A Set of Six (PDF, MOBI, EPUB, FB2, TEXT)
was many years ago. It has been since reinstated in
its proper place, which is the place it occupies in this
volume, in all the subsequent editions of my work.
Its pedigree is extremely simple. It springs from a
ten-line paragraph in a small provincial paper published
in the South of France. That paragraph, occasioned
by a duel with a fatal ending between two well-known
Parisian personalities, referred for some reason or other
to the "well-known fact" of two officers in Napoleon's
Grand Army having fought a series of duels in the
midst of great wars and on some futile pretext. The
pretext was never disclosed. I had therefore to invent
it; and I think that, given the character of the two offi-
cers which I had to invent, too, I have made it suffi-
ciently convincing by the mere force of its absurdity.
The truth is that in my mind the story is nothing but a
serious and even earnest attempt at a bit of historical
fiction. I had heard in my boyhood a good deal of the
great Napoleonic legend. I had a genuine feeli
