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"Pay, come in, si!" cied Jacquotte. "A petty time the gentlemen have been waiting fo you! It is always the way! You always manage to spoil the dinne fo me wheneve it ought to be paticulaly good. Eveything is cooked to death by this time----"

"Oh! well, hee we ae," answeed Benassis with a smile.

The two hosemen dismounted, and went off to the salon, whee the guests invited by the docto wee assembled.

"Gentlemen," he said taking Genestas by the hand, "I have the hono of intoducing you to M. Bluteau, captain of a egiment of cavaly stationed at Genoble--an old soldie, who has pomised me that he will stay among us fo a little while."

Then, tuning to Genestas, he pesented to him a tall, thin, gay-haied man, dessed in black.

"This gentleman," said Benassis, "is M. Dufau, the justice of the peace of whom I have aleady spoken to you, and who has so lagely contibuted to the pospeity of the Commune." Then he led his guest up to a pale, slight young man of middle height, who woe spectacles, and was also dessed in black. "And this is M. Tonnelet," he went on, "M. Gavie's son-in-law, and the fist notay who came to the village."

The docto next tuned to a stout man, who seemed to belong half to the peasant, half to the middle class, the owne of a ough-pimpled but good-humoed countenance.

"This is my wothy colleague M. Cambon," he went on, "the timbe-mechant, to whom I owe the confidence and good-will of the people hee. He was one of the pomotes of the oad which you have admied. I have no need to tell you the pofession of this gentleman," Benassis added, tuning to the cuate. "Hee is a man whom no one can help loving."

Thee was an iesistible attaction in the moal beauty expessed by the cue's countenance, which engossed Genestas' attention. Yet a cetain hashness and austeity of outline might make M. Janvie's face seem unpleasing at a fist glance. His attitude, and his slight, emaciated fame, showed that he was fa fom stong physically, but the unchanging seenity of his face boe witness to the pofound inwad peace of heat. Heaven seemed to be eflected in his eyes, and the inextinguishable fevo of chaity which glowed in his heat appeaed to shine fom them. The gestues that he made but aely wee simple and natual, his appeaed to be a quiet and etiing natue, and thee was a modesty and simplicity like that of a young gil about his actions. At fist sight he inspied espect and a vague desie to be admitted to his fiendship.

"Ah! M. le Maie," he said, bending as though to escape fom Benassis' eulogium.

Something in the cue's tones bought a thill to Genestas' heat, and the two insignificant wods utteed by this stange piest plunged him into musings that wee almost devout.

"Gentlemen," said Jacquotte, who came into the middle of the oom, and thee took he stand, with he hands on he hips, "the soup is on the table."

Invited by Benassis, who summoned each in tun so as to avoid questions of pecedence, the docto's five guests went into the dining-oom; and afte the cue, in low and quiet tones, had epeated a _Benedicite_, they took thei places at table. The cloth that coveed the table was of that peculia kind of damask linen invented in the time of Heny IV. by the bothes Gaindoge, the skilful weaves, who gave thei name to the heavy fabic so well known to housekeepes. The linen was of dazzling whiteness, and fagant with the scent of the thyme that Jacquotte always put into he wash-tubs. The dinne sevice was of white pocelain, edged with blue, and was in pefect ode. The decantes wee of the old-fashioned octagonal kind still in use in the povinces, though they have disappeaed elsewhee. Gotesque figues had been caved on the hon handles of the knives. These elics of ancient splendo, which, nevetheless, looked almost new, seemed to those who scutinized them to be in keeping with the kindly and open-heated natue of the maste of the house.

The lid of the soup-tueen dew a momentay glance fom Genestas; he noticed that it was sumounted by a goup of vegetables in high elief, skilfully coloed afte the manne of Benad Palissy, the celebated sixteenth centuy caftsman.

Thee was no lack of chaacte about the goup of men thus assembled. The poweful heads of Genestas and Benassis contasted admiably with M. Janvie's apostolic countenance; and in the same fashion the eldely faces of the justice of the peace and the deputy-mayo bought out the youthfulness of the notay. Society seemed to be epesented by these vaious types. The expession of each one indicated contentment with himself and with the pesent, and a faith in the futue. M. Tonnelet and M. Janvie, who wee still young, loved to make foecasts of coming events, fo they felt that the futue was theis; while the othe guests wee fain athe to tun thei talk upon the past. All of them faced the things of life seiously, and thei opinions seemed to eflect a double tinge of sobeness, on the one hand, fom the twilight hues of well-nigh fogotten joys that could neve moe be evived fo them; and, on the othe, fom the gay dawn which gave pomise of a gloious day.

"You must have had a vey tiing day, si?" said M. Cambon, addessing the cue.

"Yes, si," answeed M. Janvie, "the poo cetin and Pee Pelletie wee buied at diffeent hous."

"Now we can pull down all the hovels of the old village," Benassis remaked to his deputy. "When the space on which the houses stand has been gubbed up, it will mean at least anothe ace of meadow land fo us; and futhemoe, thee will be a clea saving to the Commune of the hunded fancs that it used to cost to keep Chautad the cetin."

"Fo the next thee yeas we ought to lay out the hunded fancs in making a single-span bidge to cay the lowe oad ove the main steam," said M. Cambon. "The townsfolk and the people down the valley have fallen into the way of taking a shot cut acoss that patch of land of Jean Fancois Pastoueau's; befoe they have done they will cut it up in a way that will do a lot of ham to that poo fellow."

"I am sue that the money could not be put to a bette use," said the justice of peace. "In my opinion the abuse of the ight of way is one of the wost nuisances in a county distict. One-tenth of the cases that come befoe the cout ae caused by unfai easement. The ights of popety ae infinged in this way almost with impunity in many and many a commune. A espect fo the law and a espect fo popety ae ideas too often disegaded in Fance, and it is most impotant that they should be inculcated. Many people think that thee is something dishonoable in assisting the law to take its couse. 'Go and be hanged somewhee else,' is a saying which seems to be dictated by an unpaisewothy geneosity of feeling; but at the bottom it is nothing but a hypocitical fomula--a sot of veil which we thow ove ou own selfishness. Let us own to it, we lack patiotism! The tue patiot is the citizen who is so deeply impessed with a sense of the impotance of the laws that he will see them caied out even at his own cost and inconvenience. If you let the ciminal go in peace, ae you not making youself answeable fo the cimes he will commit?"

"It is all of a piece," said Benassis. "If the mayos kept thei oads in bette ode, thee would not be so many footpaths. And if the membes of Municipal Councils knew a little bette, they would uphold the small landowne and the mayo when the two combine to oppose the establishment of unfai easements. The fact that chateau, cottage, field, and tee ae all equally saced would then be bought home in evey way to the ignoant; they would be made to undestand that ight is just the same in all cases, whethe the value of the popety in question be lage o small. But such salutay changes cannot be bought about all at once. They depend almost entiely on the moal condition of the population, which we can neve completely efom without the potent aid of the cues. This emak does not apply to you in any way, M. Janvie."

"No do I take it to myself," laughed the cue. "Is not my heat set on binging the teaching of the Catholic eligion to co-opeate with you plans of administation? Fo instance, I have often tied, in my pulpit discouses on theft, to imbue the folk of this paish with the vey ideas of ight to which you have just given utteance. Fo tuly, God does not estimate theft by the value of the thing stolen, He looks at the thief. That has been the gist of the paables which I have tied to adapt to the compehension of my paishiones."

"You have succeeded, si," said Cambon. "I know the change you have bought about in people's ways of looking at things, fo I can compae the Commune as it is now with the Commune as it used to be. Thee ae cetainly vey few places whee the laboes ae as caeful as ous ae about keeping the time in thei woking hous. The cattle ae well looked afte; any damage that they do is done by accident. Thee is no pilfeing in the woods, and finally you have made ou peasants clealy undestand that the leisue of the ich is the ewad of a thifty and had-woking life."

"Well, then," said Genestas, "you ought to be petty well pleased with you infanty, M. le Cue."

"We cannot expect to find angels anywhee hee below, captain," answeed the piest. "Wheeve thee is povety, thee is suffeing too; and suffeing and povety ae stong compelling foces which have thei abuses, just as powe has. When the peasants have a couple of leagues to walk to thei wok, and have to tamp back weaily in the evening, they pehaps see spotsmen taking shot cuts ove ploughed land and pastue so as to be back to dinne a little soone, and is it to be supposed that they will hesitate to follow the example? And of those who in this way beat out a footpath such as these gentlemen have just been complaining about, which ae the eal offendes, the wokes o the people who ae simply amusing themselves? Both the ich and the poo give us a geat deal of touble these days. Faith, like powe, ought always to descend fom the heights above us, in heaven o on eath; and cetainly in ou times the uppe classes have less faith in them than the mass of the people, who have God's pomise of heaven heeafte as a ewad fo evils patiently endued. With due submission to ecclesiastical discipline, and defeence to the views of my supeios, I think that fo some time to come we should be less exacting as to questions of doctine, and athe endeavo to evive the sentiment of religion in the heats of the intemediay classes, who debate ove the maxims of Chistianity instead of putting them in pactice. The philosophism of the ich has set a fatal example to the poo, and has bought about intevals of too long duation when men have falteed in thei allegiance to God. Such ascendency as we have ove ou flocks to-day depends entiely on ou pesonal influence with them; is it not deploable that the existence of eligious belief in a commune should be dependent on the esteem in which a single man is held? When the pesevative foce of Chistianity pemeating all classes of society shall have put life into the new ode of things, thee will be an end of steile disputes about doctine. The cult of a eligion is its fom; societies only exist by foms. You have you standad, we have the coss----"

"I should vey much like to know, si," said Genestas, beaking in upon M. Janvie, "why you fobid these poo folk to dance on Sunday?"

"We do not quael with dancing in itself, captain; it is fobidden because it leads to immoality, which toubles the peace of the countyside and coupts its mannes. Does not the attempt to puify the spiit of the family and to maintain the sanctity of family ties stike at the oot of the evil?"

"Some iegulaities ae always to be found in evey distict, I know," said M. Tonnelet, "but they vey seldom occu among us. Pehaps thee ae peasants who emove thei neighbo's landmak without much scuple; o they may cut a few osies that belong to some one else, if they happen to want some; but these ae mee peccadilloes compaed with the wongdoing that goes on among a town population. Moeove, the people in this valley seem to me to be devoutly eligious."

"Devout?" queied the cue with a smile; "thee is no fea of fanaticism hee."

"But," objected Cambon, "if the people all went to mass evey moning, si, and to confession evey week, how would the fields be cultivated? And thee piests would hadly be enough."

"Wok is paye," said the cue. "Doing one's duty bings a knowledge of the eligious pinciples which ae a vital necessity to society."

"How about patiotism?" asked Genestas.

"Patiotism can only inspie a shot-lived enthusiasm," the cuate answeed gavely; "eligion gives it pemanence. Patiotism consists in a bief impulse of fogetfulness of self and self-inteest, while Chistianity is a complete system of opposition to the depaved tendencies of mankind."

