l held out her hands towards him, and exclaimed,--

"Knowest thou not me, Alfred? I am Alice--Alice de Vitry--thy cousin and
thy sister!"

It would little interest you to dwell on the steps that followed, and
which, in a few weeks, made of a wretched outcast--without a home or a
meal--an officer of the _Guard du Corps_, with the order of St. Louis at
his breast.

Time sped on, and his promotion with it; and at length his Majesty,
graciously desiring to see the old nobility resume their place and
grade, consented to the union of Alfred with his cousin. There was no
violent love on either side, but there was sincere esteem and devoted
friendship; and if they neither of them felt that degree of attachment
which becomes a passion, they regarded each other with true affection.

Alice was a devoted Royalist: all that she had suffered for the cause
had endeared it to her; and she could forgive, but not forget, that her
future husband had shed his blood for the Usurper.

Alfred was what every one, and with reason, called a most fortunate
fellow: a colonel at twenty-eight--a promotion that, under the Empire,
nothing but the most distinguished services could have gained--and yet
he was far from happy. He remembered with higher enthusiasm his first
grade of "corporal," won at Aspern, and his epaulettes that he gained
at Wilna. His soldiering had been learned in another school than in the
parade-ground at Versailles, or the avenue of the Champs Elysees.

"Come, _mon ami!_" said Alice, gaily, to him one morning, about ten days
before the time appointed for their marriage; "thou art about to have
some occasion for thy long-rusting sword: the Usurper has landed at
Cannes."

"The Emperor at Cannes!"

"The Emperor, if thou wilt--but without an Empire."

"No matter. Is he without an army?" said Alfred.

"Alone--with some half-dozen followers, at most. Ney has received orders
to march against him, and thou art to command a brigade."

"This is good news!" said Alfred; for the very name of war had set his
heart a-throbbing; and as he issued forth into the streets, the stirring
sounds of excitement and rapid motion of troops increased his ardour.

Wondering groups were gathered in every street, some, discussing the
intelligence, others, reading the great placards, which, in letters of
portentous size, announced that "the Monster" had once more polluted by
his presence the soil of France.

Whatever the enthusiasm of the old Roy