“A man as much attached to his mistress as you are is no longer a man.  He wants energy, when the occasion requires.”

“What occasion?”

“Let us drink!”

“You make me drink too much brandy.”

“Bah! look at me!”

“That’s what frightens me.  It seems something devilish.  A bottle of brandy does not even make you wink.  You must have a stomach of iron and a head of marble.”

“I have long travelled in Russia.  There we drink to roast ourselves.”

“And here to only warm.  So—­let’s drink—­but wine.”

“Nonsense! wine is fit for children.  Brandy for men like us!”

“Well, then, brandy; but it burns, and sets the head on fire, and then we see all the flames of hell!”

“That’s how I like to see you, hang it!”

“But when you told me that I was too much attached to my mistress, and that I should want energy when the occasion required, of what occasion did you speak?”

“Let us drink!”

“Stop a moment, comrade.  I am no more of a fool than others.  Your half words have taught me something.

“Well, what?”

“You know that I have been a workman, that I have many companions, and that, being a good fellow, I am much liked amongst them.  You want me for a catspaw, to catch other chestnuts?”

“What then?”

“You must be some getter-up of riots—­some speculator in revolts.”

“What next?”

“You are travelling for some anonymous society, that trades in musket shots.”

“Are you a coward?”

“I burned powder in July, I can tell you—­make no mistakes!”

“You would not mind burning some again?”

“Just as well that sort of fireworks as any other.  Only I find revolutions more agreeable than useful; all that I got from the barricades of the three days was burnt breeches and a lost jacket.  All the cause won by me, with its ‘Forward!  March!’ says.”

“You know many of Hardy’s workmen?”

“Oh! that’s why you have brought me down here?”

“Yes—­you will meet with many of the workmen from the factory.”

“Men from Hardy’s take part in a row?  No, no; they are too well off for that.  You have been sold.”

“You will see presently.”

“I tell you they are well off.  What have they to complain of?”

“What of their brethren—­those who have not so good a master, and die of hunger and misery, and call on them for assistance?  Do you think they will remain deaf to such a summons?  Hardy is only an exception.  Let the people but give a good pull all together, and the exception will become the rule, and all the world be happy.”

“What you say there is true, but it would be a devil of a pull that would make an honest man out of my old master, Baron Tripeaud, who made me what I am—­an out-and-out rip.”

“Hardy’s workmen are coming; you are their comrade, and have no interest in deceiving them.  They will believe you.  Join with me in persuading them—­”