fixedly for a second or two, and then dropped his eyes
without a reply.

'You were probably with the army of the Meuse?' said I, hazarding the
guess, from remembering how many of that army had been invalided by the
terrible attacks of ague contracted in North Holland.

'I served on the Rhine,' said he briefly; 'but I made the campaign of
Jemappes, too. I served the king also--King Louis,' cried he sternly.
'Is that avowal candid enough, or do you want more?'

Another Royalist, thought I, with a sigh. Whichever way I turn they meet
me--the very ground seems to give them up.

'And could you find no better trade than that of a _mouchard?_ 'asked he
sneeringly.

'I am not a _mouchard_--I never was one. I am a soldier like yourself;
and, mayhap, if all were to be told, scarcely a more fortunate one.'

'Dismissed the service--and for what?' asked he bluntly.

'If not broke, at least not employed,' said I bitterly.

'A Royalist?'

'Not the least of one, but suspected.'

'Just so. Your letters--your private papers ransacked, and brought in
evidence against you. Your conversations with your intimates noted down
and attested--every word you dropped in a moment of disappointment or
anger; every chance phrase you uttered when provoked--all quoted; wasn't
that it?'

As he spoke this, with a rapid and almost impetuous utterance, I, for
the first time, noticed that both the expressions and the accent implied
breeding and education. Not all his vehemence could hide the evidences
of former cultivation.

'How comes it,' asked I eagerly, 'that such a man as you are is to be
found thus? You certainly did not always serve in the ranks?'

'I had my grade,' was his short, dry reply.

'You were a quartermaster--perhaps a sous-lieutenant?' said I, hoping by
the flattery of the surmise to lead him to talk further.

'I was the colonel of a dragoon regiment,' said he sternly-- 'and that
neither the least brave nor the least distinguished in the French army.'

Ah! thought I, my good fellow, you have shot your bolt too high this
time; and in a careless, easy way, I asked, 'What might have been the
number of your corps?'

'How can it concern you?' said he, with a savage vehemence. 'You say
that you are not a spy. To what end these questions? As it is, you
have made this hovel, which has been my shelter for some weeks back, no
longer of any service to me. I will not be tracked. I will not suffer
espionage, by Heaven!' cried he, a