TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: In the plain text version text in italics is enclosed by _underscores_, small caps are represented in upper case as in SMALL CAPS and words in bold are represented as in =bold=. A number of words in this book have both hyphenated and non-hyphenated variants. For the words with both variants present the one more used has been kept. Obvious punctuation and other printing errors have been corrected. The cover art included with this eBook was modified by the transcriber and is granted to the public domain. * * * * * [Illustration: Alexandre Dumas, Fils] SHORT STORY CLASSICS (FOREIGN) VOLUME FOUR FRENCH I [Illustration] EDITED BY William Patten WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES [Illustration] P. F. COLLIER & SON NEW YORK COPYRIGHT 1907 BY P. F. COLLIER & SON The use of the copyrighted translations in this collection has been authorized by the authors or their representatives. The translations made especially for this collection are covered by the general copyright CONTENTS--VOLUME IV PAGE THE UNKNOWN MASTERPIECE HONORÉ DE BALZAC 1007 THE PRICE OF A LIFE AUGUSTIN EUGÈNE SCRIBE 1049 NAPOLEON AND POPE PIUS VII ALFRED VICTOR, COMTE DE VIGNY 1067 CLAUDE GUEUX VICTOR MARIE HUGO 1083 A BAL MASQUÉ ALEXANDRE DAVY DE LA PAILLETERIE DUMAS 1105 HOW THE REDOUBT WAS TAKEN PROSPER MÉRIMÉE 1121 THE VENDEAN MARRIAGE JULES GABRIEL JANIN 1131 THE MARQUISE GEORGE SAND 1149 THE BEAUTY-SPOT ALFRED LOUIS CHARLES DE MUSSET 1185 THE MUMMY’S FOOT THÉOPHILE GAUTIER 1237 CIRCÉ OCTAVE FEUILLET 1257 THE HANGING AT LA PIROCHE ALEXANDRE DUMAS, FILS 1269