“Ah!” said Madame Coulancourt, with an earnestness unmistakable, “would to God we were all in dear England! What I have suffered in this land I can never tell; even when restored to liberty, living in Paris, and forced to enter society to avoid the remarks, and the secret espionage of the Minister of Police. When the constraint and gloom of the Jacobin rule was discarded, the thirst for amusement and dissipation that followed was carried to an unbounded and disgusting excess, in manners, in attire, and in immorality. It was only in the circles of Madame Josephine Beauharnais, that most amiable of women, and Madame Canabas, whose beauty was perfectly entrancing, and Madame de Stäel, that a refuge was to be obtained from the licentiousness everywhere else openly and unblushingly displayed. You would scarcely believe it, but I was forced to attend balls, where none but the relations of persons who had suffered death under the axe of the guillotine were allowed to appear. Our hair also was tied up as it would have been previous to execution. These fêtes were termed ‘Balls of the victims.’ Then came the dreadful famine; ah! memory will always cling to the scenes of the past, and yet how truly merciful has Providence been to me! Have I not my children? It is wrong to murmur, whilst joy and thankfulness should fill my heart.” Lieutenant Thornton had his eyes fixed upon his aunt; he thought he had never beheld a face possessing so perfectly fascinating an expression. In her youth she must have been—lovely as Mabel was—much more beautiful; her height was tall and commanding, with easy and graceful manner. The evening passed pleasantly over, conversing on the past, and proposing many schemes for the future. Monsieur Gramont was said to have gone to Paris; all appeared tranquil around them. Lieutenant Thornton and Julian Arden, the following morning, set out for a visit to Lyon Head, to have a look out over old ocean. The month was not yet out during which the Onyx was expected to be cruising on and off the coast, and the two young men hoped to be able, during their trips to the Head, to get a glimpse of her, for they both knew what a sincere, anxious friend Captain O’Loughlin was, and how determinedly he would keep his word, provided his duty permitted him to do so. The distance to Lyon Head from the château was scarcely six miles, and, by avoiding the village, the road led through a very deserted part of the country, and across ranges of sand hills.