lt at my
folly; for now, instead of jesting, as before, he tried to reason me
out of this insane ambition, and convince me that such pretensions were
utter madness.

I was slowly convalescing, about five weeks after the amputation of my
leg, when Polakzi entered my room one morning with an open letter in his
hand. His cheek was flushed, and his air and manner greatly excited.

'Would you believe it, Tiernay,' said he, 'Stadion writes me word from
Vienna, that Napoleon has asked for the hand of the young archduchess in
marriage, and that the emperor has consented.'

'And am I not considered in this negotiation?' asked I, scarcely
suppressing a laugh.

'This is no time nor theme for jest,' said he passionately; 'nor is
it easy to keep one's temper at such a moment. A Hapsburgher princess
married to a low Corsican adventurer! to the----'

'Come, Polakzi,' cried I, 'these are not the words for me to listen to;
and having heard them, I may be tempted to say, that the honour comes
all off the other side, and that he who holds all Europe at his feet
ennobles the dynasty from which he selects his empress.'

'I deny it--fairly and fully deny it!' cried the passionate youth. 'And
every noble of this land would rather see the provinces of the empire
torn from us, than a princess of the Imperial House degraded to such an
alliance!'

'Is the throne of France, then, so low?' said I calmly.

'Not when the rightful sovereign is seated on it,' said he. 'But are
we, the subjects of a legitimate monarchy, to accept as equals the lucky
accidents of your revolution? By what claim is a soldier of fortune the
peer of king or kaiser? I, for one, will never more serve a cause so
degraded; and the day on which such humiliation is our lot shall be the
last of my soldiering'; and so saying, he rushed passionately from the
room, and disappeared.

I mention this little incident here, not as in any way connecting itself
with my own fortunes, but as illustrating what I afterwards discovered
to be the universal feeling entertained towards this alliance. Low as
Austria then was--beaten in every battle, her vast treasury confiscated,
her capital in the hands of an enemy, her very existence as an empire
threatened--the thought of this insult--for such they deemed it--to
the Imperial House, seemed to make the burden unendurable; and many
who would have sacrificed territory and power for a peace, would have
scorned to accept it at such a price as