The details of that expedition, in
the course of which he put to death ten or twelve of the more
disorderly, will be found in another place. It remains for me
only to add here that Bareilles was not of them. He escaped a
fate he richly deserved by flying betimes with Bassignac to
Sedan. Of his ultimate fate I know nothing; but a week after my
return to the Arsenal, a man called on me who turned out to be
the astrologer. I gave him fifty crowns.
VIII. THE OPEN SHUTTER.
Few are ignorant of that weakness of the vulgar which leads them
to admire in the great not so much the qualities which deserve
admiration as those which, in the eyes of the better-informed,
are defects; so that the amours of Caesar, the clock-making of
Charles, and the jests of Coligny are more in the mouths of men
than their statesmanship or valour. For one thing commendable,
two that are diverting are told; and for one man who in these
days recalls the thousand great and wise deeds of the late King a
thousand remember his occasional freaks, the duel he would have
fought, or his habit of visiting the streets of Paris by night
and in disguise.
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