denly to myself. I looked
up, and beheld Count Ysaffich before me. Though dressed in the lancer
uniform of the Garde, his features were too marked to be forgotten, and
I accosted him at once.

"Have you forgotten your old colleague, Paul Gervois?" said I, trying to
appear calm and at ease.

"What!--is this--can you be my old friend Gervois?" cried be, laying a
hand on my shoulder, and staring hard at my face. But I could not utter
a word; shame and sorrow overcame me, and I covered my face with both my
hands.

Ysaffich was not permitted to speak more with me at the time; but he
returned soon, and passed hours with me every day to the end of my
illness. He was intimate with the officer I had insulted; and, by
immense efforts, and the kind assistance of the medical authorities,
succeeded in establishing a plea of temporary insanity for my offence,
by which I escaped punishment, and was dismissed the service. This was
a period of much suffering to me, mentally as well as bodily. I felt all
the humiliation at which my life had been purchased, and more than once
did the price appear far too great a one.

CHAPTER XLVI. YSAFFICH

I was now domesticated with Ysaffich, who occupied good quarters in
Kehl, where the Polish Legion, as it was called, was garrisoned. He
treated me with every kindness, and presented me to his comrades as an
old and valued friend. I was not sorry to find myself at once amongst
total strangers,--men of a country quite new to me, and who themselves
had seen reverses and misfortunes enough to make them lenient in their
judgments of narrow fortune. They were, besides, a fine, soldier-like
race of fellows,--good horsemen, excellent swordsmen, reckless as all
men who have neither home nor country, and ready for any deed of daring
or danger. There was a jealousy between them and the French officers
which prevented any social intercourse; and duels were by no means a
rare event whenever they had occasion to meet. The Imperial laws were
tremendously severe on this offence; and he who killed his adversary
in a duel was certain of death by the law. To evade the consequences of
such a penalty, the most extravagant devices were practised, and many a
deadly quarrel was decided in a pretended fencing-match. It was in
one of these mock trials of skill that Colonel le Brun was killed, an
officer of great merit, and younger brother of the general of that name.

From that time the attention of the military a