[The Man With The Broken Ear by Edmond About]@TWC D-Link bookThe Man With The Broken Ear CHAPTER XVI 14/15
Gold is a deception, but I want you to be rich. "A sweet kiss upon your pure brow! "V.
FOUGAS." The subscribers to _La Patrie_, who keep files of their paper, are hereby requested to hunt up the number for the 23d of August, 1859.
In it they will find two paragraphs of local intelligence, which I have taken the liberty of copying here: "His Excellency, the Marshal, the Duke of Solferino, yesterday had the honor of presenting to his Majesty the Emperor a hero of the first Empire, Colonel Fougas, whom an almost miraculous event, already mentioned in a report to the Academy of Sciences, has restored to his country." Such was the first paragraph; here is the second "A madman, the fourth this week, but the most dangerous of all, presented himself yesterday at one of the entrances of the Tuilleries. Decked out in a grotesque costume, his eyes flashing, his hat cocked over his ear, and addressing the most respectable people with unheard-of rudeness, he attempted to force his way past the sentry, and thrust himself, for what purpose God only knows, into the presence of the Sovereign.
During his incoherent ejaculations, the following words were distinguished: 'bravery, _Vendome_ column, fidelity, the dial-plate of time, the tablets of history.' When he was arrested by one of the detective watch, and taken before the police commissioner of the Tuilleries section, he was recognized as the same individual who, the evening before, at the opera, had interrupted the performance of Charles VI.
with most unseemly cries.
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