"I! I will defend it with my life." Then, putting the hilt of the sword to his lips, he kissed it. "That will do. When the sword of honor that I have sent for comes, you can return me this one." "Oh!" said Falou, "if it is all the same to you, general, I would rather keep this one." "Well, then, keep it, animal; and do not put on so many airs." "Oh! comrades!" cried Falou, darting out of the room, "the general called me animal, and gave me his sword! Long live the Republic!" "Very fine," said a voice in the corridor; "but that is no reason for overturning your friends, particularly when they come as ambassadors to the general." "What is the meaning of that?" said Pichegru. "Go see, Charles, and receive these ambassadors." Charles, delighted to have an active share in the proceedings, darted to the door, and returned in a moment, saying: "General, they are delegates from the regiment of the Indre, who have come in the name of their comrades, with Corporal Faraud at their head." "Who is Corporal Faraud?" "The man of the wolves last night." "But last night he was a common soldier." "And now, general, he is a corporal; to be sure his stripes are made of paper." "Paper stripes?" said the general, frowning. "Oh! I don't know," said Charles. "Admit the citizen delegates of the regiment of the Indre." Two soldiers entered behind Faraud, who proudly displayed the paper stripes on his sleeves. "What does this mean?" asked Pichegru. "General," replied Faraud, carrying his hand to his cap, "we are delegates from the regiment of the Indre." "Ah, yes," said Pichegru, "who have come to thank me for the favor I have just done them." "On the contrary, general, we have come to refuse." "To refuse? and why?" asked Pichegru. "Confound it, general," said Faraud, with a twist of the neck peculiar to himself, "they say they fight for the glory of the Republic, for the preservation of the rights of man, and for nothing else. As for what they have done, they say it is no more than what their comrades have done, and they deserve no greater reward than the others. They have heard that they have only to go to citizen Estève to receive their back pay. If this incredible news is true, then that is all they want." And Faraud ended with the same peculiar twist of the neck by means of which he expressed all his emotions, whether sad or gay. "Then they refuse?" asked Pichegru. "Flatly," replied Faraud. "And the dead," asked Pichegru; "do they refuse?" "Who?" "The dead." "They have not been consulted, general." "Then you may say to your comrades that I never take back what I have once given; the bounty money that I gave to the living will be distributed among the fathers and mothers, the brothers and sisters, the sons and daughters of the dead. Have you any objections to make to that?" "None, general." "That is fortunate. And now come here." "I, general?" asked Faraud with a twist of the neck. "Yes, you." "Here I am, general."