The watchmaker from Geneva was the first to speak.
"Faith, citizen," said he (the word citizen was still used in public places), "I tell you frankly I was not at all sorry to see daylight this morning." "Cannot monsieur sleep in a coach ?" asked the doctor.
"Oh, yes, sir," replied the compatriot of Jean-Jacques; "on the contrary, I usually sleep straight through the night.

But anxiety was stronger than fatigue this time." "Were you afraid of upsetting ?" asked the architect.
"No.

I'm very lucky in that respect; it seems enough for me to be in a coach to make it unupsettable.

No, that wasn't it." "What was it, then ?" questioned the doctor.
"They say in Geneva that the roads in France are not safe." "That's according to circumstances," said the architect.
"Ah! how's that ?" inquired the watchmaker.
"Oh!" replied the architect; "if, for example, we were carrying government money, we would surely be stopped, or rather we would have been already." "Do you think so ?" queried the watchmaker.
"That has never failed.

I don't know how those devils of Companions of Jehu manage to keep so well posted; but they never miss an opportunity." The doctor nodded affirmatively.
"Ah!" exclaimed the watchmaker, addressing the doctor; "do you think so, too ?" "I do." "And if you knew there was government money in the coach, would you be so imprudent as to take passage in it ?" "I must admit," replied the doctor, "that I should think twice about it." "And you, sir ?" said the questioner to the architect.
"Oh, I," replied the latter--"as I am on important business, I should have started anyway." "I am tempted," said the watchmaker "to take off my valise and my oases, and wait for to-morrow's diligence, because my boxes are filled with watches worth something like twenty thousand francs.