votion of a follower, I
have adhered to the Emperor's fortunes; and yet--"

"Your ambition, however great it was, could not stifle conscience. I
can believe it well. They who go forth to the wars with high hopes and
bounding hearts, who picture to their minds the glorious rewards of
great achievements, should blind their eyes to the horrors and injustice
of the cause they bleed for. Any sympathy with misfortune would sap the
very principle of that heroism whose essence is success. Men cannot
play the double game, even in matters of worldly ambition. Had you not
listened to the promptings of your heart, you had been greater; had you
not followed the dazzling glare of your hopes, you had been happier:
both you could scarcely be. Be assured of this, my son, the triumphs
of a country can only be enjoyed by the child of the soil; the brave
soldier, who lends his arm to the cause, feels he has little part in the
glory."

"True, indeed,--most true; I feel it."

"And were it otherwise, how unsatisfying is the thirst for that same
glory! how endless the path that leads to it! how many regrets accompany
it! how many ties broken! how many friendships forfeited! No, no; return
to your own land,--to the country of your birth; some honorable career
will always present itself to him who seeks but independence and the
integrity of his own heart. Beneath the conquering eagles of the Emperor
there are men of every shade of political opinion; for the conscription
is pitiless. There are Royalists, who love their king and hate the
usurper; there are Jacobins, who worship freedom and detest the tyrant;
there are stern Republicans--Vendeens, and followers of Moreau: but yet
all are Frenchmen. 'La belle France' is the watchword that speaks to
every heart, and patriotism is the bond between thousands. _You_ have
no share in this; the delusion of national glory can never throw its
deception around you. Return, then, to your country; and be assured,
that in _her_ cause your least efforts will be more ennobling to
yourself than the boldest deeds the hand of a mercenary ever achieved."

The inborn desire to revisit my native land needed but the counsels
of the priest to make it all-powerful; and as, day by day, I plodded
onward, my whole thoughts turned to the chances of my escape, and
the means by which I could accomplish my freedom; for the war still
continued between France and England, and the blockade of the French
ports was strictly maint