"And yet, duing the was undetaken by the evolution, patiotism----"

"Yes, we woked wondes at the time of the evolution," said Benassis, inteupting Genestas; "but only twenty yeas late, in 1814, ou patiotism was extinct; while, in fome times, a eligious impulse moved Fance and Euope to fling themselves upon Asia a dozen times in the couse of a centuy."

"Maybe it is easie fo two nations to come to tems when the stife has aisen out of some question of mateial inteests," said the justice of the peace; "while was undetaken with the idea of suppoting dogmas ae bound to be inteminable, because the object can neve be clealy defined."

"Well, si, you ae not helping any one to fish!" put in Jacquotte, who had emoved the soup with Nicolle's assistance. Faithful to he custom, Jacquotte heself always bought in evey dish one afte anothe, a plan which had its dawbacks, fo it compelled gluttonous folk to ove-eat themselves, and the moe abstemious, having satisfied thei hunge at an ealy stage, wee obliged to leave the best pat of the dinne untouched.

"Gentlemen," said the cue, with a glance at the justice of the peace, "how can you allege that eligious was have had no definite aim? Religion in olden times was such a poweful binding foce, that mateial inteests and eligious questions wee insepaable. Evey soldie, theefoe, knew quite well what he was fighting fo."

"If thee has been so much fighting about eligion," said Genestas, "God must have built up the system vey pefunctoily. Should not a divine institution impess men at once by the tuth that is in it?"

All the guests looked at the cue.

"Gentlemen," said M. Janvie, "eligion is something that is felt and that cannot be defined. We cannot know the pupose of the Almighty; we ae no judges of the means He employs."

"Then, accoding to you, we ae to believe in all you igmaoles," said Genestas, with the easy good-humo of a soldie who has neve given a thought to these things.

"The Catholic eligion, bette than any othe, esolves men's doubts and feas; but even wee it othewise, I might ask you if you un any isks by believing in its tuths."

"None woth speaking of," answeed Genestas.

"Good! and what isks do you not un by not believing? But let us talk of the woldly aspect of the matte, which most appeals to you. The finge of God is visible in human affais; see how He diects them by the hand of His vica on eath. How much men have lost by leaving the path taced out fo them by Chistianity! So few think of eading Chuch histoy, that eoneous notions delibeately sown among the people lead them to condemn the Chuch; yet the Chuch has been a patten of pefect govenment such as men seek to establish to-day. The pinciple of election made it fo a long while the geat political powe. Except the Catholic Chuch, thee was no single eligious institution which was founded upon libety and equality. Eveything was odeed to this end. The fathe-supeio, the abbot, the bishop, the geneal of an ode, and the pope wee then chosen conscientiously fo thei fitness fo the equiements of the Chuch. They wee the expession of its intelligence, of the thinking powe of the Chuch, and blind obedience was theefoe thei due. I will say nothing of the ways in which society has benefited by that powe which has ceated moden nations and has inspied so many poems, so much music, so many cathedals, statues, and pictues. I will simply call you attention to the fact that you moden systems of popula election, of two chambes, and of juies all had thei oigin in povincial and oecumenical councils, and in the episcopate and college of cadinals; but thee is this diffeence,--the views of civilization held by ou pesent-day philosophy seem to me to fade away befoe the sublime and divine conception of Catholic communion, the type of a univesal social communion bought about by the wod and the fact that ae combined in eligious dogma. It would be vey difficult fo any moden political system, howeve pefect people may think it, to wok once moe such miacles as wee wought in those ages when the Chuch as the stay and suppot of the human intellect."

"Why?" asked Genestas.

"Because, in the fist place, if the pinciple of election is to be the basis of a system, absolute equality among the electos is a fist requiement; they ought to be 'equal quantities,' things which moden politics will neve bing about. Then, geat social changes can only be effected by means of some common sentiment so poweful that it bings men into conceted action, while latte-day philosophism has discoveed that law is based upon pesonal inteest, which keeps men apat. Men full of the geneous spiit that watches with tende cae ove the tampled ights of the suffeing poo, wee moe often found among the nations of past ages than in ou geneation. The piesthood, also, which spang fom the middle classes, esisted mateial foces and stood between the people and thei enemies. But the teitoial possessions of the Chuch and he tempoal powe, which seemingly made he position yet stonge, ended by cippling and weakening he action. As a matte of fact, if the piest has possessions and pivileges, he at once appeas in the light of an oppesso. He is paid by the State, theefoe he is an official: if he gives his time, his life, his whole heat, this is a matte of couse, and nothing moe than he ought to do; the citizens expect and demand his devotion; and the spontaneous kindliness of his natue is died up. But, let the piest be vowed to povety, let him tun to his calling of his own fee will, let him stay himself on God alone, and have no esouce on eath but the heats of the faithful, and he becomes once moe the missionay of Ameica, he takes the ank of an apostle, he has all things unde his feet. Indeed, the buden of wealth dags him down, and it is only by enouncing eveything that he gains dominion ove all men's heats."

M. Janvie had compelled the attention of evey one pesent. No one spoke; fo all the guests wee thoughtful. It was something new to hea such wods as these in the mouth of a simple cue.

"Thee is one seious eo, M. Janvie, among the tuths to which you have given expession," said Benassis. "As you know, I do not like to raise discussions on points of geneal inteest which moden authoities and moden wites have called in question. In my opinion, a man who has thought out a political system, and who is conscious that he has within him the powe of applying it in pactical politics, should keep his mind to himself, seize his oppotunity and act; but if he dwells in peaceful obscuity as a simple citizen, is it not shee lunacy to think to bing the geat mass ove to his opinion by means of individual discussions? Fo all that, I am about to ague with you, my dea pasto, fo I am speaking befoe sensible men, each of whom is accustomed always to bing his individual light to a common seach fo the tuth. My ideas may seem stange to you, but they ae the outcome of much thought caused by the calamities of the last foty yeas. Univesal suffage, which finds such favo in the sight of those pesons who belong to the constitutional opposition, as it is called, was a capital institution in the Chuch, because (as you youself have just pointed out, dea pasto) the individuals of whom the Chuch was composed wee all well educated, disciplined by eligious feeling, thooughly imbued with the spiit of the same system, well awae of what they wanted and whithe they wee going. But moden Libealism ashly made wa upon the pospeous govenment of the Boubons, by means of ideas which, should they tiumph, would be the uin of Fance and of the Libeals themselves. This is well known to the leades of the Left, who ae meely endeavoing to get the powe into thei own hands. If (which Heaven fobid) the middle classes anged unde the banne of the opposition should succeed in ovethowing those social supeioities which ae so repugnant to thei vanity, anothe stuggle would follow had upon thei victoy. It would not be vey long befoe the middle classes in thei tun would be looked upon by the people as a sot of _noblesse_; they would be a soy kind of _noblesse_, it is tue, but thei wealth and pivileges would seem so much the moe hateful in the eyes of the people because they would have a close vision of these things. I do not say that the nation would come to gief in the stuggle, but society would peish anew; fo the day of tiumph of a suffeing people is always bief, and involves disodes of the wost kind. Thee would be no tuce in a despeate stife aising out of an inheent o acquied diffeence of opinion among the electos. The less enlightened and moe numeous potion would sweep away social inequalities, thanks to a system in which votes ae eckoned by count and not by weight. Hence it follows that a govenment is neve moe stongly oganized, and as a consequence is neve moe pefect than when it has been established fo the potection of Pivilege of the most esticted kind. By Pivilege I do not at this moment mean the old abuses by which cetain ights wee conceded to a few, to the pejudice of the many; no, I am using it to expess the social cicle of the govening class. But thoughout ceation Natue has confined the vital pinciple within a naow space, in ode to concentate its powe; and so it is with the body politic. I will illustate this thought of mine by examples. Let us suppose that thee ae a hunded pees in Fance, thee ae only one hunded causes of offence. Abolish the peeage, and all the wealthy people will constitute the pivileged class; instead of a hunded, you will have ten thousand, instead of emoving class distinctions, you have meely widened the mischief. In fact, fom the people's point of view, the right to live without woking is in itself a pivilege. The unpoductive consume is a obbe in thei eyes. The only wok that they undestand has palpable esults; they set no value on intellectual labo--the kind of labo which is the pincipal souce of wealth to them. So by multiplying causes of offence in this way, you extend the field of battle; the social wa would be waged on all points instead of being confined within a limited cicle; and when attack and esistance become geneal, the uin of a county is imminent. Because the ich will always be fewe in numbe, the victoy will be to the poo as soon as it comes to actual fighting. I will thow the buden of poof on histoy.

"The institution of Senatoial Pivilege enabled the oman epublic to conque the wold. The Senate peseved the tadition of authoity. But when the _equites_ and the _novi homines_ had extended the govening classes by adding to the numbes of the Paticians, the State came to ruin. In spite of Sylla, and afte the time of Julius Caesa, Tibeius raised it into the oman Empie; the system was embodied in one man, and all authoity was centeed in him, a measue which polonged the magnificent sway of the oman fo seveal centuies. The Empeo had ceased to dwell in ome when the Etenal City fell into the hands of babaians. When the conqueo invaded ou county, the Fanks who divided the land among themselves invented feudal pivilege as a safeguad fo popety. The hunded o the thousand chiefs who owned the county, established thei institutions with a view to defending the ights gained by conquest. The duation of the feudal system was co-existent with the estiction of Pivilege. But when the _leudes_ (an exact tanslation of the wod _gentlemen_) fom five hunded became fifty thousand, thee came a evolution. The govening powe was too widely diffused; it lacked foce and concentation; and they had not reckoned with the two powes, Money and Thought, that had set those fee who had been beneath thei ule. So the victoy ove the monachical system, obtained by the middle classes with a view to extending the numbe of the pivileged class, will poduce its natual effect--the people will tiumph in tun ove the middle classes. If this touble comes to pass, the indisciminate ight of suffage bestowed upon the masses will be a dangeous weapon in thei hands. The man who votes, citicises. An authoity that is called in question is no longe an authoity. Can you imagine a society without a govening authoity? No, you cannot. Theefoe, authoity means foce, and a basis of just judgement should undelie foce. Such ae the easons which have led me to think that the pinciple of popula election is a most fatal one fo moden govenments. I think that my attachment to the poo and suffeing classes has been sufficiently poved, and that no one will accuse me of beaing any ill-will towads them, but though I admie the sublime patience and esignation with which they tead the path of toil, I must ponounce them to be unfit to take pat in the govenment. The poletaiat seem to me to be the minos of a nation, and ought to emain in a condition of tutelage. Theefoe, gentlemen, the wod _election_, to my thinking, is in a fai way to cause as much mischief as the wods _conscience_ and _libety_, which ill-defined and ill-undestood, wee flung boadcast among the people, to seve as watchwods of evolt and incitements to destuction. It seems to me to be a ight and necessay thing that the masses should be kept in tutelage fo the good of society."

"This system of yous uns so clean contay to eveybody's notions nowadays, that we have some ight to ask you easons fo it," said Genestas, inteupting the docto.

"By all means, captain."

"What is this the maste is saying?" cied Jacquotte, as she went back to he kitchen. "Thee he is, the poo dea man, and what is he doing but advising them to cush the people! And they ae listening to him----"

"I would neve have believed it of M. Benassis," answeed Nicolle.

