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Figaro . . . . . mostly the "Chronicle of the Fates" . . . I've seen the passing of characters who'd been really looking forward to eating the inside of my skull . . . worms and all, the arrogant jerks! . . . Greetings to the bereaved family! . . . left with Aulnoy-les-Topines on their hands . . . its forests and château . . . keep after that notary!

It's perfectly possible that in a year . . . two years? . . . this whole valley of the Oos will be nothing but a trickle of atoms . . . which makes it worth talking about . . . No order in my story? . . . you'll get your bearings . . . no head nor tail? . . . dammit! I left you at the Hotel Stern without giving you the key . . . I didn't have time . . . just a few words about those pregnant women . . . oh well! . . . the whole book is at Gallimard's and they don't give a shit either! reminiscences and memoirs! . . . the one thing that gets a rise out of them is vacation! I'll take you back to the pregnant women . . . anyway I hope so . . . our first stop after Paris was definitely Baden-Baden . . . and I haven't told you about it . . . like I was ashamed almost . . . but it's no more shameful than Marble Arch or Times Square! . . . the Medway or the banks of the Oos . . . Lichtenthalallee! . . . the promenade of Europe's creamiest cream . . . anyway the same people as in Evian or Bath . . . that's right, matter of luck! . . . the wheel turns, the stakes are down! . . . Has luck frowned on you? . . . scum of the Universe! You've won? . . . the world is yours . . . the streets bear your name! . . . chancelleries . . . every one of them . . . waiting in line to lick your ass! . . . The "Everything Goes" Casino of History has a roulette wheel that means business, that doesn't give a shit if you're right, a thousand times right! . . . cheat . . . phony chips . . . you're in! who cares! . . . If your number comes up, the world will adore you! . . . our chips looked pretty rotten to us . . . I asked Madame von Dopf . . . strolling on Lichtenthalallee . . . along the Oos, that murmuring gurgling little river, sparkling all colors . . . why they'd'put us there . . . people unfit to be seen . . . in this setting? in this hotel?
    "Oh, never fear, Monsieur Céline, they've got some idea . . . you'll see, the great disaster will develop according to plan . . . the armies of the Reich are leaving Russia according to a plan! . . . ten thousand dead per kilometer . . . as for France, I can't say . . . not yet . . . but there too it will surely be so many per kilometer . . . Prince Metternich was telling me only yesterday, reprisals in Paris, already . . . Take care, Monsieur Céline, our madmen are extremely devious and chivalrous and methodical . . . isn't that a baroque mixture? . . . you'll see! . . . Baroque art is a German art . . . typical, don't you think? . . . typical! . . . they take their time, you'll see, Monsieur Céline, you'll see it all . . . take my own house in Potsdam, I haven't the slightest doubt that I was bombed by the Luftwaffe! not by the RAF, not at all! . . . by order of the madman, to do away with me and my house and my husband's papers! . . . at the stroke of noon they came, at lunch time . . . I'd gone to see my daughter in Grünwald . . . my house isn't there any more! . . . a detachment from the Chancellery came to search the ruins! they didn't find a thing . . . I owe my life to Prince Metternich, he called for me at eleven o'clock . . . and now Baden-Baden . . . to think that when my husband was still alive we were thinking of buying here . . . a villa . . . there's fate for you! . . . I too wonder why they've put us here, all of us together . . . or rather, I don't wonder . . . you must have noticed . . . those bombs that fall . . . not far from the hotel . . . just at lunch time . . . so regularly that people have stopped being afraid . . . they get used to it . . . they don't believe in it any more . . . If you can get away from the Simplon, go, Monsieur