his eyes turned again towards Napoleon--the struggle
was over-he knelt and presented his sword.

"Take mine in exchange, _General_ de Vitry," said the Emperor; "I know
you will wear it with honour."

And thus, in a moment, was all forgotten--plighted love and sworn
faith--for who could resist the Emperor?

The story is now soon told. Waterloo came, and once more the day of
defeat descended, never to dawn upon another victory. Alfred, rejected
and scorned, lived years in poverty and obscurity. When the fortunes of
the Revolution brought up once more the old soldiers of the Empire, he
fought at the Quai Voltaire and was wounded severely. The Three Days
over, he was appointed to a sous-lieutenancy in the dragoons. He is
now _chef-d'escadron_, the last of his race, weary of a world whose
vicissitudes have crushed his hopes and made him broken-hearted.

The relator of this tale was Alfred de Vitry himself, who, under the
name of his maternal grandfather, St. Amand, served in the second
regiment of Carabiniers.

CHAPTER V.

12 o'clock, Tuesday night, May 31st, 184-.

"Que bella cosa" to be a king! Here am I now, returned from Neuilly,
whither I dreaded so much to venture, actually enchanted with the
admirable manner of his Majesty Louis Philippe, adding one more to the
long list of those who, beginning with Madame de Genlis and Johnson,
have delighted to extol the qualities whose pleasing properties have
been expended on themselves.

There is, however, something wonderfully interesting in the picture of
a royal family living _en bourgeois_--a King sitting with his spectacles
on his forehead and his newspaper on his knee, playfully alluding to
observations whose fallacy he alone can demonstrate; a Queen busily
engaged amid the toils of the work-table, around which Princesses of
every European royalty are seated, gaily chatting over their embroidery,
or listening while an amusing book is read out by a husband or a
brother: even an American would be struck by such a view of monarchy.

The Duc de Nemours is the least prepossessing of the princes; his
deafness, too, assists the impression of his coldness and austerity:
while the too-studied courtesy of the Prince de Joinville towards
Englishmen is the reverse of an amicable demonstration.

I could not help feeling surprised at the freedom with which his
Majesty canvassed our leading political characters; for his intimate
acquaintance with them all, I was well pr