$re = '@<pb/>\n+ +- ?(\d+) ?-@m';
$str = '<pb/>
- 6-
II faut preparer l\'opinion publique et \'habituer A considérer la felon
dont les lois doivent étre faites.';
$subst = "<pb n=\1/>";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php