feared it."

A great number of the old soldiers, on hearing these words, turned away
their heads to hide their tears; while others, deathly pale, looked and
listened with flashing eyes.

"I," said the commandant, raising his sword, "know no other. _Vive la
France! Vive l'Empereur!_"

The words had hardly left his mouth when from every window, from the
square, from the streets, rose the shouts, "_Vive la France! Vive
l'Empereur!_" like the blast of a trumpet. The people and the soldiers
embraced each other, you would have thought that everything was safe,
that we had found all that France lost in 1814. It was almost dark,
and the people went away in companies of threes, sixes, and twenties,
shouting, "_Vive l'Empereur!_" When near the hospital a red flash
lighted up the sky, the cannon thundered, another responded from the
rear of the arsenal, and so they continued to roar from second to
second.

Mr. Goulden and I left the square arm in arm, crying, "_Vive
l'Empereur!_" also, and as at each discharge of cannon the flash
lighted up the square, in one of them we saw Catherine, who was coming
to meet us with old Madelon Schouler. She had put on her little cloak
and hood, protecting her rosy little nose from the mist, and she
exclaimed, on seeing us:

"There they are, Madelon! The Emperor is master, is he not, Mr.
Goulden?"

"Yes, my child," he replied, "it is decided."

Catherine took my arm, and I kissed her two or three times as we were
going home. Perhaps I felt that we should soon be forced to part, and
that then, it would be long before I should kiss her again. Father
Goulden and Madelon were before us, and he said:

"Come up, Madelon; I want to drink a good glass of wine with you." But
she declined, and left us at the door. I can only say that the joy of
the people was as great as on the return of Louis XVIII., and perhaps
still greater.

Father Goulden took off his cloak and sat down in his place at table,
as supper was waiting. Catherine ran down to the cellar and brought up
a bottle of good wine, we laughed and drank while the cannon made our
windows rattle. Sometimes people's heads are turned, even those who
love nothing but peace. So the sound of the cannon made us happy, and
we went back in a measure to our old habits.

"The commandant," said Mr. Goulden, "spoke well, but he might have kept
on till to-morrow with his victories, commencing with Valmy,
Hundschott, Wattignies, Fleurus,