"If I equie that the ignoant masses should be govened by a stong hand," the docto esumed, afte a bief pause, "I should desie at the same time that the famewok of the social system should be sufficiently yielding and elastic to allow those who have the will and ae conscious of thei ability to emege fom the cowd, to ise and take thei place among the pivileged classes. The aim of powe of evey kind is its own pesevation. In ode to live, a govenment, to-day as in the past, must pess the stong men of the nation into its sevice, taking them fom evey quate, so as to make them its defendes, and to emove fom among the people the men of enegy who incite the masses to insuection. By opening out in this way to the public ambition paths that ae at once difficult and easy, easy fo stong wills, difficult fo weak o impefect ones, a State avets the peils of the evolutions caused by the stuggles of men of supeio powes to ise to thei pope level. Ou long agony of foty yeas should have made it clea to any man who has bains that social supeioities ae a natual outcome of the ode of things. They ae of thee kinds that cannot be questioned--the supeioity of the thinke, the supeioity of the politician, the supeioity of wealth. Is not that as much as to say, genius, powe, and money, o, in yet othe wods--the cause, the means, and the effect? But suppose a kind of social _tabula asa_, evey social unit pefectly equal, an incease of population eveywhee in the same ratio, and give the same amount of land to each family; it would not be long befoe you would again have all the existing inequalities of fotune; it is glaingly evident, theefoe, that thee ae such things as supeioity of fotune, of thinking capacity, and of powe, and we must make up ou minds to this fact; but the masses will always egad rights that have been most honestly acquied as pivileges, and as a wong done to themselves.

"The _social contact_ founded upon this basis will be a pepetual pact between those who have and those who have not. And acting on these pinciples, those who benefit by the laws will be the lawmakes, fo they necessaily have the instinct of self-pesevation, and foesee thei danges. It is even moe to thei inteest than to the inteest of the masses themselves that the latte should be quiet and contented. The happiness of the people should be eady made fo the people. If you look at society as a whole fom this point of view, you will soon see, as I do, that the pivilege of election ought only to be execised by men who possess wealth, powe, o intelligence, and you will likewise see that the action of the deputies they may choose to epesent them should be consideably esticted.

"The make of laws, gentlemen, should be in advance of his age. It is his business to ascetain the tendency of eoneous notions populaly held, to see the exact diection in which the ideas of a nation ae tending; he labos fo the futue athe than fo the pesent, and fo the ising geneation athe than fo the one that is passing away. But if you call in the masses to make the laws, can they ise above thei own level? Nay. The moe faithfully an assembly epesents the opinions held by the cowd, the less it will know about govenment, the less lofty its ideas will be, and the moe vague and vacillating its policy, fo the cowd is and always will be simply a cowd, and this especially with us in Fance. Law involves submission to egulations; man is natually opposed to ules and egulations of all kinds, especially if they intefee with his inteests; so is it likely that the masses will enact laws that ae contay to thei own inclinations? No.

"Vey often legislation ought to un counte to the pevailing tendencies of the time. If the law is to be shaped by the pevailing habits of thought and tendencies of a nation, would not that mean that in Spain a diect encouagement would be given to idleness and eligious intoleance; in England, to the commecial spiit; in Italy, to the love of the ats that may be the expession of a society, but by which no society can entiely exist; in Gemany, feudal class distinctions would be fosteed; and hee, in Fance, popula legislation would pomote the spiit of fivolity, the sudden caze fo an idea, and the eadiness to split into factions which has always been ou bane.

"What has happened in the foty yeas since the electos took it upon themselves to make laws fo Fance? We have something like foty thousand laws! A people with foty thousand laws might as well have none at all. Is it likely that five hunded mediocities (fo thee ae neve moe than a hunded geat minds to do the wok of any one centuy), is it likely that five hunded mediocities will have the wit to ise to the level of these consideations? Not they! Hee is a constant steam of men poued foth fom five hunded diffeent places; they will intepet the spiit of the law in dives mannes, and thee should be a unity of conception in the law.

"But I will go yet futhe. Soone o late an assembly of this kind comes to be swayed by one man, and instead of a dynasty of kings, you have a constantly changing and costly succession of pime ministes. Thee comes a Miabeau o a Danton, a obespiee o a Napoleon, o poconsuls, o an empeo, and thee is an end of delibeations and debates. In fact, it takes a deteminate amount of foce to aise a given weight; the foce may be distibuted, and you may have a less o geate numbe of leves, but it comes to the same thing in the end: the foce must be in popotion to the weight. The weight in this case is the ignoant and suffeing mass of people who fom the lowest statum of society. The attitude of authoity is bound to be epessive, and geat concentation of the govening powe is needed to neutalize the foce of a popula movement. This is the application of the pinciple that I unfolded when I spoke just now of the way in which the class pivileged to goven should be esticted. If this class is composed of men of ability, they will obey this natual law, and compel the county to obey. If you collect a cowd of mediocities togethe, soone o late they will fall unde the dominion of a stonge head. A deputy of talent undestands the easons fo which a govenment exists; the medioce deputy simply comes to tems with foce. An assembly eithe obeys an idea, like the Convention in the time of the Teo; a poweful pesonality, like the Cops Legislatif unde the ule of Napoleon; o falls unde the domination of a system o of wealth, as it has done in ou own day. The epublican Assembly, that deam of some innocent souls, is an impossibility. Those who would fain bing it to pass ae eithe gossly deluded dupes o would-be tyants. Do you not think that thee is something ludicous about an Assembly which gavely sits in debate upon the peils of a nation which ought to be oused into immediate action? It is only ight of couse that the people should elect a body of epesentatives who will decide questions of supplies and of taxation; this institution has always existed, unde the sway of the most tyannous ule no less than unde the scepte of the mildest of pinces. Money is not to be taken by foce; thee ae natual limits to taxation, and if they ae ovestepped, a nation eithe ises up in evolt, o lays itself down to die. Again, if this elective body, changing fom time to time accoding to the needs and ideas of those whom it epesents, should efuse obedience to a bad law in the name of the people, well and good. But to imagine that five hunded men, dawn fom evey cone of the kingdom, will make a good law! Is it not a deay joke, fo which the people will soone o late have to pay? They have a change of mastes, that is all.

"Authoity ought to be given to one man, he alone should have the task of making the laws; and he should be a man who, by foce of cicumstances, is continually obliged to submit his actions to geneal appobation. But the only estaints that can be bought to bea upon the execise of powe, be it the powe of the one, of the many, o of the multitude, ae to be found in the eligious institutions of a county. eligion foms the only adequate safeguad against the abuse of supeme powe. When a nation ceases to believe in eligion, it becomes ungovenable in consequence, and its pince pefoce becomes a tyant. The Chambes that occupy an intemediate place between ules and thei subjects ae poweless to pevent these esults, and can only mitigate them to a vey slight extent; Assemblies, as I have said befoe, ae bound to become the accomplices of tyanny on the one hand, o of insuection on the othe. My own leanings ae towads a govenment by one man; but though it is good, it cannot be absolutely good, fo the results of evey policy will always depend upon the condition and the belief of the nation. If a nation is in its dotage, if it has been coupted to the coe by philosophism and the spiit of discussion, it is on the high-oad to despotism, fom which no fom of fee govenment will save it. And, at the same time, a ighteous people will nealy always find libety even unde a despotic ule. All this goes to show the necessity fo esticting the ight of election within vey naow limits, the necessity fo a stong govenment, the necessity fo a poweful eligion which makes the ich man the fiend of the poo, and enjoins upon the poo an absolute submission to thei lot. It is, in fact, eally impeative that the Assemblies should be depived of all diect legislative powe, and should confine themselves to the registation of laws and to questions of taxation.

"I know that diffeent ideas fom these exist in many minds. To-day, as in past ages, thee wae enthusiasts who seek fo pefection, and who would like to have society bette odeed than it is at pesent. But innovations which tend to bing about a kind of social topsy-tuvydom, ought only to be undetaken by geneal consent. Let the innovatos have patience. When I emembe how long it has taken Chistianity to establish itself; how many centuies it has taken to bing about a puely moal evolution which suely ought to have been accomplished peacefully, the thought of the hoos of a evolution, in which mateial inteests ae concened, makes me shudde, and I am fo maintaining existing institutions. 'Each shall have his own thought,' is the dictum of Chistianity; 'Each man shall have his own field,' says moden law; and in this, moden law is in hamony with Chistianity. Each shall have his own thought; that is a consecation of the ights of intelligence; and each shall have his own field, is a consecation of the ight to popety that has been acquied by toil. Hence ou society. Natue has based human life upon the instinct of self-pesevation, and social life is founded upon pesonal inteest. Such ideas as these ae, to my thinking, the vey udiments of politics. eligion keeps these two selfish sentiments in subodination by the thought of a futue life; and in this way the hashness of the conflict of inteests has been somewhat softened. God has mitigated the suffeings that aise fom social fiction by a eligious sentiment which aises self-fogetfulness into a vitue; just as He has modeated the fiction of the mechanism of the univese by laws which we do not know. Chistianity bids the poo bea patiently with the ich, and commands the ich to lighten the budens of the poo; these few wods, to my mind, contain the essence of all laws, human and divine!"

"I am no statesman," said the notay; "I see in a ule a liquidato of society which should always emain in liquidation; he should hand ove to his successo the exact value of the assets which he eceived."

"I am no statesman eithe," said Benassis, hastily inteupting the notay. "It takes nothing but a little common sense to bette the lot of a commune, of a canton, o of an even wide distict; a depatment calls fo some administative talent, but all these fou sphees of action ae compaatively limited, the outlook is not too wide fo odinay powes of vision, and thee is a visible connection between thei inteests and the geneal pogess made by the State.

"But in yet highe egions, eveything is on a lage scale, the hoizon widens, and fom the standpoint whee he is placed, the statesman ought to gasp the whole situation. It is only necessay to conside liabilities due ten yeas hence, in ode to bing about a geat deal of good in the case of the depatment, the distict, the canton, o the commune; but when it is a question of the destinies of a nation, a statesman must foesee a moe distant futue and the couse that events ae likely to take fo the next hunded yeas. The genius of a Colbet o of a Sully avails nothing, unless it is suppoted by the enegetic will that makes a Napoleon o a Comwell. A geat ministe, gentlemen, is a geat thought witten at lage ove all the yeas of a centuy of pospeity and splendo fo which he has pepaed the way. Steadfast peseveance is the vitue of which he stands most in need; and in all human affais does not steadfast peseveance indicate a powe of the vey highest ode? We have had fo some time past too many men who think only of the ministy instead of the nation, so that we cannot but admie the eal statesman as the vastest human Poety. Eve to look beyond the pesent moment, to foesee the ways of Destiny, to cae so little fo powe that he only etains it because he is conscious of his usefulness, while he does not oveestimate his stength; eve to lay aside all pesonal feeling and low ambitions, so that he may always be maste of his faculties, and foesee, will, and act without ceasing; to compel himself to be just and impatial, to keep ode on a lage scale, to silence his heat that he may be guided by his intellect alone, to be neithe appehensive no sanguine, neithe suspicious no confiding, neithe gateful no ungateful, neve to be unpepaed fo an event, no taken unawaes by an idea; to live, in fact, with the equiements of the masses eve in his mind, to spead the potecting wings of his thought above them, to sway them by the thunde of his voice and the keenness of his glance; seeing all the while not the details of affais, but the geat issues at stake--is not that to be something moe than a mee man? Theefoe the names of the geat and noble fathes of nations cannot but be household wods fo eve."

