"Deuce take me if I'll walk back to Allevard for a couple of syringes and a parcel of pills!" said Dubourg, when he had concluded his examination; "monsieur and madame may go without their supplies for a few days. I will take possession--although I don't quite know what I am to do with all these drugs. But I have an idea. Parbleu! an excellent means of making use of this donkey and of travelling without touching my purse, which is none too full. Who knows if I may not make my fortune? Well, the die is cast! I have been a baron, a palatine, and an actor; I have even played the part of a beast, unwittingly; surely I can play the charlatan: it's the simplest trade, the easiest of all parts to play, provided one has ever so little wit, cheek, and loquacity, and I have all three. A charlatan I am, then. Indeed, who is not, in this world? everyone plays the part in his own way: men in office with petitioners, speculators with capitalists, knaves with fools, gallants with women, coquettes with their lovers, debtors with their creditors, authors with actors, booksellers with readers, and tradesmen with everybody. I am one of those who cure all diseases, who divine them and forestall them; in short, I am a second Cagliostro; I am familiar with the universal pharmacopoeia, I have no confederate, I deal honorably; I have discovered a thousand secrets, a single one of which would suffice to make a man's fortune; and I sell pills for two sous, because I am a philanthropist." Having fully decided to embark upon this new escapade, Dubourg led his donkey into a dense thicket. There he began operations by removing his palatine boots, which were badly worn, and throwing them into the bushes; he replaced them with the long riding-boots, which came halfway to his hips, so that no one might recognize Baron Potoski in the dealer in pills; he pulled over his head the blonde wig intended for Madame Chambertin, having first tied the hair behind and made a Prussian queue; he daubed his cheeks, forehead, and chin with superfine rouge; then, mounting Madelon _en croupe_, with the two baskets containing his itinerant pharmacy in front of him, he resumed his journey, inciting his steed with his stick, by way of riding-whip. Dubourg's singular aspect, his face surrounded by beautiful flaxen curls, the long queue falling down his back, his high boots, which he held as far back as possible because the baskets were much in his way, and, lastly, his majestic bearing, attracted the attention of all the peasants he met. They called to one another to look at him. They stood at doors and windows to watch him pass, and at times a number of boys followed at his heels. Dubourg bowed to right and left, with a benevolent expression, calling out in a loud tone: