one of all others the
most to my choice. The war in Africa had become by that time a kind of
crusade; it was the only field where Frenchmen could win fame and honor
in arms, and the military fever of the nation was at its height. Into
this enthusiasm I threw myself ardently; nor did it need the stimulation
derived from a new and most becoming uniform to make me fancy myself a
very Bayard in chivalry.

A truly busy week was spent by me in preparations for departure: as I
had to be presented at a private audience of the Court, to wait upon
various high official personages, to receive instructions on many
points, and, lastly, to preside at a parting dinner which I was to give
to my literary brethren, before retiring from the guild forever.

Last dinners and leave-takings are generally sad affairs; this of
mine was, however, an exception: it was a perfect orgie of wild and
enthusiastic gayety. All the beauty which the theatres and the "artiste"
class generally could boast, was united with the brilliancy and
convivial excellence of the cleverest men in Paris,--the professional
sayers of smart things, the ready-witted ones, whose epigrams were
sufficient to smash a cabinet, or laugh down a new treaty; and all in
high spirits, since what promoted me, also left a vacancy in the corps
that gave many others a step in the ranks of letters.

What speeches were made in my honor, what toasts, prefaced by all
the exaggeration of praise that would have been fulsome, save for the
lurking diablerie of fun that every now and then burst forth in the
midst of them! And then there were odes, and sonnets, and songs, in
which my future achievements were pictured in a vein half-flattering,
half-satirical,--that peculiar eau sucre, with a squeeze of lemon, that
only a Frenchman knows how to concoct!

[Illustration: 571-222]

During one of my most triumphant moments, when two of the very prettiest
actresses of the "Odeon" were placing a laurel crown upon my brow,
a cabinet-messenger was announced, and presented me with an order to
repair at once to the Tuileries with my official letter of appointment,
as his Majesty, by some accident, had forgotten to append to it his
signature. Apologizing to my worthy friends for a brief absence, which
they assured me should be devoted to expatiating on those virtues of
my character which my presence interdicted them from enlarging upon, I
arose, and left the room. It was necessary to arrange the disorder