One day as I was staring at him, he asked me whether I knew him.
"By George, sir!"-- I exclaimed, "know you! Why, did we not fight side by side at the battle of Arbela ?" At those words everybody burst out laughing, but the boaster, nothing daunted, said, with animation, "Well, gentlemen, I do not see anything so very laughable in that.

I was at that battle, and therefore this gentleman might very well have remarked me; in fact, I think I can recollect him." And, continuing to speak to me, he named the regiment in which we were brother officers.

Of course we embraced one another, congratulating each other upon the pleasure we both felt in meeting again in Parma.

After that truly comic joke I left the coffee-room in the company of my inseparable preacher.
The next morning, as I was at breakfast with De la Haye, the boasting Provencal entered my room without taking off his hat, and said, "M.

d'Arbela, I have something of importance to tell you; make haste and follow me.