“'Yes,' said I, tearing it away, and trampling it beneath my feet,--'yes! it is not a Noailles can wear the badge of infamy and crime; the blood-stained tricolor can find slight favor here.' “'Hush, boy! hush, for Heaven's sake!' cried my uncle, trembling with fear. “The caution came too late. The general, taking a note-book from his pocket, opened it leisurely, and then turning towards the viscount, said, 'This youth's name is--' “'Duchesne; Henri Duchesne.' “'And his age?' “'Fourteen in March,' replied my uncle, as his eyes filled up; while he added, in a half whisper, 'if you mean the conscription, General, he has already supplied a substitute.' “'No matter, sir, if he had sent twenty; such defect of education as his needs correction. He shall join the levies at Toulon in three days; in three days, mark me! Depend upon it, sir,' said he, turning to me, 'you shall learn a lesson beneath that tricolor you'll be somewhat long in forgetting. Dumolle, look to this.' With this direction to his aide-de-camp he arose, and before my poor unhappy uncle could recover his self-possession to reply, had left the room. “'He will not do this, sir; surely, he will not,' said the viscount to the young officer. “'General Bonaparte does not relent, sir; and if he did, he 'd never show it,' was the cold reply. “That day week I carried a musket on the ramparts of Toulon. Here began a career I have followed ever since; with how much of enthusiasm I leave you to judge for yourself.” As Duchesne concluded this little story he arose, and paced the room backwards and forwards with rapid steps, while his compressed lips and knitted brow showed he was lost in gloomy recollections of the past. “He was right, after all, Burke,” said he, at length. “Personal honor will make the soldier; conviction may make the patriot. I fought as stoutly for this same cause as though I did not loathe it: how many others may be in the same position? You yourself, perhaps.” “No, no; not I.” “Well, be it so,” rejoined he, carelessly. “Goodnight” And with that he strolled negligently from the room, and I heard him humming a tune as he mounted the stairs towards his bedroom. CHAPTER XV. A GOOD-BY “I have come to bring you a card for the Court ball, Capitaine,” said General Daru, as he opened the door of my dressing-room the following morning. “See what a number of them I have here; but except your own, the addresses are not filled up. You are in favor at the Tuileries, it would seem.” “I was not aware of my good fortune, General,” replied I. “Be assured, however, it is such,” said he. “These things are not, as so many deem them, mere matters of chance; every name is well weighed and conned over: the officers of the household serve one who does not forgive mistakes. And now that I think of it, you were intimate--very intimate, I believe--with Duchesne?” “Yes, sir; we were much together.”