I bowed, and was silent.

"Your passport shall be made out for Paris; you shall receive it
to-morrow morning." He motioned with his hand towards the door as he
concluded, and I left the room.

The moment I felt myself alone, the courage which had sustained me
throughout at once gave way, and I leaned against the wall, and covered
my face with my hands. Yes, I knew it in my heart,--the whole dream of
life was over; the path of glory was closed to me forever; all the hopes
on which, in sanguine hours, I used to feed my heart, were scattered.
And to the miseries of my exiled lot were now added the sorrows of an
unfriended, companionless existence. The thought that no career was open
to me came last; for at first I only remembered all I was leaving, not
the dark future before me. Yet, when I called to mind the injustice with
which I had been treated,--the system of espionage to which, as an alien
more particularly, I was exposed,--I felt I had done right, and that
to have remained in the service at such a sacrifice of my personal
independence would have been base and unworthy.

With a half-broken heart and faltering step I regained my quarters,
where again my grief burst forth with more violence than at first.
Every object about recalled to me the career I was leaving forever; and
wherever my eye rested, some emblem lay to open fresh stores of sorrow.
The pistols I carried at Elchingen, a gift from General d'Auvergne;
an Austrian sabre I had taken from its owner, still ornamented with a
little knot of ribbon Minette had fastened to the hilt,--hung above the
chimney; and I could scarce look on them without tears. On the table
still lay open the _ordre du jour_ which named me to the Legion of
Honor; and now the humblest soldier that carried his musket in the ranks
was my superior. Not all the principle on which I founded my resolve was
proof against this first outburst of my sorrow.

The chivalrous ardor of a soldier's life had long supplied to me the
place of those appliances to happiness which other men possess. Each day
I followed it the path grew dearer to me. Every bold and daring feat,
every deed of enterprise or danger, seemed to bring me, in thought at
least, nearer to him whose greatness was my idolatry. And now, all this
was to be as a mere dream,--a thing which had been, and was to be no
more.

While I revolved such sad reflections, a single knock came to my door.
I opened it, and saw a soldier of my own r