“So do I, sir; that is why I did not wish to confound these highwaymen with the Apostles.”
“Truly, that would not have been very orthodox.”
“But it is what you would have done, nevertheless, sir, if I, a poet, had not come here expressly to correct the mistake you, as historian, have made.”
“I await your explanation, sir,” resumed the magistrate, pursing his lips.
“It is short and simple. Elisha consecrated Jehu, King of Israel, on condition that he exterminate the house of Ahab; Elisha was Louis XVIII.; Jehu was Cadoudal; the house of Ahab, the Revolution. That is why these pillagers of diligences, who filched the government money to support the war in the Vendée, were called the Companions of Jehu.”
“Sir, I am happy to learn something at my age.”
“Oh, sir! One can always learn, at all times and at all ages; during life one learns man; in death one learns God.”
“But, after all,” my interlocutor said to me with a gesture of impatience, “may I know in what I can assist you?”
“Thus, sir. Four of these young men, leaders of the Companions of Jehu, were executed at Bourg, on the Place du Bastion.”
“In the first place, sir, in Bourg executions do not take place at the Bastion; they execute on the Fair grounds.”