'"That will suit me admirably," I says. "Red Jacket will be in town again by then, and the moment he gives me leave I'll claim the money."
'He had a hard fight to be civil, but he come out smiling.
'"Monsieur," he says, "I beg your pardon as sincerely as I envy the noble Huron your loyalty. Do me the honour to sit down while I explain."
'There wasn't another chair, so I sat on the button-box.
'He was a clever man. He had got hold of the gossip that the President meant to make a peace treaty with England at any cost.
He had found out - from Genet, I reckon, who was with the President on the day the two chiefs met him. He'd heard that Genet had had a huff with the President and had ridden off leaving his business at loose ends. What he wanted - what he begged and blustered to know - was just the very words which the President had said to his gentlemen after Genet had left, concerning the peace treaty with England. He put it to me that in helping him to those very words I'd be helping three great countries as well as mankind. The room was as bare as the palm of your hand, but I couldn't laugh at him.
'"I'm sorry," I says, when he wiped his forehead. "As soon as Red Jacket gives permission -"
'"You don't believe me, then?" he cuts in.
'"Not one little, little word, Abbe," I says; "except that you mean to be on the winning side. Remember, I've been fiddling to all your old friends for months."
'Well, then his temper fled him and he called me names.
'"Wait a minute, ci-devant," I says at last. "I am half English and half French, but I am not the half of a man. I will tell thee something the Indian told me. Has thee seen the President?"
'"Oh yes!" he sneers. "I had letters from the Lord Lansdowne to that estimable old man."
'"Then," I says, "thee will understand. The Red Skin said that when thee has met the President thee will feel in thy heart he is a stronger man than thee."
'"Go!" he whispers. "Before I kill thee, go."
'He looked like it. So I left him.'
'Why did he want to know so badly?' said Dan.
'The way I look at it is that if he had known for certain that Washington meant to make the peace treaty with England at any price, he'd ha' left old Faucher fumbling about in Philadelphia while he went straight back to France and told old Danton - "It's no good your wasting time and hopes on the United States, because she won't fight on our side - that I've proof of!" Then Danton might have been grateful and given Talleyrand a job, because a whole mass of things hang on knowing for sure who's your friend and who's your enemy. just think of us poor shop-keepers, for instance.'
'Did Red Jacket let you tell, when he came back?' Una asked.
'Of course not. He said, "When Cornplanter and I ask you what Big Hand said to the whites you can tell the Lame Chief. All that talk was left behind in the timber, as Big Hand ordered. Tell the Lame Chief there will be no war. He can go back to France with that word."
'Talleyrand and me hadn't met for a long time except at emigre parties. When I give him the message he just shook his head. He was sorting buttons in the shop.
'I cannot return to France with nothing better than the word of an unsophisticated savage," he says.
'"Hasn't the President said anything to you?" I asked him.
'"He has said everything that one in his position ought to say, but - but if only I had what he said to his Cabinet after Genet rode off I believe I could change Europe - the world, maybe."
'"I'm sorry," I says. "Maybe you'll do that without my help."
'He looked at me hard. "Either you have unusual observation for one so young, or you choose to be insolent," he says.
'"It was intended for a compliment," I says. "But no odds.
We're off in a few days for our summer trip, and I've come to make my good-byes."
'"I go on my travels too," he says. "If ever we meet again you may be sure I will do my best to repay what I owe you."
'"Without malice, Abbe, I hope," I says.
'"None whatever," says he. "Give my respects to your adorable Dr Pangloss" (that was one of his side-names for Toby)
"and the Huron." I never could teach him the difference betwixt Hurons and Senecas.
'Then Sister Haga came in for a paper of what we call "pilly buttons," and that was the last I saw of Talleyrand in those parts.'
'But after that you met Napoleon, didn't you?' said Una.
'Wait Just a little, dearie. After that, Toby and I went to Lebanon and the Reservation, and, being older and knowing better how to manage him, I enjoyed myself well that summer with fiddling and fun. When we came back, the Brethren got after Toby because I wasn't learning any lawful trade, and he had hard work to save me from being apprenticed to Helmbold and Geyer the printers. 'Twould have ruined our music together, indeed it would. And when we escaped that, old Mattes Roush, the leather-breeches maker round the corner, took a notion I was cut out for skin-dressing. But we were rescued. Along towards Christmas there comes a big sealed letter from the Bank saying that a Monsieur Talleyrand had put five hundred dollars - a hundred pounds - to my credit there to use as I pleased. There was a little note from him inside - he didn't give any address - to thank me for past kindnesses and my believing in his future, which he said was pretty cloudy at the time of writing. I wished Toby to share the money. I hadn't done more than bring Talleyrand up to Hundred and Eighteen. The kindnesses were Toby's. But Toby said, "No! Liberty and Independence for ever. I have all my wants, my son." So I gave him a set of new fiddle-strings, and the Brethren didn't advise us any more. Only Pastor Meder he preached about the deceitfulness of riches, and Brother Adam Goos said if there was war the English 'ud surely shoot down the Bank. I knew there wasn't going to be any war, but I drew the money out and on Red Jacket's advice I put it into horse-flesh, which I sold to Bob Bicknell for the Baltimore stage-coaches.
That way, I doubled my money inside the twelvemonth.'
'You gipsy! You proper gipsy!' Puck shouted.
