whom he had quarrelled, supplied him with funds? No; war fed
war--the Morgan system, citizen. Let us pass on to Caesar. Ah,
Caesar! That's another story. He left for Spain with some thirty
millions of debt, and returned with practically the same. He
started for Gaul, where he spent ten years with our ancestors.
During these ten years he sent over one hundred millions to Rome,
repassed the Alps, crossed the Rubicon, marched straight to the
Capitol, forced the gates of the Temple of Saturn, where the
treasury was, seized sufficient for his private needs--and not
for those of the Republic--three thousand pounds of gold in ingots;
and died (he whom creditors twenty years earlier refused to allow
to leave his little house in the Suburra) leaving two or three
thousand sesterces per head to the citizens, ten or twelve millions
to Calpurnia, and thirty or forty millions to Octavius; always the
Morgan system, save that Morgan, I am sure, would die sooner than
subvert to his personal needs either the silver of the Gauls or the
gold of the capital. Now let us spring over eighteen centuries and
come to the General Buonaparte." And the young aristocrat, after
the fashion of the enemies of the Conqueror of Italy, affected to
emphasize the _u_, which Bonaparte had eliminated from his
name, and the _e_, from which he had removed the accent.

This affectation seemed to irritate Roland intensely. He made
a movement as if to spring forward, but his companion stopped
him.

"Let be," said he, "let be, Roland. I am quite sure that citizen
Barjols will not say the General Buonaparte, as he calls him,
is a thief."