Such were his thoughts, such the matter of his contemplation, as, with his eyes now bent on the ground, now raised towards the sky, he walked slowly along one of the alleys of the old park of St. Cloud. But his mind wandered far, and paused for a moment upon many of those collateral associations to which his circumstances and situation gave rise. He thought of the sorrows and cares of kingly lot, of the ingratitude and baseness of mankind, of the hollowness and heartlessness of courts, and of the selfishness and insincerity of many of those who dwelt in them. He remembered the fate of his immediate predecessor; betrayed by those whom he had favoured, driven from his capital, and almost hurled from his throne by the friend and companion of his youth,[3] opposed in arms by those whom his bounty had fed and pampered, and murdered by the representative of an order which he had loaded with benefits and degraded himself to serve. He thought of what might be his own fate; and, judging from all the signs that he saw around him, he argued, that the well of bitterness was but freshly opened for him, and that his hand held a cup of sorrow whereof he was destined to drink to the very last drop. Then again, as he raised his eyes towards the beautiful planet which was diffusing the flood of her tranquil light over field, and plain, and wood, over armed camp and beleaguered city, as calmly and tranquilly as if nothing but peace, and virtue, and happiness dwelt beneath her beams, his mind reverted to his early days, when he had seen the same effulgent rays pour through the mighty masses of his native mountains, and stream down the lovely valleys in which he had first learned to shoot his boyish arrows at the mark, to cast the light line for the silver trout, or to pursue the swift-footed izzard over the beetling crags: and as he thought of those sweet times and happy hours, how he did long, with the deep yearnings of the disappointed heart, to be able to cast away crown and sceptre, sword and shield, the miseries of high station, the bitter wisdom of manhood, and to sport again, a boy, with the happy carelessness of other years, by the bright waters of the Gave, and amidst the lustrous valleys of Ossau, Argelez, and Pau! By this time he had nearly reached the end of the alley, where it opened out upon a small lawn, over which, in the neglect of all things that existed during the civil wars, the grass had grown up long and rank; and he was preparing to return and bend his steps towards the chateau, when a light rustling sound amongst the trees caught his ear, and made him draw round his sword belt, till the hilt of his well-tried weapon was within easy reach of his hand.