"He decorated me with that after the battle of Austerlitz, for something or other,--leading a charge, I guess!" replied Jean modestly. "I have been with him through every campaign since he took command of the Army of Italy, and I shall go with him through every other, as long as I live. I love him! Do you blame me?" "No, I do not! He is the most wonderful man of modern history! He deserves all that he has achieved. He has done more for France in these ten years, than all the line of Bourbon kings ever dreamed of accomplishing. There is no particle of envy in my heart that he is occupying a throne which should have been mine. It is an unstable throne at best! Let him be happy on it while he may, only let him beware lest too great ambition cause him to overreach the mark!" Then the two drifted into talk of the past, and of the painful years of their childhood and early acquaintance. The hours, all too short, flew by, and at twilight the order was given to cast loose the ship and set sail. The two young men bade each other farewell in the cabin, for they could not endure that their parting should be witnessed on the common deck. "Adieu, adieu, Jean!" murmured Louis Charles huskily. "I owe you a debt that a lifetime would be too short to repay! But for you I would have died long since, in that horrible place, and I believe that you and Yvonne are the only ones in this world who truly care for me now. My gratitude and love is all that I can give you, for I am poor as regards worldly wealth. But I know you understand! You are being rewarded by another and more powerful hand than mine. Give my love to Yvonne, and my most earnest wishes for her happiness. In you she will have the husband she deserves!" Jean was almost too overcome to speak at all. "I--I love you!" he stammered. "And I have always secretly hoped that sometime you would come back to live among us!" "That is impossible, as you see," said the young man. "This parting is harder to me than I dare to tell you, for you are all that links me with my former life! Adieu, adieu, Jean!" But Jean could trust himself no longer. He bent and kissed the hands of Louis Charles, and hastily left the cabin without another word. On the quay he watched, while the great ship drew in her cables, and moved majestically out into the tide. But ere the dark hull vanished entirely from view, Jean perceived a white handkerchief fluttering from the railing of the afterdeck, and he knew it to be the last farewell of Louis XVII of France! * * * * * Jean lived to be a very old man, and he saw in his day many astonishing changes, and lived through a number of singular epochs in the history of his country. One of the most peculiar circumstances, however, that came under his ken was as follows: