"That is all very fine," replied my grandfather, "but as I am the marquis de la Pailleterie, a colonel and commissary-general of artillery, I will not allow you to drag my name in the mire of the lowest ranks of the army." "Then you object to my enlisting?" "No; but you must enlist under an assumed name." "That is quite fair," replied my father. "I will enlist under the name of Dumas." "Very well." And the marquis, who had never in any sense been a very tender parent, turned his back on his son and left him free to go his own gait. So my father enlisted under the name of Alexandre Dumas, as had been agreed. He enlisted in a regiment of the Queen's Dragoons, 6th of the Army, as Number 429, on June 2nd, 1786. It was the duc de Grammont, grandfather of my friend the real duc de Guiche, who entered his enlistment under the name of Alexandre Dumas; and, as a verification of this enlistment, a certificate was drawn up which the duc de Guiche brought me only two years since as a souvenir of his father the duc de Grammont. It was signed by four noblemen belonging to Saint-Germain en Laye, and stated that although enlisting under the name of Alexandre Dumas the new recruit was really the son of the marquis de la Pailleterie. As for the marquis, he died thirteen days after his son's enlistment in the Queen's Dragoons, as became an old aristocrat who could not endure to see the fall of the Bastille. I give his death certificate from the civil registers of Saint-Germain en Laye. "On Friday, June 16th, 1786, the body of the high and mighty Seigneur Alexandre-Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie, knight, seigneur and patron of Bielleville, whose death took place the preceding day, aged about 76, husband of Marie-Françoise Retou, was interred in the cemetery, and mass was sung in the presence of the clergy, of sieur Denis Nivarrat, citizen, and of sieur Louis Regnault, also citizen; friends of the deceased, who have signed this at Saint-Germain en Laye." By this death the last tie that bound my father to the aristocracy was severed. [Footnote 1: There are different versions of this anecdote, but I give it as I found it related among my father's papers, where this note is added in another handwriting: _The general had this story from the duc de Richelieu himself._ I cannot, then, do other than adopt or rather retain this version of it.] CHAPTER III My father rejoins his regiment--His portrait--His strength--His skill--The Nile serpent--The regiment of the King and the regiment of the Queen--Early days of the Revolution--Declaration of Pilnitz--The camp at Maulde--The thirteen Tyrolean chasseurs--My father's name is mentioned in the order of the day--France under Providence--Voluntary enlistments--St. Georges and Boyer--My father lieutenant-colonel--The camp of the Madeleine--The pistols of Lepage--My father General of Brigade in the Army of the North.