More than that, he had very good ideas about his own reputation, and
instead of leaving his exploits and adventures to be written up by other
people,--that is, if any one should think it worth while to do so,--he
took that business into his own hands. He was well educated, he had
been brought up in good society, and as he desired to return to that
society it was natural for him to wish to paint his own portrait as a
buccaneer. Pictures of that kind as they were ordinarily executed were
not at all agreeable to the eyes of the cultivated classes of France,
and so M. de Lussan determined to give his personal attention not only
to his business speculations, but to his reputation. He went out as a
buccaneer in order to rob the Spaniards of treasure with which to pay
his honest debts, and, in order to prevent his piratical career being
described in the coarse and disagreeable fashion in which people
generally wrote about pirates, he determined to write his own
adventures.
If a man wishes to appear well before the world, it is often a very good
thing for him to write his autobiography, especially if there is
anything a little shady in his career, and it may be that de Lussan's
reputation as a high-minded pirate depends somewhat on the book he wrote
after he had put down the sword and taken up the pen; but if he gave a
more pleasing color to his proceedings than they really deserved, we
ought to be glad of it.
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