row!"

* "Long live the king."

But though he firmly believed himself to be King of Naples and pitied
the grief felt by the subjects he was abandoning, latterly, after he
had been ordered to return to military service--and especially since his
last interview with Napoleon in Danzig, when his august brother-in-law
had told him: "I made you King that you should reign in my way, but not
in yours!"--he had cheerfully taken up his familiar business, and--like
a well-fed but not overfat horse that feels himself in harness and grows
skittish between the shafts--he dressed up in clothes as variegated
and expensive as possible, and gaily and contentedly galloped along the
roads of Poland, without himself knowing why or whither.

On seeing the Russian general he threw back his head, with its long hair
curling to his shoulders, in a majestically royal manner, and looked
inquiringly at the French colonel. The colonel respectfully informed His
Majesty of Balashev's mission, whose name he could not pronounce.

"De Bal-macheve!" said the King (overcoming by his assurance the
difficulty that had presented itself to the colonel). "Charmed to
make your acquaintance, General!" he added, with a gesture of kingly
condescension.

As soon as the King began to speak loud and fast his royal dignity
instantly forsook him, and without noticing it he passed into his
natural tone of good-natured familiarity. He laid his hand on the
withers of Balashev's horse and said:

"Well, General, it all looks like war," as if regretting a circumstance
of which he was unable to judge.

"Your Majesty," replied Balashev, "my master, the Emperor, does not
desire war and as Your Majesty sees..." said Balashev, using the words
Your Majesty at every opportunity, with the affectation unavoidable in
frequently addressing one to whom the title was still a novelty.

Murat's face beamed with stupid satisfaction as he listened to "Monsieur
de Bal-macheve." But royaute oblige! * and he felt it incumbent on
him, as a king and an ally, to confer on state affairs with Alexander's
envoy. He dismounted, took Balashev's arm, and moving a few steps away
from his suite, which waited respectfully, began to pace up and down
with him, trying to speak significantly. He referred to the fact that
the Emperor Napoleon had resented the demand that he should withdraw his
troops from Prussia, especially when that demand became generally known
and the dignity of France was t