Self-assertion, however, carries the day.

Jules and Jaques will hereafter quaff many a petit verre to their own heroism; and many a story will they inflict upon their long-suffering friends redounding to their own special glory.

Their wives will be told that they ought to be proud to have such men for husbands.

But Jules and Jacques are in reality but arrant humbugs.

Whilst they boozed, their wives starved; whilst they were warmly clad, their wives were in rags; whilst they were drinking confusion to their enemies in some snug room, their wives were freezing at the baker's door for their ration of bread.