _Mourir pour la Patrie_, can pocket no blows. Here, then, is shown the wisdom of supplying the French man of order with a sword; a cut or thrust acts not as a goad, but surgically, for it lets out the mad revolutionary blood, and Jean or Pierre goes home the better for his lancing. End of Project Gutenberg's Original Penny Readings, by George Manville Fenn