"It must be so for the present."
"Hum! Well, I consent to it—the devil take politics! What occasion had I to come to San Miguel to accompany that old Dubois?"
The two men started at that name.
"You know the Duc de Mantone?" they exclaimed.
"Ah, ha! You know whom I mean, it appears?"
"The Duc de Mantone, formerly a member of the Convention, a senator under the Emperor Napoleon, who has come to America under the name of Louis Dubois?" said the count.
"That is he. Why, then, did he urge me so strongly not to give him his title?"
"Because he hoped not to be recognised. He comes here, hunted by the Bourbons for having voted the death of Louis XVI., to seek a refuge in this country, and to lend the insurgents the aid of his experience in conducting the revolution."
"The fact is that he ought to know a great deal about this affair," said the painter, laughing.
"But what were you saying about him? Was he really at San Miguel?"