href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@31804@[email protected]#CHAPTER_XVIII_A_VINDICTIVE_ROGUE" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">229

XIX The Happiest Man Alive 242 XX Forging the Chain 253 XXI The Service of a Friend 270 XXII Her Best Beloved 282 XXIII A Loving Quest 297 XXIV Confident To-morrows 307 XXV A Discomfited Bishop 319 XXVI Come and Rejoice 335 XXVII A Royal Recompense 350 XXVIII A Campaign of Pleasure 368 XXIX As Having No Past 383 XXX The Boar Hunt 395 XXXI The Bitterness of Doubt 410 XXXII In Snuff-Colored Clothes 423 XXXIII A Devil’s Imp 433 XXXIV A Garret in Prague 448 XXXV Would You Leave Me Now 458

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FRANCEZKA

I maintain that my master, Maurice, Count of Saxe, Marshal-general of France, Duke of Courland and Semigallia, Knight of the Most Noble Order of Merit, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the White Eagle, Knight of St. Louis, Knight of St. Stanislaus, and of many other noble Orders—I maintain him, I say, to be the greatest man, the bravest man, the finest man, the handsomest man, the man most dreaded by his foes, the most loved by his friends, the most incomparable with the ladies, the first soldier of all time—in short, the most superb, the most terrible and the most admirable man who ever lived—and I can prove it.

There are fractious men everywhere who dispute the plainest facts. With these unfortunates I am willing to argue for a time, but if they grow impudent about Alexander the Great, or Julius Cæsar, or any of those men who have made a noise in the world, I bring against them one invincible argument—my sword. I am no great lover of the pistol. My sword is enough, and it never misses fire. I am the most peaceable creature 2 alive, and never but twice did I lose my temper over the matter of Count Saxe’s greatness. Once was when a bragging rascal of a pseudo-nobleman from the marches of Brandenburg dared to call this greatness into question, and with offensive words. I gave him his choice of taking a hundred kicks in the stomach or having his ears cut off. He chose the latter, and I sliced one of them off; he begged so hard for the other