"I shall not do you such an injustice, monsieur. You are, I presume, on a tour of inspection?"
"Yes, monsieur."
"I presume you learned I was here in prison, and you came, perhaps, to offer me your good offices?"
"Better yet, monsieur."
"Better yet? Pray, what do you mean? You seem to feel embarrassed."
"Indeed—I am; very much so—" replied the General, visibly put out of countenance by the calmness and easy manners of the galley-slave. "Revolutions often bring about bizarre situations."
"Bizarre situations?"
"Yes," replied the General; "the situation in which we two find ourselves at this moment, for instance."
"Oh, we already have exhausted the obvious bizarreness of fate, monsieur!" remarked the merchant smiling. "That, under the Republic, I, an old republican, should be found on the galley-bench, while you, a republican of recent date, should have been promoted to the rank of General—that is, no doubt, bizarre, we are agreed upon that. What else?"
"My embarrassment proceeds from another reason, monsieur."