and admiration, I found it strange that any one
should venture to form any other estimate of him than I was used to
hear; and yet in all he said I could but faintly trace out anything to
take amiss. That men of his cloth should feel warmly towards the exiled
family was natural enough. They could have but few sympathies with the
soldier's calling, and of course felt themselves in a very different
position now from what they once had occupied. The restoration of
Catholicism was, I well knew, rather a political and social than a
religious movement; and Bonaparte never had the slightest intention of
replacing the Church in its former position of ascendency, but rather
of using it as a state engine and giving a stability to the new order
of things, which could only be done on the foundation of prejudices and
convictions old as the nation itself.

In this way the rising generation looked on the priests; and in this
way had I been taught to regard the whole class of religionists. It was,
then, nothing wonderful if ambitious men among them, of whom D'Ervan
might be one, felt somewhat indignant at the post assigned them, and did
not espouse with warmth the cause of one who merely condescended to make
them the tool of his intentions. "Yes, yes," said I to myself, "I have
defined my friend the abbe; and though not a very dangerous character
after all, it 's just as well I should be on my guard. His being in
possession of the password, and his venturing to write his name in the
police report, are evidences that he enjoys the favor of the Prefet de
Police. Well, well, I'm sure I am heartily tired of such reflections.
Would that the campaign were once begun! The roll of a platoon and the
deep thunder of an artillery fire would soon drown the small whispering
of such miserable plottings from one's head."

About a week passed over after this visit, in which, at first, I was
rather better pleased that the abbe, did not come again; but as my
solitude began to press more heavily on me, I felt a kind of regret at
not seeing him. His lively tone in conversation, though spiced with that
_morqueur_ spirit which Frenchmen nearly all assume, amused me greatly;
and little versed as I was in the world or in its ways, I saw that he
knew it thoroughly.

Such were my thoughts as I returned home one evening along the broad
alley of the park, when I heard a foot coming rapidly up behind me.

"I say, Lieutenant," cried the voice of the very man I wa