At first, it occurred to him to put an end to this abuse by his own efforts:  it was the least he could do, for he was the only sufferer.  “I will take my carbine,” said he; “I will put four pistols into my belt; I will fill my cartridge box; I will gird on my sword, and go thus equipped to the frontier.  There, the first blacksmith, nail-smith, farrier, machinist, or locksmith, who presents himself to do his own business and not mine, I will kill, to teach him how to live.”  At the moment of starting, M. Prohibant made a few reflections which calmed down his warlike ardour a little.  He said to himself, “In the first place, it is not absolutely impossible that the purchasers of iron, my countrymen and enemies, should take the thing ill, and, instead of letting me kill them, should kill me instead; and then, even were I to call out all my servants, we should not be able to defend the passages.  In short, this proceeding would cost me very dear, much more so than the result would be worth.”

M. Prohibant was on the point of resigning himself to his sad fate, that of being only as free as the rest of the world, when a ray of light darted across his brain.  He recollected that at Paris there is a great manufactory of laws.  “What is a law?” said he to himself.  “It is a measure to which, when once it is decreed, be it good or bad, everybody is bound to conform.  For the execution of the same a public force is organised, and to constitute the said public force, men and money are drawn from the whole nation.  If, then, I could only get the great Parisian manufactory to pass a little law, ’Belgian iron is prohibited,’ I should obtain the following results:—­The Government would replace the few valets that I was going to send to the frontier by 20,000 of the sons of those refractory blacksmiths, farriers, artizans, machinists, locksmiths, nail-smiths, and labourers.  Then to keep these 20,000 custom-house officers in health and good humour, it would distribute among them 25,000,000 of francs taken from these blacksmiths, nail-smiths, artizans, and labourers.  They would guard the frontier much better; would cost me nothing; I should not be exposed to the brutality of the brokers; should sell the iron at my own price, and have the sweet satisfaction of seeing our great people shamefully mystified.  That would teach them to proclaim themselves perpetually the harbingers and promoters of progress in Europe.  Oh! it would be a capital joke, and deserves to be tried.”

So M. Prohibant went to the law manufactory.  Another time, perhaps, I shall relate the story of his underhand dealings, but now I shall merely mention his visible proceedings.  He brought the following consideration before the view of the legislating gentlemen.

“Belgian iron is sold in France at ten francs, which obliges me to sell mine at the same price.  I should like to sell at fifteen, but cannot do so on account of this Belgian iron, which I wish was at the bottom of the Red Sea.  I beg you will make a law that no more Belgian iron shall enter France.  Immediately I raise my price five francs, and these are the consequences:—­