wards which one day or other would
be bestowed upon me, he told me that the tidings from France were of the
very best kind, that the insolent airs of Bonaparte were detaching
from him many of his stanchest adherents, that Pichegru openly, and
Bernadotte secretly, had abandoned him; Davoust had ceased to visit at
his house; while Lasalle and others of less note were heard to declare
that if they were to have a master, at least it should be one who was
born to the station that conferred command.

"We knew," continued he, joyously, "that we had only to leave this man
alone, and he would be his own executioner; and the event has only come
a little earlier than we looked for. These papers for which you are now
despatched contain a secret correspondence between a great personage and
some of the most distinguished generals of the Republic."

He said much more on this theme,--indeed, he sat late, and talked of
nothing else; but I paid little attention to the subject. I had over
and over again heard the same observation; and at least a dozen eventful
crises had occurred when the Republic was declared in its last struggle,
and the cause of the king triumphant.

"I perceive," said he, at last, "you are less sanguine than I am. Is it
not so?"

"You mistake me, Monsieur l'Abbe," said I; "my depression has a selfish
origin. I have been long weary of this career of mine, and the note
which you see there was the beginning of a formal renunciation of it."

"It is impossible you could be so insane," cried he. "You are not one of
that vulgar herd that can be scared from a noble duty by a mere name. It
is not the word 'spy' that could wound you, enlisted as you are in the
noblest cause that ever engaged heroism, and in which the first men of
France are your associates."

"I am no Frenchman, Abbe," said I; "remember that."

"But you are a good Catholic," said he, promptly, "and, Ursule tells me,
well versed in every duty of the faith."

I by no means fancied the turn our discussion was likely to take. More
than once before had the Abbe made allusion to the principles which he
hoped might animate me, and which at some future time might obtain for
me an admission into his own order; so I hastily changed the topic,
by declaring that this journey I should certainly undertake, whatever
resolve I might come to for the future.

He had far too much tact to persevere on an unpleasant theme, and
after some further allusion to the prospects