of the impossibility for a stranger to get on there, to produce the smallest effect, to get into society, or to succeed in any way whatever.  It was there that I determined to set up my flag, thinking, and rightly, that I should meet with no opposition, but find myself alone to canvass for the election.  The people of the Comte will not meet the outsider?  The outsider will meet them!  They refuse to admit him to their drawing-rooms, he will never go there!  He never shows himself anywhere, not even in the streets!  But there is one class that elects the deputies—­the commercial class.  I am going especially to study commercial questions, with which I am already familiar; I will gain their lawsuits, I will effect compromises, I will be the greatest pleader in Besancon.  By and by I will start a Review, in which I will defend the interests of the country, will create them, or preserve them, or resuscitate them.  When I shall have won a sufficient number of votes, my name will come out of the urn.  For a long time the unknown barrister will be treated with contempt, but some circumstance will arise to bring him to the front—­some unpaid defence, or a case which no other pleader will undertake.

“Well, my dear Leopold, I packed up my books in eleven cases, I bought such law-books as might prove useful, and I sent everything off, furniture and all, by carrier to Besancon.  I collected my diplomas, and I went to bid you good-bye.  The mail coach dropped me at Besancon, where, in three days’ time, I chose a little set of rooms looking out over some gardens.  I sumptuously arranged the mysterious private room where I spend my nights and days, and where the portrait of my divinity reigns—­of her to whom my life is dedicate, who fills it wholly, who is the mainspring of my efforts, the secret of my courage, the cause of my talents.  Then, as soon as the furniture and books had come, I engaged an intelligent man-servant, and there I sat for five months like a hibernating marmot.

“My name had, however, been entered on the list of lawyers in the town.  At last I was called one day to defend an unhappy wretch at the Assizes, no doubt in order to hear me speak for once!  One of the most influential merchants of Besancon was on the jury; he had a difficult task to fulfil; I did my utmost for the man, and my success was absolute and complete.  My client was innocent; I very dramatically secured the arrest of the real criminals, who had come forward as witnesses.  In short, the Court and the public were united in their admiration.  I managed to save the examining magistrate’s pride by pointing out the impossibility of detecting a plot so skilfully planned.

“Then I had to fight a case for my merchant, and won his suit.  The Cathedral Chapter next chose me to defend a tremendous action against the town, which had been going on for four years; I won that.  Thus, after three trials, I had become the most famous advocate of Franche-Comte.