During the war between Britain and France, men were conscripted into the French army by a kind of lottery system. When someone's name was drawn, he had to go off to battle. There was one exception to this, however. A person could be exempt if another was willing to take his place. On one occasion the authorities came to a certain man and told him he was among those who had been chosen. He refused to go, saying, "I was shot 2 years ago." At first they questioned his sanity, but he insisted that this indeed was the case. …