iven to submit to
the amputation, and sent word to the doctors that I was ready. My
mind once made up, a thousand ingenious suggestions poured in their
consolations. Instead of incurring my misfortune as I had done, my
mischance might have originated in some commonplace or inglorious
accident. In lieu of the proud recognitions I had earned, I might have
now the mere sympathy of some fellow-sufferer in a hospital; and instead
of the 'Cross of St. Stephen' and the 'valour medal' of Austria, my
reward might have been the few sous per day allotted to an invalided
soldier.

As it was, each post from Vienna brought me nothing but nattering
recognitions; and one morning a large sealed letter from Duroc conveyed
the Emperor's own approval of my conduct, with the cross of commander of
the Legion of Honour. A whole life of arduous services might have
failed to win such prizes, and so I struck the balance of good and evil
fortune, and found I was the gainer!

Among the presents which I received from the Imperial family was a
miniature of the young archduchess, whose life I saved, and which I at
once despatched by a safe messenger to Marshal Marmont, engaging him to
have a copy of it made and the original returned to me. I concluded that
circumstances must have rendered this impossible, for I never beheld the
portrait again, although I heard of it among the articles bequeathed
to the Duc de Reichstadt at St. Helena. Maria Louisa was, at that time,
very handsome; the upper-lip and mouth were, it is true, faulty, and the
Austrian-heaviness marred the expression of these features; but her
brow and eyes were singularly fine, and her hair of a luxuriant richness
rarely to be seen.

Count Palakzi, my young Hungarian friend, who had scarcely ever quitted
my bedside during my illness, used to jest with me on my admiration of
the young archduchess, and jokingly compassionate me on the altered age
we lived in, in contrast to those good old times when a bold feat or
a heroic action was sure to win the hand of a fair princess. I half
suspect that he believed me actually in love with her, and deemed that
this was the best way to treat such an absurd and outrageous ambition.
To amuse myself with his earnestness, for such had it become, on the
subject, I affected not to be indifferent to his allusions, and assumed
all the delicate reserve of devoted admiration. Many an hour have I
lightened by watching the fidgety uneasiness the young count fe