e arms of his "big brother" with that
passionate adoration he had for him.

After the first embraces were over, Roland inquired about the stoppage
of the diligence. Madame de Montrevel had been chary of mentioning it;
Sir John had been sober in statement, but not so Edouard. It was
his Iliad, his very own. He related it with every detail--Jerome's
connivance with the bandits, the pistols loaded with powder only, his
mother's fainting-fit, the attention paid to her by those who had caused
it, his own name known to the bandits, the fall of the mask from the
face of the one who was restoring his mother, his certainty that she
must have seen the man's face.

Roland was above all struck with this last particular. Then the boy
related their audience with the First Consul, and told how the latter
had kissed and petted him, and finally recommended him to the director
of the Prytanee Francais.

Roland learned from the child all that he wished to know, and as it took
but five minutes to go from the Rue Saint Jacques to the Luxembourg, he
was at the palace in that time.

CHAPTER XXXVI. SCULPTURE AND PAINTING

When Roland returned to the Luxembourg, the clock of the palace marked
one hour and a quarter after mid-day.

The First Consul was working with Bourrienne.

If we were merely writing a novel, we should hasten to its close, and in
order to get there more expeditiously we should neglect certain details,
which, we are told, historical figures can do without. That is not our
opinion. From the day we first put pen to paper--now some thirty years
ago--whether our thought were concentrated on a drama, or whether it
spread itself into a novel, we have had a double end--to instruct and to
amuse.

And we say instruct first, for amusement has never been to our mind
anything but a mask for instruction. Have we succeeded? We think so.
Before long we shall have covered with our narratives an enormous
period of time; between the "Comtesse de Salisbury" and the "Comte de
Monte-Cristo" five centuries and a half are comprised. Well, we assert
that we have taught France as much history about those five centuries
and a half as any historian.

More than that; although our opinions are well known; although, under
the Bourbons of the elder branch as under the Bourbons of the younger
branch, under the Republic as under the present government, we have
always proclaimed them loudly, we do not believe that that opinion has
been unduly