INTERNATIONAL SHORT STORIES COMPILED BY FRANCIS J. REYNOLDS FRENCH 1910 FRENCH STORIES A PIECE OF BREAD _By Francois Coppee_ THE ELIXIR OF LIFE _By Honore de Balzac_ THE AGE FOR LOVE _By Paul Bourget_ MATEO FALCONE _By Prosper Merimee_ THE MIRROR _By Catulle Mendes_ MY NEPHEW JOSEPH _By Ludovic Halevy_ A FOREST BETROTHAL _By Erckmann-Chatrian_ ZADIG THE BABYLONIAN _By Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire_ ABANDONED _By Guy de Maupassant_ THE GUILTY SECRET _By Paul de Kock_ JEAN MONETTE _By Eugene Francois Vidocq_ SOLANGE _By Alexandre Dumas_ THE BIRDS IN THE LETTER-BOX _By Rene Bazin_ JEAN GOURDON'S FOUR DAYS _By Emile Zola_ BARON DE TRENCK _By Clemence Robert_ THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA _By Henry Murger_ THE WOMAN AND THE CAT _By Marcel Prevost_ GIL BLAS AND DR. SANGRADO _By Alain Rene Le Sage_ A FIGHT WITH A CANNON _By Victor Hugo_ TONTON _By A. Cheneviere_ THE LAST LESSON _By Alphonse Daudet_ CROISILLES _By Alfred de Musset_ THE VASE OF CLAY _By Jean Aicard_ A PIECE OF BREAD BY FRANCOIS COPPEE The young Duc de Hardimont happened to be at Aix in Savoy, whose waters he hoped would benefit his famous mare, Perichole, who had become wind-broken since the cold she had caught at the last Derby,--and was finishing his breakfast while glancing over the morning paper, when he read the news of the disastrous engagement at Reichshoffen. He emptied his glass of chartreuse, laid his napkin upon the restaurant table, ordered his valet to pack his trunks, and two hours later took the express to Paris; arriving there, he hastened to the recruiting office and enlisted in a regiment of the line. In vain had he led the enervating life of a fashionable swell--that was the word of the time--and had knocked about race-course stables from the age of nineteen to twenty-five. In circumstances like these, he could not forget that Enguerrand de Hardimont died of the plague at Tunis the same day as Saint Louis, that Jean de Hardimont commanded the Free Companies under Du Guesclin, and that Francois-Henri de Hardimont was killed at Fontenoy with "Red" Maison. Upon learning that France had lost a battle on French soil, the young duke felt the blood mount to his face, giving him a horrible feeling of suffocation. And so, early in November, 1870, Henri de Hardimont returned to Paris with his regiment, forming part of Vinoy's corps, and his company being the advance guard before the redoubt of Hautes Bruyères, a position fortified in haste, and which protected the cannon of Fort Bicêtre.