of our
proclamations had been torn down or defaced with ribald scribblings;
posted over or alongside them, there now hung multitudinous enlarged
copies of the President's offensive notice. How or by whom these
seditious measures had been effected we were at a loss to tell, for
the officers and troops were loud in declaring their vigilance. In the
very center of the Piazza, on the base of the President's statue, was
posted an enormous bill: "REMEMBER 1871! DEATH TO TRAITORS!"

"How could they do that unless the soldiers were in it?" asked the
colonel gloomily. "I have sent those two companies back to barracks
and had another lot out. But how do I know they'll be any better? I
met DeChair just now and asked him what the temper of the troops was.
The little brute grinned, and said, 'Ah, mon President, it would be
better if the good soldiers had a leetle more money.'"

"That's about it," said I; "but then you haven't got much more money."

"What I've got I mean to stick to," said the colonel. "If this thing
is going to burst up, I'm not going to be kicked out to starve. I tell
you what it is, Martin, you must let me have some of that cash back
again."

The effrontery of this request amazed me. I was just drawing on the
second leg of my trousers (for it was impossible to be comfortable in
bed with that great creature fuming about), and I stopped with one leg
in mid-air and gazed at him.

"Well, what's the matter? Why are you to dance out with all the
plunder?" he asked.

The man's want of ordinary morality was too revolting. Didn't he know
very well that the money wasn't mine? Didn't he himself obtain my help
on the express terms that I should have this money to repay the bank
with? I finished putting on my garments, and then I replied:

"Not a farthing, colonel; not a damned farthing! By our agreement
that cash was to be mine; but for that I wouldn't have touched your
revolution with a pair of tongs."

He looked very savage, and muttered something under his breath.

"You're carrying things with a high hand," he said.

"I'm not going to steal to please you," said I.

"You weren't always so scrupulous," he sneered.

I took no notice of this insult, but repeated my determination.

"Look here, Martin," he said, "I'll give you twenty-four hours to
think it over; and let me advise you to change your mind by then. I
don't want to quarrel, but I'm going to have some of that money."

Clearly he had learned statecra