eur! by the grace of
God!"

Who shall attempt to describe the feelings of all those who were
assembled round this young enthusiast as he hurled his challenge right
in the face of those who called him a liar and a traitor? Surely it were
a hard task for the chronicler to search into the minds and hearts of
this score of men and women--who worshipped one God and reverenced one
King--at the moment when they saw that King threatened upon his throne,
their faith mocked and their God blasphemed: that the young man spoke
words of truth no one thought of denying. Napoleon's name had the power
to strike terror in the heart of every citizen who desired peace above
all things and of every royalist who wished to see King Louis in
possession of the throne of his fathers. But the army which had fought
under him, the army which he had led in triumph and to victory from one
end of the Continent of Europe to the other, that army still loved him
and had never been rightly loyal to King Louis. The horrors of war which
had lain so heavily over France and over Europe for the past twenty
years were painfully vivid still in everybody's mind, and all these
horrors were intimately associated with the name which stood out now in
bold characters on the paper which de Marmont was triumphantly waving.

M. le Comte had become a shade or two paler than he had been before: he
looked very old, very careworn, all of a sudden, and his pale eyes had
that look in them which comes into the eyes of the old after years of
sorrow and of regret.

But never for a moment did he depart from his attitude of dignity. When
de Marmont's exultant cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" had ceased to echo round
the majestic walls of this stately chateau, he straightened out his
spare figure and with one fine gesture begged for silence from his
guests.

Then he said very quietly: "M. Marmont, this is neither the place nor
the opportunity which I should have chosen for confronting you with all
the lies which you have told in the past ten months ever since you
entered my house as an honoured guest. But M. de St. Genis has left me
no option. Burning with indignation at your treachery he came hot-foot
to unmask you, before my daughter's fair hand had affixed her own
honourable name beneath that of a cheat and a traitor. . . . Yes! M. de
Marmont," he reiterated with virile force, breaking in on the hot
protests which had risen to the young man's lips, "no one but a cheat
and a traitor