Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/265

Rh were all bewildered and lost their heads, for what use are great statesmen, famous warriors, and distinguished personages when you remove them from their familiar surroundings.

" It was I who found the boat and prepared the flight; and brought six besides myself safe and sound to Surinam. I remembered you. Chevalier, and do you know that it is no easier to get away from Cayenne than it is from Pierre-en-Cize; there are difficulties in both cases. At any rate I came back from Cayenne, and though I have been buffeted about by adversity, the wind is in my favour now, and 'I am ready to serve you in any way you may please to command,' as the hero of Beaumarchais' play says,—though, by the way, he had not been through so much as I have. I am as well known as Barabbas, and I know everybody, good or bad. Speak, you have but to command."

The meeting, though absurd, was very useful for me. Through my friend d'O——, I discovered that I was not on the list of emigres. There had been some intention