As for the sabre, I could knock him to pieces with it; and I could leap farther and carry more than he could.

This, however, is mere egotism.

This Frenchman, with whom I became pretty intimate--for we were the two cocks, as it were, of the depot, and neither had any feeling of low jealousy--was called, for want of a better name, Le Blondin, on account of his complexion.

He was not a deserter, but had come in from the Lower Rhine and the bishoprics, as I fancy; fortune having proved unfavourable to him at play probably, and other means of existence being denied him.

I suspect that the Bastile was waiting for him in his own country, had he taken a fancy to return thither.
He was passionately fond of play and liquor, and thus we had a considerable sympathy together: when excited by one or the other, he became frightful.