If you cannot do this, I am useless; and I withdraw--" "Withdraw! Garde a vous, Monsieur le Savant! No man withdraws alive from a conspiracy like ours." We have said before that Olivier Dalibard was not physically brave; and the look of the Chouan, as those words were said, would have frozen the blood of many a bolder man.

But the habitual hypocrisy of Dalibard enabled him to disguise his fear, and he replied dryly,-- "Monsieur le Chouan, it is not by threats that you will gain adherents to a desperate cause, which, on the contrary, requires mild words and flattering inducements.

If you commit a violence,--a murder,--mon cher, Paris is not Bretagne; we have a police: you will be discovered." "Ha, ha! What then?
Do you think I fear the guillotine ?" "For yourself, no; but for your leaders, yes! If you are discovered, and arrested for crime, do you fancy that the police will not recognize the right arm of the terrible George Cadoudal; that they will not guess that Cadoudal is at Paris; that Cadoudal will not accompany you to the guillotine ?" The Chouan's face fell.

Olivier watched him, and pursued his advantage.
"I asked you to introduce to me this shadow of a prince, under which you would march to a counter-revolution.

But I will be more easily contented.