h Valerie this evening for Bretagne."

"Ah! I heard from Louvier that you propose to pay off his mortgage on
Rochebriant, and make yourself sole proprietor of my young kinsman's
property."

"I trust you only believe half what you hear. I mean to save Rochebriant
from Louvier, and consign it, free of charge, to your kinsman, as the
dot of his bride, my daughter."

"I rejoice to learn such good news for the head of my house. But Alain
himself--is he not with the prisoners of war?"

"No, thank heaven. He went forth an officer of a regiment of Parisian
Mobiles--went full of sanguine confidence; he came back with his
regiment in mournful despondency. The undiscipline of his regiment,
of the Parisian Mobiles generally, appears incredible. Their
insolent disobedience to their officers, their ribald scoffs at their
general--oh, it is sickening to speak of it! Alain distinguished himself
by repressing a mutiny and is honoured by a signal compliment from
the commander in a letter of recommendation to Palikao. But Palikao is
nobody now. Alain has already been sent into Bretagne, commissioned to
assist in organising a corps of Mobiles in his neighbourhood. Trochu,
as you know, is a Breton. Alain is confident of the good conduct of the
Bretons. What will Louvier do? He is an arch Republican; is he pleased
now he has got what he wanted?"

"I suppose he is pleased, for he is terribly frightened. Fright is one
of the great enjoyments of a Parisian. Good day. Your path to your hotel
is clear now. Remember me kindly to Alain."

De Mauleon continued his way through streets sometimes deserted,
sometimes thronged. At the commencement of the Rue de Florentin he
encountered the brothers Vandemar walking arm in arm.

"Ha, De Mauleon!" cried Enguerrand; "what is the last minute's news?"

"I can't guess. Nobody knows at Paris how soon one folly swallows up
another. Saturn here is always devouring one or other of his children."

"They say that Vinoy, after a most masterly retreat, is almost at our
gates with 80,000 men."

"And this day twelvemonth we may know what he does with them."

Here Raoul, who seemed absorbed in gloomy reflections, halted before
the hotel in which the Contessa di Rimini lodged, and with a nod to his
brother, and a polite, if not cordial salutation to Victor, entered the
porte cochere.

"Your brother seems out of spirits,--a pleasing contrast to the
uproarious mirth with which Parisians welcome the advance of