"A moment ago I wished to detain you; now I say to you: 'Go!'" The peasant bowed and withdrew.

The president waited until the door was closed.
"Gentlemen," said he, "the news which our brother Morgan has just imparted to us is so grave that I wish to propose a special measure." "What is it ?" asked the Companions of Jehu with one voice.
"It is that one of us, chosen by lot, shall go to Paris and keep the rest informed, with the cipher agreed upon, of all that happens there." "Agreed!" they replied.
"In that case," resumed the president, "let us write our thirteen names, each on a slip of paper.

We put them in a hat.

He whose name is first drawn shall start immediately." The young men, one and all, approached the table, and wrote their names on squares of paper which they rolled and dropped into a hat.

The youngest was told to draw the lots.