“You see, gentlemen,” cried he, as I replied to some inquiry about my campaign, “this is an instance of what I have so often spoken to you. Here is a youth who leaves his country solely for fighting sake; he does not care much for the epaulette, he cares less for the cause. Come, come, don't interrupt me; I know you better than you know yourself. You longed for the conflict and the struggle and the victory; and, _parbleu!_ we may say as we will, but you could have scarcely made a better selection than with his Majesty, Emperor and King, as they style him.” This speech met with a sorry reception from the bystanders, and in the dissatisfied expression of their faces, a less confident speaker might have read his condemnation; but the general felt not this, or, if he did, he effectually concealed it. “You have not inquired for Gustave de Me is in,” said he, looking round at the circle. “You have not seen him, surely?” cried several together; “we heard he was at Vienna.” “No, _parbleu!_ he lives about a league from his old home,--the very house we spent our Christmas at eighteen years ago. They have made a barrack of his château, and thrown his park into a royal _chasse_; but he has built a hut on the river-side, and walks every day through his own ground, which he says he never saw so well stocked for many a year. He is as happy as ever, and loves to look out on the Seine before his door when the bright stream is rippling through many a broad leaf; ay, Messieurs, of good augury, too,--the lilies of France.” He lifted a bumper to his lips as he spoke, and drank the toast with enthusiasm. This sudden return to loyalty, so boldly announced, served to reinstate him in their estimation; and once again all their former pleasure at his appearance came back, and again the questions poured in from every quarter. “And the abbé,” said one; “what of him? Has he made up his mind yet?” “To be sure he has, and changed it too, at least twice every twenty-four hours. He is ever full of confidence and brimming with hope when the wind is from the eastward; but let it only come a point west, his spirits fall at once, and he dreams of frigates and gunboats, and the hulks in the Thames; and though they offered him a cardinal's hat, he 'd not venture out to sea.” The warning looks of the bystanders, and even some signals to be cautious, here interrupted the speaker, who paused for a few seconds, and then fixed his eyes on me. “I have no fears, gentlemen, on that score. I know my countrymen well, though I have lived little among them. My namesake here may like the service of the Emperor better than that of a king,--he may prefer the glitter of the eagle to the war-cry of Saint Louis,--but he 'll never betray the private conversations nor expose the opinions expressed before him in all the confidence of social intercourse.