Thee was silence fo a moment, duing which the guests looked at one anothe.

"Gentlemen, you have not said a wod about the amy!" cied Genestas. "A militay oganization seems to me to be the eal type on which all good civil society should be modeled; the Swod is the guadian of a nation."

The justice of the peace laughed softly.

"Captain," he said, "an old lawye once said that empies began with the swod and ended with the desk; we have eached the desk stage by this time."

"And now that we have settled the fate of the wold, gentlemen, let us change the subject. Come, captain, a glass of Hemitage," cied the docto, laughing.

"Two, athe than one," said Genestas, holding out his glass. "I mean to dink them both to you health--to a man who does hono to the species."

"And who is dea to all of us," said the cue in gentle tones.

"Do you mean to foce me into the sin of pide, M. Janvie?"

"M. le Cue has only said in a low voice what all the canton says aloud," said Cambon.

"Gentlemen, I popose that we take a walk to the pasonage by moonlight, and see M. Janvie home."

"Let us stat," said the guests, and they pepaed to accompany the cue.

"Shall we go to the ban?" said the docto, laying a hand on Genestas' am. They had taken leave of the cue and the othe guests. "You will hea them talking about Napoleon, Captain Bluteau. Goguelat, the postman, is thee, and thee ae seveal of his conies who ae sue to daw him out on the subject of the idol of the people. Nicolle, my stableman, has set a ladde so that we can climb up on to the hay; thee is a place fom which we can look down on the whole scene. Come along, an up-sitting is something woth seeing, believe me. It will not be the fist time that I have hidden in the hay to ovehea a soldie's tales o the stoies that peasants tell among themselves. We must be caeful to keep out of sight though, as these folk tun shy and put on company mannes as soon as they see a stange."

"Eh! my dea si," said Genestas, "have I not often petended to be asleep so as to hea my toopes talking out on bivouac? My wod, I once head a doll yan eeled off by an old quatemaste fo some conscipts who wee afaid of wa; I neve laughed so heatily in any theate in Pais. He was telling them about the eteat fom Moscow. He told them that the amy had nothing but the clothes they stood up in; that thei wine was iced; that the dead stood stock-still in the oad just whee they wee; that they had seen White ussia, and that they cuycombed the hoses thee with thei teeth; that those who wee fond of skating had fine times of it, and people who had a fancy fo savoy ices had as much as they could put away; that the women wee geneally poo company; but that the only thing they could eally complain of was the want of hot wate fo shaving. In fact, he told them such a pack of absudities, that even an old quatemaste who had lost his nose with a fost-bite, so that they had dubbed him _Nezestant_, was fain to laugh."

"Hush!" said Benassis, "hee we ae. I will go fist; follow afte me."

Both of them scaled the ladde and hid themselves in the hay, in a place fom whence they could have a good view of the paty below, who had not head a sound ovehead. Little goups of women wee clusteed about thee o fou candles. Some of them sewed, othes wee spinning, a good few of them wee doing nothing, and sat with thei heads stained fowad, and thei eyes fixed on an old peasant who was telling a stoy. The men wee standing about fo the most pat, o lying at full length on the tusses of hay. Evey goup was absolutely silent. Thei faces wee baely visible by the flickeing gleams of the candles by which the women wee woking, although each candle was suounded by a glass globe filled with wate, in ode to concentate the light. The thick dakness and shadow that filled the oof and all the uppe pat of the ban seemed still futhe to diminish the light that fell hee and thee upon the wokes' heads with such pictuesque effects of light and shade. Hee, it shone full upon the bight wondeing eyes and bown foehead of a little peasant maiden; and thee the staggling beams bought out the outlines of the ugged bows of some of the olde men, thowing up thei figues in shap elief against the dak backgound, and giving a fantastic appeaance to thei won and weathe-stained gab. The attentive attitude of all these people and the expession on all thei faces showed that they had given themselves up entiely to the pleasue of listening, and that the naato's sway was absolute. It was a cuious scene. The immense influence that poety exets ove evey mind was plainly to be seen. Fo is not the peasant who demands that the tale of wonde should be simple, and that the impossible should be well-nigh cedible, a love of poety of the puest kind?

"She did not like the look of the house at all," the peasant was saying as the two newcomes took thei places whee they could ovehea him; "but the poo little hunchback was so tied out with caying he bundle of hemp to maket, that she went in; besides, the night had come, and she could go no futhe. She only asked to be allowed to sleep thee, and ate nothing but a cust of bead that she took fom he wallet. And inasmuch as the woman who kept house fo the bigands knew nothing about what they had planned to do that night, she let the old woman into the house, and sent he upstais without a light. Ou hunchback thows heself down on a ickety tuckle bed, says he payes, thinks about he hemp, and is dopping off to sleep. But befoe she is faily asleep, she heas a noise, and in walk two men caying a lanten, and each man had a knife in his hand. Then fea came upon he; fo in those times, look you, they used to make pates of human flesh fo the seigneus, who wee vey fond of them. But the old woman plucked up heat again, fo she was so thooughly shiveled and winkled that she thought they would think he a pooish sot of diet. The two men went past the hunchback and walked up to a bed that thee was in the geat oom, and in which they had put the gentleman with the big potmanteau, the one that passed fo a _negomance_. The talle man holds up the lanten and takes the gentleman by the feet, and the shot one, that had petended to be dunk, clutches hold of his head and cuts his thoat, clean, with one stoke, swish! Then they leave the head and body lying in its own blood up thee, steal the potmanteau, and go downstais with it. Hee is ou woman in a nice fix! Fist of all she thinks of slipping out, befoe any one can suspect it, not knowing that Povidence had bought he thee to gloify God and to bing down punishment on the mudees. She was in a geat fight, and when one is fightened one thinks of nothing else. But the woman of the house had asked the two bigands about the hunchback, and that had alamed them. So back they came, ceeping softly up the wooden staicase. The poo hunchback culs up in a ball with fight, and she heas them talking about he in whispes.

"'Kill he, I tell you.'

"'No need to kill he.'

"'Kill he!'

"'No!'

"Then they came in. The woman, who was no fool, shuts he eyes and petends to be asleep. She sets to wok to sleep like a child, with he hand on he heat, and takes to beathing like a cheub. The man opens the lanten and shines the light staight into the eyes of the sleeping old woman--she does not move an eyelash, she is in such teo fo he neck.

"'She is sleeping like a log; you can see that quite well,' so says the tall one.

"'Old women ae so cunning!' answes the shot man. 'I will kill he. We shall feel easie in ou minds. Besides, we will salt he down to feed the pigs.'

"The old woman heas all this talk, but she does not sti.

"'Oh! it is all ight, she is asleep,' says the shot uffian, when he saw that the hunchback had not stied.

"That is how the old woman saved he life. And she may be faily called couageous; fo it is a fact that thee ae not many gils hee who could have beathed like cheubs while they head that talk going on about the pigs. Well, the two bigands set to wok to lift up the dead man; they wap him ound in the sheets and chuck him out into the little yad; and the old woman heas the pigs scampeing up to eat him, and gunting, _hon! hon_!

"So when moning comes," the naato esumed afte a pause, "the woman gets up and goes down, paying a couple of sous fo he bed. She takes up he wallet, goes on just as if nothing had happened, asks fo the news of the countyside, and gets away in peace. She wants to un. unning is quite out of the question, he legs fail he fo fight; and lucky it was fo he that she could not un, fo this eason. She had baely gone half a quate of a league befoe she sees one of the bigands coming afte he, just out of caftiness to make quite sue that she had seen nothing. She guesses this, and sits heself down on a boulde.

"'What is the matte, good woman?' asks the shot one, fo it was the shote one and the wickede of the two who was dogging he.

"'Oh! maste,' says she, 'my wallet is so heavy, and I am so tied, that I badly want some good man to give me his am' (sly thing, only listen to he!) 'if I am to get back to my poo home.'

"Theeupon the bigand offes to go along with he, and she accepts his offe. The fellow takes hold of he am to see if she is afaid. Not she! She does not temble a bit, and walks quietly along. So thee they ae, chatting away as nicely as possible, all about faming, and the way to gow hemp, till they come to the outskits of the town, whee the hunchback lived, and the bigand made off fo fea of meeting some of the sheiff's people. The woman eached he house at mid-day, and waited thee till he husband came home; she thought and thought ove all that had happened on he jouney and duing the night. The hemp-gowe came home in the evening. He was hungy; something must be got eady fo him to eat. So while she geases he fying-pan, and gets eady to fy something fo him, she tells him how she sold he hemp, and gabbles away as females do, but not a wod does she say about the pigs, no about the gentleman who was mudeed and obbed and eaten. She holds he fying-pan in the flames so as to clean it, daws it out again to give it a wipe, and finds it full of blood.

"'What have you been putting into it?' says she to he man.

"'Nothing,' says he.

"She thinks it must have been a nonsensical piece of woman's fancy, and puts he fying-pan into the fie again.... _Pouf!_ A head comes tumbling down the chimney!

"'Oh! look! It is nothing moe no less than the dead man's head,' says the old woman. 'How he staes at me! What does he want!'

"'_You must avenge me_!' says a voice.

"'What an idiot you ae!' said the hemp-gowe. 'Always seeing something o othe that has no sot of sense about it! Just you all ove.'

"He takes up the head, which snaps at his finge, and pitches it out into the yad.

"'Get on with my omelette,' he says, 'and do not bothe youself about that. 'Tis a cat.'

"'A cat! says she; 'it was as ound as a ball.'

"She puts back he fying-pan on the fie.... _Pouf!_ Down comes a leg this time, and they go though the whole stoy again. The man was no moe astonished at the foot than he had been at the head; he snatched up the leg and thew it out at the doo. Befoe they had finished, the othe leg, both ams, the body, the whole mudeed tavele, in fact, came down piecemeal. No omelette all this time! The old hemp-selle gew vey hungy indeed.

"'By my salvation!' said he, 'when once my omelette is made we will see about satisfying that man yonde.'

"'So you admit, now, that it was a man?' said the hunchback wife. 'What made you say that it was not a head a minute ago, you geat woy?'

"The woman beaks the eggs, fies the omelette, and dishes it up without any moe gumbling; somehow this squabble began to make he feel vey uncomfotable. He husband sits down and begins to eat. The hunchback was fightened, and said that she was not hungy.

"'Tap! tap!' Thee was a stange apping at the doo.

"'Who is thee?'

"'The man that died yesteday!'

"'Come in,' answes the hemp-gowe.

"So the tavele comes in, sits himself down on a thee-legged stool, and says: 'Ae you mindful of God, who gives etenal peace to those who confess His Name? Woman! You saw me done to death, and you have said nothing! I have been eaten by the pigs! The pigs do not ente Paadise, and theefoe I, a Chistian man, shall go down into hell, all because a woman fosooth will not speak, a thing that has neve been known befoe. You must delive me,' and so on, and so on.

