ren,--three daughters and three
sons. According to French custom, under the old regime, the eldest
son only was to marry, and the other members of the Lamartine family
proceeded as they grew up to fulfil their appointed destinies.
The second son went into the Church, and rose to be a bishop. The
third son, M. le Chevalier, went into the army. The sisters adopted
the religious life, and thus all were provided for. But strange to
say, the eldest son, to whose happiness and prosperity the rest
were to be sacrificed, was the first rebel in the family. He fell
in love with a Mademoiselle de Saint-Huruge; but her _dot_ was
not considered by the elder members of the family sufficient to
justify the alliance. The young man gave up his bride, and to the
consternation of his relatives announced that he would marry no
other woman. M. le Chevalier must marry and perpetuate the ancestral
line.

Lamartine says,--

"M. le Chevalier was the youngest in that generation of our family.
At sixteen he had entered the regiment in which his father had
served before him. His career was to grow old in the modest position
of a captain in the army (which position he attained at an early
age), to pass his few months of leave, from time to time, in his
father's house, to gain the Cross of St. Louis (which was the end
of all ambitions to provincial gentlemen), and then, when he grew
old, being endowed with a small provision from the State, or a
still smaller revenue of his own, he expected to vegetate in one
of his brothers' old chateaux, having his rooms in the upper story,
to superintend the garden, to shoot with the _cure_, to look after
the horses, to play with the children, to make up a game of whist
or tric-trac,--the born servant of everyone, a domestic slave,
happy in his lot, beloved, and yet neglected by all. But in the
end his fate was very different. His elder brother, having refused
to marry, said to his father: 'You must marry the Chevalier.' All
the feelings of the family and the prejudices of habit rose up in
the heart of the old nobleman against this suggestion. Chevaliers,
according to his notions, were not intended to marry. My father
was sent back to his regiment, and his marrying was put off from
year to year."

Meantime, the idea of marriage having been put into the Chevalier's
head, he chose for himself, and happily his choice fell on a lady
acceptable to his family. His sister was canoness in an aristocratic
order, whos