The gay voices of the crowd ashore awaiting the arrival of the fishing smacks constituted so brilliant a tout ensemble that Giacinto, notwithstanding the sad parting from his friends, felt new life rushing through his veins and joy tugging at his heart strings. He looked at Louis Pierre. That face wore an expression recalling vengeance and the scaffold. Shuddering, the Sicilian returned to reality. "They are gone, Louis Pierre," said he, in order to break the silence. "They are gone,--those royal personages whom history will fail to enumerate." "Giacinto, you should have gone to Holland with them. I advise you as a friend, for in Versailles you have a mistress whom you have filched from a guard,--a dangerous experiment. O, I know all about it; she lives on our floor. Do you think the bird worth the risking of your neck? Yes, it was best for our friends to go. The police pretend to have forgotten us. 'Tis a trap. They will not forget to square accounts with the man who sent Volpetti to his brother Satan.--You are a child, Giacinto, and may be led to any pasture by a petticoat string--" "Bah!" interrupted the other. "Were it not for petticoats, what savor would remain to life? My dear little laundress has set me quite crazy with love and the sergeant is dying with jealousy. Will you believe that here also I have discovered a jewel of a woman?--the daughter of a tinker. And I am either a fool or this night--" "So you remain? You are indeed a fool, Giacinto. I shall work out my ends, henceforth, without your aid. Tho I be sought, I shall not be found; even tho I be found, I shall not be caught, and even tho I be caught, I shall not be retained. In this enigma I speak the truth." Giacinto's superstitious nature was aroused. "Why do you say these words, friend?" he asked. "Because no man is overcome until he has performed his assigned task," serenely replied the Knight of Liberty. "Was the Other One overcome before he had subjugated Europe? Today he is chained to Saint Helena, but he first demonstrated the might of the Revolution. Before he could demonstrate the might of Despotism, he was overpowered, for this the Fates would not permit." "We are not the Other One." "Each man is the Other One. Each man may change the world if he acts of himself." "Bah!" retorted Giacinto. "We are pawns on a chess-board. Poor devils, we but play our part. What matters it to me that it be primary or secondary? I have sent to hell the devil who killed my brother. For the rest, a fig!--I feel his warm blood on my hands now!" His nostrils dilated at the ghastly memory, his lips smacked with savage joy, his handsome face glowed with exultation.