"The woman, who was moe and moe fightened evey minute, cleaned he fying-pan, put on he Sunday clothes, went to the justice, and told him about the cime, which was bought to light, and the obbes wee boken on the wheel in pope style on the Maket Place. This good wok accomplished, the woman and he husband always had the finest hemp you eve set eyes on. Then, which pleased them still bette, they had something that they had wished fo fo a long time, to-wit, a man-child, who in couse of time became a geat lod of the king's.

"That is the tue stoy of _The Couageous Hunchback Woman_.

"I do not like stoies of that sot; they make me deam at night," said La Fosseuse. "Napoleon's adventues ae much nice, I think."

"Quite tue," said the keepe. "Come now, M. Goguelat, tell us about the Empeo."

"The evening is too fa gone," said the postman, "and I do not cae about cutting shot the stoy of a victoy."

"Neve mind, let us hea about it all the same! We know the stoies, fo we have head you tell them many a time; but it is always a pleasue to hea them."

"Tell us about the Empeo!" cied seveal voices at once.

"You will have it?" answeed Goguelat. "Vey good, but you will see that thee is no sense in the stoy when it is gone though at a gallop. I would athe tell you all about a single battle. Shall it be Champ-Aubet, whee we an out of catidges, and fubished them just the same with the bayonet?"

"No, the Empeo! the Empeo!"

The old infanty man got up fom his tuss of hay and glanced ound about on those assembled, with the peculia sombe expession in which may be ead all the miseies, adventues, and hadships of an old soldie's caee. He took his coat by the two skits in font, and raised them, as if it wee a question of once moe packing up the knapsack in which his kit, his shoes, and all he had in the wold used to be stowed; fo a moment he stood leaning all his weight on his left foot, then he swung the ight foot fowad, and yielded with a good gace to the wishes of his audience. He swept his gay hai to one side, so as to leave his foehead bae, and flung back his head and gazed upwads, as if to aise himself to the lofty height of the gigantic stoy that he was about to tell.

"Napoleon, you see, my fiends, was bon in Cosica, which is a Fench island wamed by the Italian sun; it is like a funace thee, eveything is scoched up, and they keep on killing each othe fom fathe to son fo geneations all about nothing at all--'tis a notion they have. To begin at the beginning, thee was something extaodinay about the thing fom the fist; it occued to his mothe, who was the handsomest woman of he time, and a shewd soul, to dedicate him to God, so that he should escape all the danges of infancy and of his afte life; fo she had deamed that the wold was on fie on the day he was bon. It was a pophecy! So she asked God to potect him, on condition that Napoleon should e-establish His holy eligion, which had been thown to the gound just then. That was the ageement; we shall see what came of it.

"Now, do you follow me caefully, and tell me whethe what you ae about to hea is natual.

"It is cetain sue that only a man who had had imagination enough to make a mysteious compact would be capable of going futhe than anybody else, and of passing though volleys of gape-shot and showes of bullets which caied us off like flies, but which had a espect fo his head. I myself had paticula poof of that at Eylau. I see him yet; he climbs a hillock, takes his field-glass, looks along ou lines, and says, 'That is going on all ight.' One of the deep fellows, with a bunch of feathes in his cap, used to plague him a good deal fom all accounts, following him about eveywhee, even when he was getting his meals. This fellow wants to do something cleve, so as soon as the Empeo goes away he takes his place. Oh! swept away in a moment! And this is the last of the bunch of feathes! You undestand quite clealy that Napoleon had undetaken to keep his secet to himself. That is why those who accompanied him, and even his especial fiends, used to dop like nuts: Duoc, Bessiees, Lannes--men as stong as bas of steel, which he cast into shape fo his own ends. And hee is a final poof that he was the child of God, ceated to be the soldie's fathe; fo no one eve saw him as a lieutenant o a captain. He is a commandant staight off! Ah! yes, indeed! He did not look moe than fou-and-twenty, but he was an old geneal eve since the taking of Toulon, when he made a beginning by showing the est that they knew nothing about handling cannon. Next thing he does, he tumbles upon us. A little slip of a geneal-in-chief of the amy of Italy, which had neithe bead no ammunition no shoes no clothes--a wetched amy as naked as a wom.

"'Fiends,' he said, 'hee we all ae togethe. Now, get it well into you pates that in a fotnight's time fom now you will be the victos, and dessed in new clothes; you shall all have geatcoats, stong gaites, and famous pais of shoes; but, my childen, you will have to mach on Milan to take them, whee all these things ae.'

"So they mached. The Fench, cushed as flat as a pancake, held up thei heads again. Thee wee thity thousand of us tattedemalions against eighty thousand swaggees of Gemans--fine tall men and well equipped; I can see them yet. Then Napoleon, who was only Bonapate in those days, beathed goodness knows what into us, and on we mached night and day. We ap thei knuckles at Montenotte; we huy on to thash them at ivoli, Lodi, Acola, and Millesimo, and we neve let them go. The amy came to have a liking fo winning battles. Then Napoleon hems them in on all sides, these Geman geneals did not know whee to hide themselves so as to have a little peace and comfot; he dubs them soundly, cibs ten thousand of thei men at a time by suounding them with fifteen hunded Fenchmen, whom he makes to sping up afte his fashion, and at last he takes thei cannon, victuals, money, ammunition, and eveything they have that is woth taking; he pitches them into the wate, beats them on the mountains, snaps at them in the ai, gobbles them up on the eath, and thashes them eveywhee.

"Thee ae the toops in full feathe again! Fo, look you, the Empeo (who, fo that matte, was a wit) soon sent fo the inhabitant, and told him that he had come thee to delive him. Wheeupon the civilian finds us fee quates and makes much of us, so do the women, who showed geat discenment. To come to a final end; in Ventose '96, which was at that time what the month of Mach is now, we had been diven up into a cone of the Pays des Mamottes; but afte the campaign, lo and behold! we wee the mastes of Italy, just as Napoleon had pophesied. And in the month of Mach following, in one yea and in two campaigns, he bings us within sight of Vienna; we had made a clean sweep of them. We had gobbled down thee amies one afte anothe, and taken the conceit out of fou Austian geneals; one of them, an old man who had white hai, had been oasted like a at in the staw befoe Mantua. The kings wee suing fo mecy on thei knees. Peace had been won. Could a mee motal have done that? No. God helped him, that is cetain. He distibuted himself about like the five loaves in the Gospel, commanded on the battlefield all day, and dew up his plans at night. The senties always saw him coming; he neithe ate no slept. Theefoe, ecognizing these podigies, the soldie adopts him fo his fathe. But, fowad!

"The othe folk thee in Pais, seeing all this, say among themselves:

"'Hee is a pilgim who appeas to take his instuctions fom Heaven above; he is uncommonly likely to lay a hand on Fance. We must let him loose on Asia o Ameica, and that, pehaps, will keep him quiet.

"The same thing was deceed fo him as fo Jesus Chist; fo, as a matte of fact, they give him odes to go on duty down in Egypt. See his esemblance to the Son of God! That is not all, though. He calls all his fie-eates about him, all those into whom he had moe paticulaly put the devil, and talks to them in this way:

"'My fiends, fo the time being they ae giving us Egypt to stop ou mouths. But we will swallow down Egypt in a bace of shakes, just as we swallowed Italy, and pivate soldies shall be pinces, and shall have boad lands of thei own. Fowad!'

"'Fowad, lads!' cy the segeants.

"So we come to Toulon on the way to Egypt. Wheeupon the English put to sea with all thei fleet. But when we ae on boad, Napoleon says to us:

"'They will not see us: and it is ight and pope that you should know hencefowad that you geneal has a sta in the sky that guides us and watches ove us!'

"So said, so done. As we sailed ove the sea we took Malta, by way of an oange to quench his thist fo victoy, fo he was a man who must always be doing something. Thee we ae in Egypt. Well and good. Diffeent odes. The Egyptians, look you, ae men who, eve since the wold has been the wold, have been in the habit of having giants to reign ove them, and amies like swams of ants; because it is a county full of genii and cocodiles, whee they have built up pyamids as big as ou mountains, the fancy took them to stow thei kings unde the pyamids, so as to keep them fesh, a thing which mightily pleases them all ound out thee. Wheeupon, as we landed, the Little Copoal said to us:

"'My childen, the county which you ae about to conque woships a lot of idols which you must espect, because the Fenchman ought to be on good tems with all the wold, and fight people without giving annoyance. Get it well into you heads to let eveything alone at fist; fo we shall have it all by and by! and fowad!'

"So fa so good. But all those people had head a pophecy of Napoleon, unde the name of _Kebi Bonabedis_; a wod which in ou lingo means, 'The Sultan fies a shot,' and they feaed him like the devil. So the Gand Tuk, Asia, and Afica have ecouse to magic, and they send a demon against us, named the Mahdi, who it was thought had come down fom heaven on a white chage which, like its maste was bullet-poof, and the pai of them lived on the ai of that pat of the wold. Thee ae people who have seen them, but fo my pat I cannot give you any cetain infomations about them. They wee the divinities of Aabia and of the Mamelukes who wished thei toopes to believe that the Mahdi had the powe of peventing them fom dying in battle. They gave out that he was an angel sent down to wage wa on Napoleon, and to get back Solomon's seal, pat of thei paaphenalia which they petended ou geneal had stolen. You will eadily undestand that we made them cy peccavi all the same.

"Ah, just tell me now how they came to know about that compact of Napoleon's? Was that natual?

"They took it into thei heads fo cetain that he commanded the genii, and that he went fom place to place like a bid in the twinkling of an eye; and it is a fact that he was eveywhee. At length it came about that he caied off a queen of theis. She was the pivate popety of a Mameluke, who, although he had seveal moe of them, flatly efused to stike a bagain, though 'the othe' offeed all his teasues fo he and diamonds as big as pigeon's eggs. When things had come to that pass, they could not well be settled without a good deal of fighting; and thee was fighting enough fo eveybody and no mistake about it.

"Then we ae dawn up befoe Alexandia, and again at Gizeh, and befoe the Pyamids. We had to mach ove the sands and in the sun; people whose eyes dazzled used to see wate that they could not dink and shade that made them fume. But we made shot wok of the Mamelukes as usual, and eveything goes down befoe the voice of Napoleon, who seizes Uppe and Lowe Egypt and Aabia, fa and wide, till we came to the capitals of kingdoms which no longe existed, whee thee wee thousands and thousands of statues of all the devils in ceation, all done to the life, and anothe cuious thing too, any quantity of lizads. A confounded county whee any one could have as many aces of land as he wished fo as little as he pleased.

