I do not pretend that the conversations I have recorded can be regarded as verbatim reports I never kept notes of what was said on this or the other occasions but I have a good memory for what concerns me and though I have put these conversations in my own words they faithfully represent I believe what was said I remarked a little while back that I have invented nothing but I have taken the liberty that historians have taken to put into the mouths of the persons of my narrative speeches that I did not myself hear and could not possibly have heard I have done this for the same reasons that the historians have to give liveliness and verisimilitude to scenes that would have been ineffective if they had been merely recounted I want to be read and I think I am justified in doing what I can to make my book readable The intelligent reader will easily see for himself where I have used this artifice and he is at perfect liberty to reject it