"But, if I may be allowed to ask, how the devil did you get here?"
"Wretches, my dear fellow, a set of wretches who, for a miserable sixty thousand francs of which they declare I have wronged them, have charged me with a breach of trust and compelled me to resign my office."
"Really, general! Well, that's unfortunate! And shall I then work for you no longer?"
"I am on half pay now, Bourdin,—on the retired list."
"But who are these vindictive persons?"
"Why, only imagine, one of the most savage of all is a liberated convict, who employed me to recover the amount of a bill of seven hundred miserable francs, for which it was requisite to bring an action. Well, I brought the action, and got the money and used it; and because, in consequence of some unsuccessful speculations, I swamped that money and several other sums, all these blackguards have assailed me with warrants; and so you find me here, my dear fellow, neither more nor less than a malefactor."
"And does it not alarm you, general?"
"Yes; but the oddest thing of all is that this convict wrote me word some days ago that this money being his sole resource for bad times, and these bad times having arrived (I don't know what he means by that), I was responsible for the crimes he might commit in order to escape from starvation."
"Amusing, 'pon my soul!"
"Very; and the fellow is capable of saying this, but fortunately the law does not recognise any such accompliceships."