Now, a well-colored pipe is to a smoker a precious possession; but the
impulse was so natural, the emotion so generous, that every smoker,
and the excise office itself, would have pardoned this crime of
treason to tobacco. Perhaps the angels may have picked up the pieces.

"Colonel, it is an exceedingly complicated business," said Derville as
they left the room to walk up and down in the sunshine.

"To me," said the soldier, "it appears exceedingly simple. I was
thought to be dead, and here I am! Give me back my wife and my
fortune; give me the rank of General, to which I have a right, for I
was made Colonel of the Imperial Guard the day before the battle of
Eylau."

"Things are not done so in the legal world," said Derville. "Listen to
me. You are Colonel Chabert, I am glad to think it; but it has to be
proved judicially to persons whose interest it will be to deny it.
Hence, your papers will be disputed. That contention will give rise to
ten or twelve preliminary inquiries. Every question will be sent under
contradiction up to the supreme court, and give rise to so many costly
suits, which will hang on for a long time, however eagerly I may push
them. Your opponents will demand an inquiry, which we cannot refuse,
and which may necessitate the sending of a commission of investigation
to Prussia. But even if we hope for the best; supposing that justice
should at once recognize you as Colonel Chabert--can we know how the
questions will be settled that will arise out of the very innocent
bigamy committed by the Comtesse Ferraud?

"In your case, the point of law is unknown to the Code, and can only
be decided as a point in equity, as a jury decides in the delicate