"You will oblige me very much, monsieur le baron."
So Ménard took the pen, and Dubourg dictated the following letter:
"MONSIEUR LE COMTE:
"I have the honor to inform you of our safe arrival at Lyon, where I was attacked at night, as I was returning to our hotel, and robbed of all that we possessed; which places us in a very embarrassing position, from which we beg you to extricate us as soon as possible. Monsieur your son is as well as Esculapius himself; the journey seems to have done him a vast amount of good. He bids me offer you his most respectful homage."
Ménard signed this letter, to which Dubourg desired Frédéric to add a few affectionate words. But Frédéric had never lied to his father, and he preferred to write nothing rather than to try to deceive him.
The letter was mailed, and they had no choice but to await the reply. Luckily, their landlord did not seem at all disturbed. Moreover, Frédéric had a chaise and horses, which, at need, would bring more than enough to pay their bill; that fact set his mind at rest, but he none the less urged his companions to spend less on the table. Dubourg, however, did not agree with him; he thought that such a course might arouse suspicions of their plight, and Ménard was once more of monsieur le baron's opinion.
Frédéric resumed his wanderings; but Dubourg abandoned his street promenades with Ménard; after parading his fashionable costume and playing the wealthy palatine on the public thoroughfares of Lyon, he did not care to show himself in a shabby hat and with a long face; he was convinced that people would divine that he was penniless: there are so many men who owe their self-confidence and their assurance entirely to the money they have in their pockets, which alone gives them aplomb in society.
Dubourg passed his days talking philosophy with Ménard, who was no philosopher, but listened attentively to the baron, whom he considered a man of profound learning, though he was no longer so overjoyed to have him for a travelling companion, because, when he recalled their adventures, from the time that the palatine had overturned them into a ditch, it seemed to him that Monsieur de Potoski carried about with him a monumental ill luck, of which they had already felt the effects.
After ten days, they received a reply from the count; it was addressed to Monsieur Ménard, but it was Frédéric who, with a trembling hand, broke the seal.
"See what there is enclosed, first," said Dubourg.