'Ah bah! I shall do well enough here. I can't go to Versailles after him, can I? Well, and I won't go to Switzerland with him. That is my mind. I have my business and my pleasure here in Paris; I could not live away from either. Ask a nightingale to visit and admire the beauties of the bottom of the sea! invite a minnow to soar to the stars! expect a rose to throw its roots into the air and thrust its blossoms under the soil! Pshaw! This is just as sensible as asking me to plunge into your lakes, ascend your Alps, and bury myself in your mountain gorges under avalanches and glaciers and Heaven knows what besides.' 'Where is my father now?' 'He is out. He has to remove at once to the Swiss battalion at Rueil, and thence he will be sent with a new company to attend on the royal family and guard the palace. You see the French guard have at Versailles, as here, merged themselves in a national guard, so I fancy the Court prefers to be defended by foreign troops. Here he comes!' The corporal entered and saluted Madame Berthier and his wife, then he went up to Gabrielle and patted her gently on the cheek. Nicholas gave her a knowing nod, as much as to say, 'you are a great pet of my father's.' 'Are you transferred to Versailles?' asked Nicholas; 'mother has just disconcerted us with that announcement.' 'Yes,' answered the corporal; 'I have been ordered to the barracks at Rueil for a week, and after that we are to be sent to Versailles; the Swiss guard at the palace is about to be reinforced.' 'It will not be for long,' said Nicholas. 'No, only till October,' answered the corporal, brushing up the hair on either side of his head; 'and then--' he rubbed his hand; 'then we set our faces homewards. I shall be free.' 'And I daresay you will not be sorry for it,' said Gabrielle, gently, lifting her eyes to his face. 'No, my dear, I shall be rejoiced. It does not please me to have to range myself against your countrymen. A civil war is a terrible thing, and I am half French myself.' '_You_ half French!' exclaimed Madame Deschwanden, with a shrug of the shoulders and a curl of the lip. 'Yes, wife, I am; not only because of my union with you, but also because I have spent many of my best years in this land, chiefly, however, because I entirely sympathise with the struggle that is begun. Had not we the same sort of thing in our land? There was Werner Stauffacher, Erni of Melchthal, and Walter Fürst----' 'Enough of them,' said madame, with an impatient stamp. 'Corporal,' asked the convalescent lady, 'are you going to return to where the cow-bells ring, and where there are Alps half way up to the sky?' 'Yes, madame, please God, and with the help of blessed Klaus!' 'And you will see the pinks, and the gentians, and the roses of the Alps?' 'I must, indeed I must,' exclaimed the corporal. 'Ah, ha! Nicholas, in October, three months more!'