used to write to his mother, and joke her about
the army being such a bad profession; and, as he was all for glory, not
money, he lived with Spartan frugality, and saved half his pay and all
his prize money for the old lady in Paris.

But this prosperous man had to endure a deep disappointment; on the very
day he was made commandant and one of the general's aides-de-camp, came
a letter into the camp. His mother was dead after a short illness. This
was a terrible blow to the simple, rugged soldier, who had never had
much time nor inclination to flirt with a lot of girls, and toughen his
heart. He came back to Paris honored and rich, but downcast. The old
home, empty of his mother, seemed to him not to have the old look.
It made him sadder. To cheer him up they brought him much money. The
widow's trade had taken a wonderful start the last few years, and she
had been playing the same game as he had, living on ten-pence a day, and
saving all for him. This made him sadder, if anything.

"What," said he, "have we both been scraping all this dross together
for? I would give it all to sit one hour by the fire, with her hand in
mine, and hear her say, 'Scamp, you made me unhappy when you were young,
but I have lived to be proud of you.'"

He applied for active service, no matter what: obtained at once this
post in Brittany, and threw himself into it with that honest zeal and
activity, which are the best earthly medicine for all our griefs. He was
busy writing, when young Riviere first presented himself. He looked up
for a moment, and eyed him, to take his measure; then put into his
hand a report by young Nicole, a subordinate filling a post of the same
nature as Riviere's; and bade him analyze that report on the spot: with
this he instantly resumed his own work.

Edouard Riviere was an adept at this sort of task, and soon handed him
a neat analysis. Raynal ran his eye over it, nodded cold approval, and
told him to take this for the present as a guide as to his own duties.
He then pointed to a map on which Riviere's district was marked in
blue ink, and bade him find the centre of it. Edouard took a pair
of compasses off the table, and soon discovered that the village of
Beaurepaire was his centre. "Then quarter yourself at Beaurepaire; and
good-day," said Raynal.

The chateau was in sight from Riviere's quarters, and he soon learned
that it belonged to a royalist widow and her daughters, who all three
held themselves quite a