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through an unaccountable addling of the brains. In short, I never yet
encountered the mere mathematician who could be trusted out of equal
roots, or one who did not clandestinely hold it as a point of his faith
that x2+px was absolutely and unconditionally equal to q. Say to one of
these gentlemen, by way of experiment, if you please, that you believe
occasions may occur where x2+px is not altogether equal to q, and,
having made him understand what you mean, get out of his reach as
speedily as convenient, for, beyond doubt, he will endeavor to knock you
down.
"I mean to say," continued Dupin, while I merely laughed at his
last observations, "that if the Minister had been no more than a
mathematician, the Prefect would have been under no necessity of giving
me this check. I know him, however, as both mathematician and poet,
and my measures were adapted to his capacity, with reference to the
circumstances by which he was surrounded. I knew him as a courtier, too,
and as a bold intriguant. Such a man, I considered, could not fail to be
aware of the ordinary policial modes of action. He could not have
failed to anticipate--and events have proved that he did not fail to
anticipate--the waylayings to which he was subjected. He must have
foreseen, I reflected, the secret investigations of his premises. His
frequent absences from home at night, which were hailed by the Prefect
as certain aids to his success, I regarded only as ruses, to afford
opportunity for thorough search to the police, and thus the sooner to
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