"'Ah!' I cried, 'I am a Pole, and proscribed, and I have come nine hundred miles to join you. This flag is mine also. I have the right to kiss it, to press it to my heart, and to put my lips to it.' "And I took it almost by force, and kissed it, saying: 'Be always pure, brilliant, and glorious, flag of the conquerors of the Bastile, flag of Valmy, of Jemmapes, and of Bercheim.' "Oh! general, for a moment I felt no more fatigue; I forgot my shoulders so cruelly lacerated beneath the lash, my brother suspended to the gibbet, my father shot. I forgot all, even vengeance. "To-day I come to you. I am trained in all things pertaining to science; I speak five languages equally well; I can pass for German, Russian, English, or French. I can penetrate in any disguise into towns, fortresses and headquarters; I can give news of everything, for I can draw plans. No material obstacle can stop me; ten times, when I was a child, I swam across the Vistula. In short, I am no longer a man, I am a thing; I call myself no longer Stephan Moinjki, but Vengeance!" "And do you wish to be a spy?" "Do you call that man a spy who is fearless, and who by his intelligence can do the most harm to the enemy?" "Yes." "Then I wish to be a spy." "Do you know that you risk being shot if you are caught?" "Like my father." "Or hanged?" "Like my brother." "The least that can happen to you is to be whipped. Do you know that?" With a rapid movement Stephan loosened his coat, drew his arm out of the sleeve, turned down his shirt, and showed his back covered with blue welts. "As I have been," he answered, laughing. "Remember that I offer you a place in my army as a lieutenant, or as an interpreter." "And you, citizen-general, must remember that I, finding myself unworthy, have refused. In condemning me they have put me outside the pale of manhood. Well, I will strike them secretly." "Very well. And now, what do you want?" "Some money to buy other clothes, and your orders." Pichegru stretched out his hand and took a folio of assignats and a pair of scissors from a chair. It was what he received every month for his expenses at the seat of war. The month was not more than half gone, but the folio was nearly used up. He cut three days' pay, amounting to four hundred and fifty francs, from it and gave them to the spy. "Buy some clothes with that," he said. "That is too much: I shall only want peasant's clothes," said the Pole. "Perhaps to-morrow you will be obliged to buy another disguise." "Very well. And now your orders?" "Listen carefully to what I have to say," said Pichegru, laying his hand on the young man's shoulder. The young man listened with his eyes fastened upon Pichegru; it seemed as if he were trying to see as well as to hear the words.