“My French captain is a mysterious character, who courts death with all his might, without being able to accomplish his desire; so that each time he rushes into mortal danger he performs some brilliant feat which secures him promotion.” “But why does he wish to get himself killed?” “Because he is disgusted with life.” “Why is he disgusted with life?” “Ah! That will be the secret of the book.” “It must be told in the end.” “On the contrary, I, in your place, would not tell it.” “The readers will demand it.” “You will reply that they have only to search for it; you must leave them something to do, these readers of yours.” “Dear friend, I shall be overwhelmed with letters.” “You need not answer them.” “Yes, but for my personal gratification I, at least, must know why my hero longs to die.” “Oh, I do not refuse to tell you.” “Let me hear, then.” “Well, suppose, instead of being professor of dialectics, Abelard had been a soldier.” “Well?” “Well, let us suppose that a bullet--” “Excellent!” “You understand? Instead of withdrawing to Paraclet, he would have courted death at every possible opportunity.” “Hum! That will be difficult.” “Difficult! In what way?” “To make the public swallow that.” “But since you are not going to tell the public.” “That is true. By my faith, I believe you are right. Wait.” “I am waiting.” “Have you Nodier’s ‘Souvenirs de la Révolution’? I believe he wrote one or two pages about Guyon, Leprêtre, Amiet and Hyvert.” “They will say, then, that you have plagiarized from Nodier.” “Oh! He loved me well enough during his life not to refuse me whatever I shall take from him after his death. Go fetch me the ‘Souvenirs de la Révolution.’” Alexandre brought me the book. I opened it, turned over two or three pages, and at last discovered what I was looking for. A little of Nodier, dear readers, you will lose nothing by it. It is he who is speaking: The highwaymen who attacked the diligences, as mentioned in the article on Amiet, which I quoted just now, were called Leprêtre, Hyvert, Guyon and Amiet.