_May 27, 1852, at night._
Upon my word, you are very sharp!
I went the other day to see the judges, and was imprudent enough to have
in my pocket a thousand-franc note. I have not seen it since, yet it is
incredible that, among persons of such high position, pickpockets should
find their way. Therefore the note must have vanished of itself; so let
us give the matter no more thought.
The same day I had the misfortune to touch a man supposed to have the
plague, and it has been thought prudent to quarantine me for two weeks:
a great calamity, truly! My friend, M. Bocher, is to go to prison the
last of June, and we shall be there together. Meantime, I need very much
to see you!
My revenge has begun already. My friend Saulcy was yesterday at a house
where they were discussing the judgment against me, whereupon, without
seeing how the land lay, my champion rushes heedlessly into the fray,
using such severe words as imbecility, fatuity, stupidity, conceit of
jackanapes, and the like, and appealing to a gentleman in evening dress,
whom he knew by sight, but of whose profession he was ignorant. It
happened to be M. ----, one of my judges, who would have preferred, at
that moment, to be elsewhere. I imagine the state of mind of the
hostess, the guests, and of Saulcy himself, who, informed too late, fell
on a sofa, splitting his sides with laughter, and saying: “Indeed, I’ll
not retract a word!”