"_Parbleu!_ that is going very far back. Are you aware of the causes which induced him to leave his native country?" "They were connected with political troubles, I've heard, sir. He took part against the English, my father told me, and was obliged to make his escape to save his life." "You then hate the English, Maurice?" "My grandfather certainly did not love them, sir." "Nor can you, boy, ever forgive their having exiled your family from country and home: every man of honor retains the memory of such injuries." "I can scarcely deem that an injury, sir, which has made me a French citizen," said I, proudly. "True, boy--you say what is perfectly true and just; any sacrifice of fortune or patrimony is cheap at such a price; still you have suffered a wrong--a deep and irreparable wrong--and as a Frenchman you are ready to avenge it." Although I had no very precise notion, either as to the extent of the hardships done me, nor in what way I was to demand the reparation, I gave the assent he seemed to expect. "You are well acquainted with the language, I believe?" continued he. "I can read and speak English tolerably well, sir." "But I speak of Irish, boy--of the language which is spoken by your fellow-countrymen," said he, rebukingly. "I have always heard, sir, that this has fallen into disuse, and is little known, save among the peasantry in a few secluded districts." He seemed impatient as I said this, and referred once more to the paper before him, from whose minutes he appeared to have been speaking. "You must be in error, boy. I find here that the nation is devotedly attached to its traditions and its literature, and feels no injury deeper than the insulting substitution of a foreign tongue for their own noble language." "Of myself I know nothing, sir; the little I have learned was acquired when a mere child." "Ah, then you probably forget, or may never have heard the fact; but it is as I tell you. This, which I hold here, is the report of a highly-distinguished and most influential personage, who lays great stress upon the circumstance. I am sorry, Tiernay, very sorry, that you are unacquainted with the language." He continued for some minutes to brood over this disappointment, and, at last, returned to the paper before him. "The geography of the country--what knowledge have you on that subject?" "No more, sir, than I may possess of other countries, and merely learned from maps." "Bad again," muttered he to himself. "Madyett calls these 'essentials;' but we shall see." Then addressing me, he said, "Tiernay, the object of my present interrogatory is to inform you that the Directory is about to send an expedition to Ireland to assist in the liberation of that enslaved people. It has been suggested that young officers and soldiers of Irish descent might render peculiar service to the cause, and I have selected you for an opportunity which will convert those worsted epaulets into bullion."