correction. I left France two years ago, and during my
absence so many things have changed, such as dress, morals, and accents,
that even the language may have changed also. In the language of the day
in France what do you call stopping coaches and taking the money which
they contain?"

"Sir," said the young noble, in the tone of a man determined to sustain
his argument to its end, "I call that war. Here is your companion whom
you have just called general; he as a military man will tell you that,
apart from the pleasure of killing and being killed, the generals of
all ages have never done anything else than what the citizen Morgan is
doing?"

"What!" exclaimed the young man, whose eyes flashed fire. "You dare to
compare--"

"Permit the gentleman to develop his theory, Roland," said the dark
traveller, whose eyes, unlike those of his companion, which dilated as
they flamed, were veiled by long black lashes, thus concealing all that
was passing in his mind.

"Ah!" said the young man in his curt tone, "you see that you, yourself,
are becoming interested in the discussion." Then, turning to the young
noble, whom he seemed to have selected for his antagonist, he said:
"Continue, sir, continue; the general permits it."

The young noble flushed as visibly as he had paled a moment before.
Between clinched teeth, his elbow on the table, his chin on his clinched
hand, as if to draw as close to his adversary as possible, he said with
a Provencal accent, which grew more pronounced as the discussion waxed
hotter: "Since _the general_ permits"--emphasizing the two words--"I
shall have the honor to tell him and you, too, citizen, that I believe
I have read in Plutarch that Alexander the Great, when he started for
India, took with him but eighteen or twenty talents in gold, something
like one hundred or one hundred and twenty thousand francs. Now, do
you suppose that with these eighteen or twenty talents alone he fed his
army, won the battle of Granicus, subdued Asia Minor, conquered Tyre,
Gaza, Syria and Egypt, built Alexandria, penetrated to Lybia, had
himself declared Son of Jupiter by the oracle of Ammon, penetrated
as far as the Hyphases, and, when his soldiers refused to follow him
further, returned to Babylon, where he surpassed in luxury, debauchery
and self-indulgence the most debauched and voluptuous of the kings
of Asia? Did Macedonia furnish his supplies? Do you believe that King
Philip, most indigent of the kings of