“‘I cannot,’ he answered, ‘the hour calls me to the tribunal of the varenne du Louvre, where I must preside, I will come to you as soon as the audience is finished.’
“His carriage started and I went back home. Just as I was mounting the steps of the Pont-Neuf I felt myself violently pulled by the skirts of my coat, I fell backward and found myself in the arms of the duc de Chaulnes
who, using his gigantic strength, picked me up like a bird, threw me into a fiàcre, cried to the coachman, ‘Rue de Condé,’ and said to me with horrible oaths that I should find for him the man he sought to kill.
“‘By what right,’ I said, ‘Monsieur le duc, you who are always crying for liberty, do you take mine from me?’
“‘By the right of the strongest. You will find for me—Beaumarchais or—’
“‘Monsieur le duc, I have no arms, you will perhaps wish also to assassinate me?’
“‘No—I will only kill that Beaumarchais.’
“‘I do not know where he is and if I did, I would not tell you while you are in the fury of your present rage.’
“‘If you resist, I will give you a blow.’
“‘And I will return it.’