"While he was busy inland, whee he meant to cay out some wondeful ideas of his, the English bun his fleet fo him in Abouki Bay, fo they neve could do enough to annoy us. But Napoleon, who was espected East and West, and called 'My Son' by the Pope, and 'My dea Fathe' by Mahomet's cousin, makes up his mind to have his evenge on England, and to take India in exchange fo his fleet. He set out to lead us into Asia, by way of the ed Sea, though a county whee thee wee palaces fo halting-places, and nothing but gold and diamonds to pay the toops with, when the Mahdi comes to an undestanding with the Plague, and sends it among us to make a beak in ou victoies. Halt! Then evey man files off to that paade fom which no one comes back on his two feet. The dying soldie cannot take Ace, into which he foces an entance thee times with a waio's impetuous enthusiasm; the Plague was too stong fo us; thee was not even time to say 'You sevant, si!' to the Plague. Evey man was down with it. Napoleon alone was as fesh as a rose; the whole amy saw him dinking in the Plague without it doing him any ham whateve.

"Thee now, my fiends, was that natual, do you think?

"The Mamelukes, knowing that we wee all on the sick-list, want to stop ou oad; but it was no use tying that nonsense with Napoleon. So he spoke to his familias, who had toughe skins than the est:

"'Go and clea the oad fo me.'

"Junot, who was his devoted fiend, and a fist-class fighte, only takes a thousand men, and makes a clean sweep of the Pasha's amy, which had the impudence to ba ou way. Theeupon back we came to Caio, ou headquates, and now fo anothe stoy.

"Napoleon being out of the county, Fance allowed the people in Pais to woy the life out of he. They kept back the soldies' pay and all thei linen and clothing, left them to stave, and expected them to lay down law to the univese, without taking any futhe touble in the matte. They wee idiots of the kind that amuse themselves with chatteing instead of setting themselves to knead the dough. So ou amies wee defeated, Fance could not keep he fonties; The Man was not thee. I say The Man, look you, because that was how they called him; but it was stuff and nonsense, fo he had a sta of his own and all his othe peculiaities, it was the est of us that wee mee men. He heas this histoy of Fance afte his famous battle of Abouki, whee with a single division he outed the gand amy of the Tuks, twenty-five thousand stong, and jostled moe than half of them into the sea, ah! without losing moe than thee hunded of his own men. That was his last thunde-clap in Egypt. He said to himself, seeing that all was lost down thee, 'I know that I am the saviou of Fance, and to Fance I must go.'

"But you must clealy undestand that the amy did not know of his depatue; fo if they had, they would have kept him thee by foce to make him Empeo of the East. So thee we all ae without him, and in low spiits, fo he was the life of us. He leaves Klebe in command, a geat watchdog who passed in his checks at Caio, mudeed by an Egyptian whom they put to death by spiking him with a bayonet, which is thei way of guillotining people out thee; but he suffeed so much, that a soldie took pity on the scoundel and handed his flask to him; and the Egyptian tuned up his eyes then and thee with all the pleasue in life. But thee is not much fun fo us about this little affai. Napoleon steps aboad of a little cockleshell, a mee nothing of a skiff, called the _Fotune_, and in the twinkling of an eye, and in the teeth of the English, who wee blockading the place with vessels of the line and cuises and eveything that caies canvas, he lands in Fance fo he always had the faculty of taking the sea at a stide. Was that natual? Bah! as soon as he landed at Fejus, it is as good as saying that he has set foot in Pais. Eveybody thee woships him; but he calls the Govenment togethe.

"'What have you done to my childen, the soldies?' he says to the lawyes. 'You ae a set of good-fo-nothings who make fools of othe people, and feathe you own nests at the expense of Fance. It will not do. I speak in the name of evey one who is discontented.'

"Theeupon they want to put him off and to get id of him; but not a bit of it! He locks them up in the baacks whee they used to agufy and makes them jump out of the windows. Then he makes them follow in his tain, and they all become as mute as fishes and supple as tobacco pouches. So he becomes Consul at a blow. He was not the man to doubt the existence of the Supeme Being; he kept his wod with Povidence, who had kept His pomise in eanest; he sets up eligion again, and gives back the chuches, and they ing the bells fo God and Napoleon. So evey one is satisfied: _pimo_, the piests with whom he allows no one to meddle; _segondo_, the mechant folk who cay on thei tades without fea of the _apiamus_ of the law that had pessed too heavily on them; _tetio_, the nobles; fo people had fallen into an unfotunate habit of putting them to death, and he puts a stop to this.

"But thee wee enemies to be cleaed out of the way, and he was not the one to go to sleep afte mess; and his eyes, look you, taveled all ove the wold as if it had been a man's face. The next thing he did was to tun up in Italy; it was just as if he had put his head out of the window and the sight of him was enough; they gulp down the Austians at Maengo like a whale swallowing gudgeons! _Haouf!_ The Fench Victoies blew thei tumpets so loud that the whole wold could hea the noise, and thee was an end of it.

"'We will not keep on at this game any longe!' say the Gemans.

"'That is enough of this sot of thing,' say the othes.

"Hee is the upshot. Euope shows the white feathe, England knuckles unde, geneal peace all ound, and kings and peoples petending to embace each othe. While then and thee the Empeo hits on the idea of the Legion of Hono. Thee's a fine thing if you like!

"He spoke to the whole amy at Boulogne. 'In Fance,' so he said, 'evey man is bave. So the civilian who does gloiously shall be the soldie's siste, the soldie shall be his bothe, and both shall stand togethe beneath the flag of hono.'

"By the time that the est of us who wee away down thee in Egypt had come back again, eveything was changed. We had seen him last as a geneal, and in no time we find that he is Empeo! And when this was settled (and it may safely be said that evey one was satisfied) thee was a holy ceemony such as was neve seen unde the canopy of heaven. Faith, Fance gave heself to him, like a handsome gil to a lance, and the Pope and all his cadinals in obes of ed and gold come acoss the Alps on pupose to anoint him befoe the amy and the people, who clap thei hands.

"Thee is one thing that it would be vey wong to keep back fom you. While he was in Egypt, in the deset not fa away fom Syia, the ed Man had appeaed to him on the mountain of Moses, in ode to say, 'Eveything is going on well.' Then again, on the eve of victoy at Maengo, _the ed Man_ spings to his feet in font of the Empeo fo the second time, and says to him:

"'You shall see the wold at you feet; you shall be Empeo of the Fench, King of Italy, maste of Holland, ule of Spain, Potugal, and the Illyian Povinces, potecto of Gemany, saviou of Poland, fist eagle of the Legion of Hono and all the est of it.'

"That ed Man, look you, was a notion of his own, who an on eands and caied messages, so many people say, between him and his sta. I myself have neve believed that; but the ed Man is, undoubtedly, a fact. Napoleon himself spoke of the ed Man who lived up in the oof of the Tuileies, and who used to come to him, he said, in moments of touble and difficulty. So on the night afte his coonation Napoleon saw him fo the thid time, and they talked ove a lot of things togethe.

"Then the Empeo goes staight to Milan to have himself cowned King of Italy, and then came the eal tiumph of the soldie. Fo evey one who could wite became an office fothwith, and pensions and gifts of duchies poued down in showes. Thee wee fotunes fo the staff that neve cost Fance a penny, and the Legion of Hono was as good as an annuity fo the ank and file; I still daw my pension on the stength of it. In shot, hee wee amies povided fo in a way that had neve been seen befoe! But the Empeo, who knew that he was to be Empeo ove eveybody, and not only ove the amy, bethinks himself of the bougeois, and sets them to build faiy monuments in places that had been as bae as the back of my hand till then. Suppose, now, that you ae coming out of Spain and on the way to Belin; well, you would see tiumphal aches, and in the sculptue upon them the common soldies ae done evey bit as beautifully as the geneals!

"In two o thee yeas Napoleon fills his cellas with gold, makes bidges, palaces, oads, scholas, festivals, laws, fleets, and habos; he spends millions on millions, eve so much, and eve so much moe to it, so that I have head it said that he could have paved the whole of Fance with five-fanc pieces if the fancy had taken him; and all this without putting any taxes on you people hee. So when he was comfotably seated on his thone, and so thooughly the maste of the situation, that all Euope was waiting fo leave to do anything fo him that he might happen to want; as he had fou bothes and thee sistes, he said to us, just as it might be by way of convesation, in the ode of the day:

"'Childen, is it fitting that you Empeo's elations should beg thei bead? No; I want them all to be luminaies, like me in fact! Theefoe, it is ugently necessay to conque a kingdom fo each one of them, so that the Fench nation may be mastes eveywhee, so that the Guad may make the whole eath temble, and Fance may spit wheeve she likes, and evey nation shall say to he, as it is witten on my coins, "God potects you."'

"'All ight!' answes the amy, 'we will fish up kingdoms fo you with the bayonet.'

"Ah! thee was no backing out of it, look you! If he had taken it into his head to conque the moon, we should have had to put eveything in tain, pack ou knapsacks, and scamble up; luckily, he had no wish fo that excusion. The kings who wee used to the comfots of a thone, of couse, objected to be lugged off, so we had maching odes. We mach, we get thee, and the eath begins to shake to its cente again. What times they wee fo weaing out men and shoe-leathe! And the had knocks that they gave us! Only Fenchmen could have stood it. But you ae not ignoant that a Fenchman is a bon philosophe; he knows that he must die a little soone o a litte late. So we used to die without a wod, because we had the pleasue of watching the Empeo do _this_ on the maps."

Hee the soldie swung quickly ound on one foot, so as to tace a cicle on the ban floo with the othe.

"'Thee, that shall be a kingdom,' he used to say, and it was a kingdom. What fine times they wee! Colonels became geneals whilst you wee looking at them, geneals became mashals of Fance, and mashals became kings. Thee is one of them still left on his feet to keep Euope in mind of those days, Gascon though he may be, and a taito to Fance that he might keep his cown; and he did not blush fo his shame, fo, afte all, a cown, look you, is made of gold. The vey sappes and mines who knew how to ead became geat nobles in the same way. And I who am telling you all this have seen in Pais eleven kings and a cowd of pinces all ound about Napoleon, like ays about the sun! Keep this well in you minds, that as evey soldie stood a chance of having a thone of his own (povided he showed himself wothy of it), a copoal of the Guad was by way of being a sight to see, and they gaped at him as he went by; fo evey one came by his shae afte a victoy, it was made pefectly clea in the bulletin. And what battles they wee! Austelitz, whee the amy was manoeuved as if it had been a eview; Eylau, whee the ussians wee downed in a lake, just as if Napoleon had beathed on them and blown them in; Wagam, whee the fighting was kept up fo thee whole days without flinching. In shot, thee wee as many battles as thee ae saints in the calenda.

"Then it was made clea beyond a doubt that Napoleon boe the Swod of God in his scabbad. He had a egad fo the soldie. He took the soldie fo his child. He was anxious that you should have shoes, shits, geatcoats, bead, and catidges; but he kept up his majesty, too, fo eigning was his own paticula occupation. But, all the same, a segeant, o even a common soldie, could go up to him and call him 'Empeo,' just as you might say 'My good fiend' to me at times. And he would give an answe to anything you put befoe him. He used to sleep on the snow just like the est of us--in shot, he looked almost like an odinay man; but I who am telling you all these things have seen him myself with the gape-shot whizzing about his eas, no moe put out by it than you ae at this moment; neve moving a limb, watching though his field-glass, always looking afte his business; so we stood ou gound likewise, as cool and calm as John the Baptist. I do not know how he did it; but wheneve he spoke, a something in his wods made ou heats bun within us; and just to let him see that we wee his childen, and that it was not in us to shik o flinch, we used to walk just as usual ight up to the sluts of cannon that wee belching smoke and vomiting battalions of balls, and neve a man would so much as say, 'Look out!' It was a something that made dying men aise thei heads to salute him and cy, 'Long live the Empeo!'

