Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/160

136 tured to myself the Marabouts, the local clergy, paying their homage to the conquerors; I shook hands with the King of Dahomey, and replaced Robert D—— in the affections of the little Queen of Cayor—to say nothing of the elephants' teeth and gold which I was sure to find in the English factories when I had taken them.

Whilst I was building these fine castles in the air I wrote off to my father, not doubting for an instant but that he would share the pleasure, I felt at the prospect. I told him I was the happiest man alive, for that I was about to proceed shortly on an expedition in which I should have an opportunity of distinguishing myself and gaining both "glory and profit." My father,—an old man with very positive ideas on certain subjects, and high-minded and chivalric,—was not impressed by the two words "glory" and "profit." He looked at the matter in a different light, and,—to my great surprise, I confess,—wrote me, by return of post, a short, sharp note, in which he said that as soon as he had finished reading my letter he had put