“Tell me,” said Roland; “is he still got his hobby, the dear general, of colonizing Egypt?”
“Yes; and then, as a sort of offset, a little governing in France; we will colonize from a distance.”
“Well, my dear Bourrienne, suppose you post me a little on matters in this country, so that I won’t seem to have just arrived from Timbuctoo.”
“In the first place, did you come back of your own accord, or were you recalled?”
“Recalled? I should think so!”
“By whom?”
“The general himself.”
“Special despatch?”
“Written by himself; see!”
The young man drew a paper from his pocket containing two lines, not signed, in the same handwriting as that which Bourrienne had before him. These two lines said: “‘Start. Be in Paris 16th Brumaire. I need you.”