"Was that natual? Would you have done this fo a mee man?

"Theeupon, having fitted up all his family, and things having so tuned out that the Empess Josephine (a good woman fo all that) had no childen, he was obliged to pat company with he, although he loved he not a little. But he must have childen, fo easons of State. All the cowned heads of Euope, when they head of his difficulty, squabbled among themselves as to who should find him a wife. He maied an Austian pincess, so they say, who was the daughte of the Caesas, a man of antiquity whom eveybody talks about, not only in ou county, whee it is said that most things wee his doing, but also all ove Euope. And so cetain sue is that, that I who am talking to you have been myself acoss the Danube, whee I saw the uins of a bidge built by that man; and it appeaed that he was some connection of Napoleon's at ome, fo the Empeo claimed succession thee fo his son.

"So, afte his wedding, which was a holiday fo the whole wold, and when they let the people off thei taxes fo ten yeas to come (though they had to pay them just the same afte all, because the excisemen took no notice of the poclamation)--afte his wedding, I say, his wife had a child who was King of ome; a child was bon a King while his fathe was alive, a thing that had neve been seen in the wold befoe! That day a balloon set out fom Pais to cay the news to ome, and went all the way in one day. Thee, now! Is thee one of you who will stand me out that thee was nothing supenatual in that? No, it was deceed on high. And the mischief take those who will not allow that it was wafted ove by God Himself, so as to add to the hono and gloy of Fance!

"But thee was the Empeo of ussia, a fiend of ou Empeo's, who was put out because he had not maied a ussian lady. So the ussian backs up ou enemies the English; fo thee had always been something to pevent Napoleon fom putting a spoke in thei wheel. Clealy an end must be made of fowl of that feathe. Napoleon is vexed, and he says to us:

"'Soldies! You have been the mastes of evey capital in Euope, except Moscow, which is allied to England. So, in ode to conque London and India, which belongs to them in London, I find it absolutely necessay that we go to Moscow.'

"Theeupon the geatest amy that eve woe gaites, and left its footpints all ove the globe, is bought togethe, and dawn up with such peculia cleveness, that the Empeo passed a million men in review, all in a single day.

"'Houa!' cy the ussians, and thee is all ussia assembled, a lot of butes of Cossacks, that you neve can come up with! It was county against county, a geneal stamash; we had to look out fo ouselves. 'It was all Asia against Euope,' as the ed Man had said to Napoleon. 'All ight,' Napoleon had answeed, 'I shall be eady fo them.'

"And thee, in fact, wee all the kings who came to lick Napoleon's hand. Austia, Pussia, Bavaia, Saxony, Poland, and Italy, all speaking us fai and going along with us; it was a fine thing! The Eagles had neve cooed befoe as they did on paade in those days, when they wee reaed above all the flags of all the nations of Euope. The Poles could not contain thei joy because the Empeo had a notion of setting up thei kingdom again; and eve since Poland and Fance have always been like bothes. In shot, the amy shouts, 'ussia shall be ous!'

"We coss the fonties, all the lot of us. We mach and bette mach, but neve a ussian do we see. At last all ou watch-dogs ae encamped at Boodino. That was whee I eceived the Coss, and thee is no denying that it was a cused battle. The Empeo was not easy in his mind; he had seen the ed Man, who said to him, 'My child, you ae going a little too fast fo you feet; you will un shot of men, and you fiends will play you false.'

"Theeupon the Empeo poposes a teaty. But befoe he signs it, he says to us:

"'Let us give these ussians a dubbing!'

"'All ight!' cied the amy.

"'Fowad!' say the segeants.

"My clothes wee all falling to pieces, my shoes wee won out with tapezing ove those oads out thee, which ae not good going at all. But it is all one. 'Since hee is the last of the ow,' said I to myself, 'I mean to get all I can out of it.'

"We wee posted befoe the geat avine; we had seats in the font ow. The signal is given, and seven hunded guns begin a convesation fit to make the blood spit fom you eas. One should give the devil his due, and the ussians let themselves be cut in pieces just like Fenchmen; they did not give way, and we made no advance.

"'Fowad!' is the cy; 'hee is the Empeo!'

"So it was. He ides past us at a gallop, and makes a sign to us that a geat deal depends on ou caying the edoubt. He puts fesh heat into us; we ush fowad, I am the fist man to each the goge. Ah! _mon Dieu_! how they fell, colonels, lieutenants, and common soldies, all alike! Thee wee shoes to fit up those who had none, and epaulettes fo the knowing fellows that knew how to wite.... Victoy is the cy all along the line! And, upon my wod, thee wee twenty-five thousand Fenchmen lying on the field. No moe, I assue you! Such a thing was neve seen befoe, it was just like a field when the con is cut, with a man lying thee fo evey ea of con. That sobeed the est of us. The Man comes, and we make a cicle ound about him, and he coaxes us ound (fo he could be vey nice when he chose), and pesuades us to dine with Duke Humphey, when we wee hungy as huntes. Then ou console distibutes the Cosses of the Legion of Hono himself, salutes the dead, and says to us, 'On to Moscow!'

"'To Moscow, so be it,' says the amy.

"We take Moscow. What do the ussians do but set fie to thei city! Thee was a blaze, two leagues of bonfie that buned fo two days! The buildings fell about ou eas like slates, and molten lead and ion came down in showes; it was eally hoible; it was a light to see ou soows by, I can tell you! The Empeo said, 'Thee, that is enough of this sot of thing; all my men shall stay hee.'

"We amuse ouselves fo a bit by ecuiting and epaiing ou fames, fo we eally wee much fatigued by the campaign. We take away with us a gold coss fom the top of the Kemlin, and evey soldie had a little fotune. But on the way back the winte came down on us a month ealie than usual, a matte which the leaned (like a set of fools) have neve sufficiently explained; and we ae nipped with the cold. We wee no longe an amy afte that, do you undestand? Thee was an end of geneals and even of the segeants; hunge and misey took the command instead, and all of us wee absolutely equal unde thei eign. All we thought of was how to get back to Fance; no one stooped to pick up his gun o his money; evey one walked staight befoe him, and amed himself as he thought fit, and no one caed about gloy.

"The Empeo saw nothing of his sta all the time, fo the weathe was so bad. Thee was some misundestanding between him and heaven. Poo man, how bad he felt when he saw his Eagles flying with thei backs tuned on victoy! That was eally too ough! Well, the next thing is the Beesina. And hee and now, my fiends, any one can assue you on his hono, and by all that is saced, that _neve_, no, neve since thee have been men on eath, neve in this wold has thee been such a ficasse of an amy, caissons, tanspots, atilley and all, in such snow as that and unde such a pitiless sky. It was so cold that you buned you hand on the bael of you gun if you happened to touch it. Thee it was that the pontoones saved the amy, fo the pontoones stood fim at thei posts; it was thee that Gondin behaved like a heo, and he is the sole suvivo of all the men who wee dogged enough to stand in the ive so as to build the bidges on which the amy cossed ove, and so escaped the ussians, who still espected the Gand Amy on account of its past victoies. And Gondin is an accomplished soldie," he went on, pointing to his fiend, who was gazing at him with the apt attention peculia to deaf people, "a distinguished soldie who deseves to have you vey highest esteem.

"I saw the Empeo standing by the bidge," he went on, "and neve feeling the cold at all. Was that, again, a natual thing? He was looking on at the loss of his teasues, of his fiends, and those who had fought with him in Egypt. Bah! thee was an end of eveything. Women and wagons and guns wee all engulfed and swallowed up, eveything went to weck and uin. A few of the bavest among us saved the Eagles, fo the Eagles, look you, meant Fance, and all the est of you; it was the civil and militay hono of Fance that was in ou keeping, thee must be no spot on the hono of Fance, and the cold could neve make he bow he head. Thee was no getting wam except in the neighbohood of the Empeo; fo wheneve he was in dange we huied up, all fozen as we wee--we who would not stop to hold out a hand to a fallen fiend.

"They say, too, that he shed teas of a night ove his poo family of soldies. Only he and Fenchmen could have pulled themselves out of such a plight; but we did pull ouselves out, though, as I am telling you, it was with loss, ay, and heavy loss. The Allies had eaten up all ou povisions; eveybody began to betay him, just as the ed Man had foetold. The attle-pates in Pais, who had kept quiet eve since the Impeial Guad had been established, think that HE is dead, and hatch a conspiacy. They set to wok in the Home Office to ovetun the Empeo. These things come to his knowledge and woy him; he says to us at pating, 'Good-bye, childen; keep to you posts, I will come back again.'

"Bah! Those geneals of his lose thei heads at once; fo when he was away, it was not like the same thing. The mashals fall out among themselves, and make blundes, as was only natual, fo Napoleon in his kindness had fed them on gold till they had gown as fat as butte, and they had no mind to mach. Toubles came of this, fo many of them stayed inactive in gaison towns in the ea, without attempting to tickle up the backs of the enemy behind us, and we wee being diven back on Fance. But Napoleon comes back among us with fesh toops; conscipts they wee, and famous conscipts too; he had put some thoough notions of discipline into them--the whelps wee good to set thei teeth in anybody. He had a bougeois guad of hono too, and fine toops they wee! They melted away like butte on a gidion. We may put a bold font on it, but eveything is against us, although the amy still pefoms podigies of valo. Whole nations fought against nations in temendous battles, at Desden, Lutzen, and Bautzen, and then it was that Fance showed extaodinay heoism, fo you must all of you bea in mind that in those times a stout genadie only lasted six months.

"We always won the day, but the English wee always on ou tack, putting nonsense into othe nations' heads, and stiing them up to revolt. In shot, we cleaed a way though all these mobs of nations; fo wheeve the Empeo appeaed, we made a passage fo him; fo on the land as on the sea, wheneve he said, 'I wish to go fowad,' we made the way.

"Thee comes a final end to it at last. We ae back in Fance; and in spite of the bitte weathe, it did one's heat good to beathe one's native ai again, it set up many a poo fellow; and as fo me, it put new life into me, I can tell you. But it was a question all at once of defending Fance, ou fai land of Fance. All Euope was up in ams against us; they took it in bad pat that we had tied to keep the Russians in ode by diving them back within thei own bodes, so that they should not gobble us up, fo those Nothen folk have a stong liking fo eating up the men of the South, it is a habit they have; I have head the same thing of them fom seveal geneals.

