"_Mille tonnerres!_ how the others stared at me then. But I stood
without minding how they looked, for I was the same Paul Dupont they
laughed at a few minutes before.

"Meanwhile the admiral laid down the book on the table, and covered
it with his cocked hat; and then taking a pen he wrote some lines on a
piece of paper before him.

"'Will that do, Paul?' said he, handing it towards me.

"It was just this: 'Bureau of the Marine, Brest. Pay Paul Dupont the sum
of ten thousand francs, for service rendered to his Imperial Majesty,
and attested in a note by me Villaret Joyeuse, Admiral of France.'

"I could scarce read the lines, Comrades, for pure passion.

"'Ten thousand francs!' said I at last, as soon as I found breath,--'ten
thousand francs!'

"'What!' cried the admiral, 'not content? Well, then, thou shalt have
more; but I have rarely met one of your cloth with so mercenary a
spirit.'

"'Stay, Admiral,' said I, as I saw him about to write a new order; 'we
both are in an error here. You mistake me, and I you. An old admiral of
the fleet ought to know his sailors better than to think that money is
their highest reward; it never was so at least with Paul Dupont Let me
have my book again.'

"'Come, come, Paul; I believe I understand you now,' laid he. 'Your
warrant shall be made out this day.'

"'No, Admiral, it's too late,' said I. 'If that had come first, and from
yourself, all well; but it looks like a bargain now, and I 'll not have
promotion that way.'

"'Mort du diable!' said he, stamping with passion. 'But they 're all
the same; these Bretons are as brutal in their obstinacy as their own
cattle.'

"'You say true, Admiral,' said I; 'but if they're obstinate in wrong,
they're resolute in right. You are a Breton gentleman; give me back my
book.'

"'Take it,' said he, flinging it at me, 'and let me never see your face
again.' And with that he left the cabin, and banged the door after him
in a rage.

"And so, I went my way, Comrades, back to my ship, and served for many a
long year after, carrying that book always in my breast, and thinking
to myself, 'Well, what if thou art only a boatswain, Paul; thou hast
wherewithal in thy keeping to make thee a commodore any day.'"

"And what can it be, then, this book?" said the party, in a breath.

"You shall see," said Paul, solemnly; "for though I have never shown it
since, nor have I ever told the story before, here it is."

With these words he drew from