retary of General Jackson, having occasion to
translate to him a French despatch, read, "The French Government
_demands_--" "Demands!" cried the general, with a volley of rough
language; "if the French Government dares to _demand_ anything
of the United States, it will not get it."

It was long before he could be made to understand the true meaning
of the French word _demande_, and his own demands were backed with
threats and couched in terms more forcible than diplomatic. The
money was paid after the draft of the United States for the first
instalment had been protested, and France has not yet forgotten that
when she was still in the troubled waters of a recent revolution,
she was roughly treated by the nation which she had befriended at
its birth.

The greatest military success in Louis Philippe's reign was the
capture of Constantine in Algeria. So late as 1810 Algerine corsairs
were a terror in the Mediterranean, and captured M. Arago, who was
employed on a scientific expedition.[1] In 1835, France resolved
to undertake a crusade against these pirates, which might free the
commerce of the Mediterranean. The enterprise was not popular in
France. It would cost money, and it seemed to present no material
advantages. It was argued that its benefits would accrue only to
the dynasty of Louis Philippe, that Algeria would be a good
training-school for the army, and that the main duty of the army
in future might be to repress republicanism.

[Footnote 1: About the same time they took prisoner a cousin of
my father, John Warner Wormeley, of Virginia. He was sold into
slavery; but when tidings of his condition reached his friends,
he was ransomed by my grandfather.]

In 1834, a young Arab chief called Abdul Kader, the son of a Marabout
of great sanctity, had risen into notice. Abdul Kader was a man
who realized the picture of Saladin drawn by Sir Walter Scott in
the "Talisman." Brave, honorable, chivalrous, and patriotic, his
enemies admired him, his followers adored him. When he made his
first treaty with the French, he answered some doubts that were
expressed concerning his sincerity by saying gravely: "My word
is sacred; I have visited the tomb of the Prophet."

Constantine, the mountain fortress of Oran, was held, not by Abdul
Kader, but by Ahmed Bey, the representative of the sultan's suzerainty
in the Barbary States. The first attack upon it failed. The weather
and the elements fought against the French in this exp