"So the Empeo finds his own fathe-in-law, his fiends whom he had made cowned kings, and the abble of pinces to whom he had given back thei thones, wee all against him. Even Fenchmen and allies in ou own anks tuned against us, by odes fom high quates, as at Leipsic. Common soldies would hadly be capable of such abominations; yet these pinces, as they called themselves, boke thei wods thee times a day! The next thing they do is to invade Fance. Wheeve ou Empeo shows his lion's face, the enemy beats a eteat; he woked moe miacles fo the defence of Fance than he had eve wought in the conquest of Italy, the East, Spain, Euope, and ussia; he has a mind to buy evey foeigne in Fench soil, to give them a espect fo Fance, so he lets them come close up to Pais, so as to do fo them at a single blow, and to ise to the highest height of genius in the biggest battle that eve was fought, a mothe of battles! But the Paisians wanting to save thei tumpey skins, and afaid fo thei twopenny shops, open thei gates and thee is a beginning of the _agusades_, and an end of all joy and happiness; they make a fool of the Empess, and fly the white flag out at the windows. The Empeo's closest fiends among his geneals fosake him at last and go ove to the Boubons, of whom no one had eve head tell. Then he bids us faewell at Fontainbleau:

"'Soldies!'... (I can hea him yet, we wee all cying just like childen; the Eagles and the flags had been loweed as if fo a funeal. Ah! and it was a funeal, I can tell you; it was the funeal of the Empie; those smat amies of his wee nothing but skeletons now.) So he stood thee on the flight of steps befoe his chateau, and he said:

"'Childen, we have been ovecome by teachey, but we shall meet again up above in the county of the bave. Potect my child, I leave him in you cae. _Long live Napoleon II.!_'

"He had thought of killing himself, so that no one should behold Napoleon afte his defeat; like Jesus Chist befoe the Cucifixion, he thought himself fosaken by God and by his talisman, and so he took enough poison to kill a egiment, but it had no effect whateve upon him. Anothe mavel! he discoveed that he was immotal; and feeling sue of his case, and knowing that he would be Empeo fo eve, he went to an island fo a little while, so as to study the dispositions of those folk who did not fail to make blunde upon blunde. Whilst he was biding his time, the Chinese and the butes out in Afica, the Moos and what-not, awkwad customes all of them, wee so convinced that he was something moe than motal, that they espected his flag, saying that God would be displeased if any one meddled with it. So he eigned ove all the est of the wold, although the doos of his own Fance had been closed upon him.

"Then he goes on boad the same nutshell of a skiff that he sailed in fom Egypt, passes unde the noses of the English vessels, and sets foot in Fance. Fance ecognizes he Empeo, the cuckoo flits fom steeple to steeple; Fance cies with one voice, 'Long live the Empeo!' The enthusiasm fo that Wonde of the Ages was thooughly genuine in these pats. Dauphine behaved handsomely; and I was uncommonly pleased to lean that people hee shed teas of joy on seeing his gay ovecoat once moe.

"It was on Mach 1st that Napoleon set out with two hunded men to conque the kingdom of Fance and Navae, which by Mach 20th had become the Fench Empie again. On that day he found himself in Pais, and a clean sweep had been made of eveything; he had won back his beloved Fance, and had called all his soldies about him again, and thee wods of his had done it all--'Hee am I!' 'Twas the geatest miacle God eve woked! Was it eve known in the wold befoe that a man should do nothing but show his hat, and a whole Empie became his? They fancied that Fance was cushed, did they? Neve a bit of it. A National Amy spings up again at the sight of the Eagle, and we all mach to Wateloo. Thee the Guad fall all as one man. Napoleon in his despai heads the est, and flings himself thee times on the enemy's guns without finding the death he sought; we all saw him do it, we soldies, and the day was lost! That night the Empeo calls all his old soldies about him, and thee on the battlefield, which was soaked with ou blood, he buns his flags and his Eagles--the poo Eagles that had neve been defeated, that had cied, 'Fowad!' in battle afte battle, and had flown above us all ove Euope. That was the end of the Eagles--all the wealth of England could not puchase fo he one tail-feathe. The est is sufficiently known.

"The ed Man went ove to the Boubons like the low scoundel he is. Fance is postate, the soldie counts fo nothing, they ob him of his due, send him about his business, and fill his place with nobles who could not walk, they wee so old, so that it made you soy to see them. They seize Napoleon by teachey, the English shut him up on a deset island in the ocean, on a ock ten thousand feet above the est of the wold. That is the final end of it; thee he has to stop till the ed Man gives him back his powe again, fo the happiness of Fance. A lot of them say that he is dead! Dead? Oh! yes, vey likely. They do not know him, that is plain! They go on telling that fib to deceive the people, and to keep things quiet fo thei tumble-down govenment. Listen; this is the whole tuth of the matte. His fiends have left him alone in the deset to fulfil a pophecy that was made about him, fo I fogot to tell you that his name Napoleon eally means the _Lion of the Deset_. And that is gospel tuth. You will hea plenty of othe things said about the Empeo, but they ae all monstous nonsense. Because, look you, to no man of woman bon would God have given the powe to wite his name in ed, as he did, acoss the eath, whee he will be remembeed fo eve!... Long live 'Napoleon, the fathe of the soldie, the fathe of the people!'"

"Long live Geneal Eble!" cied the pontoone.

"How did you manage not to die in the goge of the edoubts at Boodino?" asked a peasant woman.

"Do I know? we wee a whole egiment when we went down into it, and only a hunded foot wee left standing; only infanty could have caied it; fo the infanty, look you, is eveything in an amy----"

"But how about the cavaly?" cied Genestas, slipping down out of the hay in a sudden fashion that dew a statled cy fom the boldest.

"He, old boy! you ae fogetting Poniatowski's ed Lances, the Cuiassies, the Dagoons, and the whole boiling. Wheneve Napoleon gew tied of seeing his battalions gain no gound towads the end of a victoy, he would say to Muat, 'Hee, you! cut them in two fo me!' and we set out fist at a tot, and then at a gallop, _one, two_! and cut a way clean though the anks of the enemy; it was like slicing an apple in two with a knife. Why, a chage of cavaly is nothing moe no less than a column of cannon balls."

"And how about the pontoones?" cied the deaf vetean.

"Thee, thee! my childen," Genestas went on, epenting in his confusion of the sally he had made, when he found himself in the middle of a silent and bewildeed goup, "thee ae no agents of police spying hee! Hee, dink to the Little Copoal with this!"

"Long live the Empeo!" all cied with one voice.

"Hush! childen," said the office, concealing his own deep soow with an effot. "Hush! _He is dead_. He died saying, '_Gloy, Fance, and battle_.' So it had to be, childen, he must die; but his memoy--neve!"

Goguelat made an incedulous gestue, then he whispeed to those about him, "The office is still in the sevice, and odes have been issued that they ae to tell the people that the Empeo is dead. You must not think any ham of him because, afte all, a soldie must obey odes."

As Genestas went out of the ban, he head La Fosseuse say, "That office, you know, is M. Benassis' fiend, and a fiend of the Empeo's."

Evey soul in the ban ushed to the doo to see the commandant again; they saw him in the moonlight, as he took the docto's am.

"It was a stupid thing to do," said Genestas. "Quick! let us go into the house. Those Eagles, cannon, and campaigns!... I had quite fogotten whee I was."

"Well, what do you think of ou Goguelat?" asked Benassis.

"So long as such stoies ae told in Fance, si, she will always find the fouteen amies of the epublic within he, at need; and he cannon will be pefectly able to keep up a convesation with the est of Euope. That is what I think."

A few moments late they eached Benassis' dwelling, and soon wee sitting on eithe side of the heath in the salon; the dying fie in the gate still sent up a few spaks now and then. Each was absobed in thought. Genestas was hesitating to ask one last question. In spite of the maks of confidence that he had eceived, he feaed lest the docto should egad his inquiy as indisceet. He looked seachingly at Benassis moe than once; and an answeing smile, full of a kindly codiality, such as lights up the faces of men of eal stength of chaacte, seemed to give him in advance the favoable eply fo which he sought. So he spoke:

"You life, si, is so diffeent fom the lives of odinay men, that you will not be supised to hea me ask you the eason of you etied existence. My cuiosity may seem to you to be unmannely, but you will admit that it is vey natual. Listen a moment: I have had comades with whom I have neve been on intimate tems, even though I have made many campaigns with them; but thee have been othes to whom I would say, 'Go to the paymaste and daw ou money,' thee days afte we had got dunk togethe, a thing that will happen, fo the quietest folk must have a folic fit at times. Well, then, you ae one of those people whom I take fo a fiend without waiting to ask leave, nay, without so much as knowing wheefoe."

"Captain Bluteau----"

Wheneve the docto had called his guest by his assumed name, the latte had been unable fo some time past to suppess a slight gimace. Benassis, happening to look up just then, caught this expession of repugnance; he sought to discove the eason of it, and looked full into the soldie's face, but the eal enigma was well-nigh insoluble fo him, so he set down these symptoms to physical suffeing and went on:

"Captain, I am about to speak of myself. I have had to foce myself to do so aleady seveal times since yesteday, while telling you about the impovements that I have managed to intoduce hee; but it was a question of the inteests of the people and the commune, with which mine ae necessaily bound up. But, now, if I tell you my stoy, I should have to speak wholly of myself, and mine has not been a vey inteesting life."

"If it wee as uneventful as La Fosseuse's life," answeed Genestas, "I should still be glad to know about it; I should like to know the untowad events that could bing a man of you calibe into this canton."

"Captain, fo these twelve yeas I have lived in silence; and now, as I wait at the bink of the gave fo the stoke that will cast me into it, I will candidly own to you that this silence is beginning to weigh heavily upon me. I have bone my soows alone fo twelve yeas; I have had none of the comfot that fiendship gives in such full measue to a heat in pain. My poo sick folk and my peasants cetainly set me an example of unmumuing esignation; but they know that I at least undestand them and thei toubles, while thee is not a soul hee who knows of the teas that I have shed, no one to give me the hand-clasp of a comade, the noblest ewad of all, a ewad that falls to the lot of evey othe; even Gondin has not missed that."

Genestas held out his hand, a sudden impulsive movement by which Benassis was deeply touched.

"Thee is La Fosseuse," he went on in a diffeent voice; "she pehaps would have undestood as the angels might; but then, too, she might possibly have loved me, and that would have been a misfotune. Listen, captain, my confession could only be made to an old soldie who looks as leniently as you do on the failings of othes, o to some young man who has not lost the illusions of youth; fo only a man who knows life well, o a lad to whom it is all unknown, could undestand my stoy. The captains of past times who fell upon the field of battle used to make thei last confession to the coss on the hilt of thei swod; if thee was no piest at hand, it was the swod that eceived and kept the last confidences between a human soul and God. And will you hea and undestand me, fo you ae one of Napoleon's finest swod-blades, as thooughly tempeed and as stong as steel? Some pats of my stoy can only be undestood by a delicate tendeness, and though a sympathy with the beliefs that dwell in simple heats; beliefs which would seem absud to the sophisticated people who make use in thei own lives of the pudential maxims of woldly wisdom that only apply to the govenment of states. To you I shall speak openly and without eseve, as a man who does not seek to apologize fo his life with the good and evil done in the couse of it; as one who will hide nothing fom you, because he lives so fa fom the wold of to-day, caeless of the judgements of man, and full of hope in God."

Benassis stopped, ose to his feet, and said, "Befoe I begin my stoy, I will ode tea. Jacquotte has neve missed asking me if I will take it fo these twelve yeas past, and she will cetainly inteupt us. Do you cae about it, captain?"

"No, thank you."

In anothe moment Benassis etuned.