It is useless to dub a Frenchman unreal and theatrical when he gaily carries his unreality and his perception of the dramatic to the lucarne of the guillotine and meets imperturbably the most real thing on earth, Death. Albert de Chantonnay was a good Royalist--a better Royalist, as many were in France at this time, than the King--and, perhaps, he carried his loyalty to the point that is reached by the best form of flattery. Let it be remembered that when, on the 3rd of May, 1814, Louis XVIII. was reinstated, not by his own influence or exertions, but by the allied sovereigns who had overthrown Napoleon, he began at once to issue declarations and decrees as of the nineteenth year of his reign, ignoring the Revolution and Napoleon. Did this Bourbon really take himself seriously? Did he really expect the world to overlook Napoleon, or did he know as all the world knows to-day, that long after the Bourbons have sunk into oblivion the name of Napoleon will continue to be a household word? If a situation is thus envisaged by a King, what may the wise expect from a Royalist? In the absence of the Marquis de Gemosac, Albert de Chantonnay was considered to be the leader of the party in that quiet corner of south-western France which lies north of Bordeaux and south of that great dividing river, the Loire. He was, moreover, looked upon as representing that younger blood of France, to which must be confided the hopes and endeavours of the men, now passing away one by one, who had fought and suffered for their kings. It was confidently whispered throughout this pastoral country that August Persons, living in exile in England and elsewhere, were in familiar and confidential correspondence with the Marquis de Gemosac, and, in a minor degree, with Albert de Chantonnay. For kings, and especially deposed kings, may not be choosers, but must take the instrument that comes to hand. A constitutional monarch is, by the way, better placed in this respect, for it is his people who push the instrument into his grasp, and in the long run the people nearly always read a man aright despite the efforts of a cheap press to lead them astray. “If it were not written in the Marquis's own writing I could not have believed it,” said Albert de Chantonnay, speaking aloud his own thoughts. He turned the letter this way and that, examining first the back of it and then the front. “It has not been through the post,” he said to the Abbe, who stood respectfully watching his face, which, indeed, inspired little confidence, for the chin receded in the wrong way--not like the chin of a shark, which indicates, not foolishness, but greed of gain--and the eyes were large and pale like those of a sheep.