hich his hopes so long had tended. 'Oh, if this were but Scotland or
Ireland,' thought he; 'if my foot now only trod the soil that I could
call my own; if I could but realise to myself once, even once, the
glorious sense of being recognised as one of that race that once ruled
there as sovereigns; if I could but taste the intoxication of that
generous devotion that through all his calamities once cheered my
father, I 'd think the moment had repaid me for all the cares of life!
And now it has all passed away like a dream. As Purcell said, "They want
us no longer!" "We belong to the past, and have no significance in the
present! Strange, sad, mysterious destiny!" There was a humiliation in
that feeling that gave him intense pain; it was the sense of being
cut off from all sympathy, estranged from the wishes, the hopes, the
ambition of his fellow-men. Out of an isolation like _that_ it was that
Gabriel Riquetti had taught him to believe men achieve their greatest
successes. You must first of all feel yourself alone, all alone in life,
ere you can experience that liberty that ensures free action.

This was one of his axioms which he loved to repeat; and whether
suggested by the scene where he had first met that wonderful man, or
merely induced by the course of reflection, many of Mirabeau's early
teachings and precepts rose to his memory as he journeyed along.

For some time he had been unconsciously ascending a somewhat steep
mountain-path, so deeply imbedded between two lines of thick brushwood
as to intercept all view at either side, when suddenly the way emerged
from the dense copse and took the mountain side, disappearing at a
jutting promontory of rock around which it seemed to pass. As his eye
followed the track thus far he saw the flutter of what seemed a scarlet
banner; but on looking longer discovered it was the gay saddle-cloth of
a mule, from which the rider had apparently dismounted. He had but just
time to mark this much ere the object disappeared beyond the rock.

Cheered to fancy that some other traveller might chance to be on the
same road with himself, he now hastened his steps. The way, however, was
longer than he had supposed, and on gaining the promontory he descried
the mule fully two miles away, stealing carefully along over the rugged
bridle-path on the mountain. The object became now a pursuit, and he
strained his eyes to see if by some by-path he could not succeed
in gaining on the chase. While thu