ut my hand,
and caught his, and by considerable exertion at last succeeded in
placing him in front of me.

He thanked me fervently, in a strange kind of German, a patois I had
never heard before, and kissed my hand three or four times over in his
gratitude; indeed, so absorbed was he for the time in his desire to
thank me, that I had to recall him to the more pressing reason of his
presence, and warn him that but a few minutes more of the hour remained
free.

'Speak up,' cried the clerk, as the old man muttered something in a low
and very indistinct voice; 'speak up, and remember, my friend, that we
do not profess to give information further back than the times of "Louis
Quatorze."'

This allusion to the years of the old man was loudly applauded by his
colleagues, who drew nigh to stare at the cause of it.

'Sacrebleu! he is talking Hebrew,' said another, 'and asking for a
friend who fell at Ramoth-Gilead.'

'He is speaking German,' said I peremptorily, 'and asking for a relative
whom he believes to have embarked with the expedition to Egypt.'

'Are you a sworn interpreter, young man?' asked an older and more
consequential-looking personage.

I was about to return a hasty reply to this impertinence, but I thought
of the old man, and the few seconds that still remained for his inquiry,
and I smothered my anger, and was silent.

'What rank did he hold?' inquired one of the clerks, who had listened
with rather more patience to the old man. I translated the question for
the peasant, who, in reply, confessed that he could not tell. The
youth was his only son, and had left home many years before, and never
written. A neighbour, however, who had travelled in foreign parts, had
brought tidings that he had gone with the expedition to Egypt, and was
already high in the French army.

'You are not quite certain that he did not command the army of Egypt?'
said one of the clerks, in mockery of the old man's story.

'It is not unlikely,' said the peasant gravely; 'he was a brave and a
bold youth, and could have lifted two such as you with one hand, and
hurled you out of that window.'

'Let us hear his name once more,' said the elder clerk--'it is worth
remembering.'

'I have told you already. It was Karl Kleher.'

'The General--General Kleher!' cried three or four in a breath.

'Mayhap,' was all the reply.

'And are you the father of the great general of Egypt?' asked the elder,
with an air of deep respect.

'Kle