ile, now shrouded in the gloom
of night! What bold, ambitious deeds,--what dreams of empire,--had not
been conceived there! The great of other days, indeed, entered little
into my mind, as I remembered it was the home of him, the greatest of
them all. How terrible, too, it was to think, that within that silent
palace, which seemed sleeping with the tranquil quiet of an humble
cottage, the dreadful plans which were to convulse the world, to shake
thrones and dynasties, to make of Europe a vast battlefield, were
now devising. The masses of dark cloud that hung heavily in the air,
obscuring the sky and shutting out every star, seemed to my fevered
imagination an augury of evil; and the oppressive, loaded atmosphere,
though perfumed with the odor of flowers, sunk heavily on the spirits.
Again the hour rang out, and I remembered that the gates of the garden
were now closed for the night, and that I should remain where I was
till daylight liberated me. My mind was, however, too full of its own
thoughts to make me care for sleep, and I strolled along the gloomy
walks lost in revery.

CHAPTER XL. A NIGHT IN THE TUILERIES GARDENS.

As the night wore on, I remembered that once, when a boy at the
Polytechnique, I longed to penetrate one of the little enclosures which
fenced the small flower-gardens beside the Palace, and which were railed
up from the public promenades by a low iron railing. The bouquets of
rich flowers that grew there, sparkling with the light dew of a little
jet d'eau that fell in raindrops over them, had often tempted my young
heart; but still in the daytime such a transgression would have been
immediately punished. Now, with the strange caprice which so often
prompts us in after years to do that which in youth we wished but could
not accomplish, I wandered towards the gardens, and crossing over the
low fence, entered the parterre; each step awoke the sleeping perfume of
the flowers, and I strolled along the velvet turf until I reached a low
bench, half covered with honeysuckle and woodbine. Here I threw myself
down, and, wrapping my cloak around me, resolved to rest till daybreak.
The stillness of all around, the balmy air, and my own musings,
gradually conspired to make me drowsy, and I slept.

My sleep could not have been long, when I was awakened by a noise close
beside me. I started up and looked about, and for some seconds I could
scarcely credit that I was not still dreaming. Not more than a dozen