did you do it? Thousand thunders! Will you tell me!"

"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
t