rn this watch, that late
I borrowed of my friend."

"Return a watch?" The captain frowned.
"Your meaning I discern;
Such honest lads are seldom found:
And when would _you_ return?"

"At once!" the hero makes reply;
"As soon as e'er I can;
I _will_ return, and I will die
As nobly as a man!"

"Well, go!" The lordly bugle blew,
And said the man, with joy,
"Right glad am I to lose him, too,
I would not harm the boy."

Some moments passed; the deadly rain
Fell thickly through the air;
The smoke arose, and, lo! again
The boy stood calmly there.

The muskets ceased, the smoke-wreath passed
O'er sunlit dome and spire,--
"Here, captain, I have come at last,
And I am ready. Fire!"

As marble grew the captain's cheek,
He could not speak the word.
The shout of _Vive la Republique!_
Adown the ranks was heard.

The bugle blew a note of joy,
"Advance!" the captain cried,--
They marched, and left the happy boy
The colonnade beside.

We sing Vialla's sweet romance,
Of Barra's death we read,
But few among the boys of France
E'er did a nobler deed.

The palace burns, the columns fall,
The works of art decay,
But deeds like these the good recall
When empires pass away.

CHAPTER XVI.

BRITTANY.

Avranches.--Riding on Diligences.--Mont St. Michel.--Chateaubriand.--
Madame de Sevigne.--Brittany.--Breton Stories.--Story of the Old
Woman's Cow.--Story of the Wonderful Sack.--Nantes.--Scenes of the
Revolution at Nantes.--Fenelon and Louis XV.

The Class went by rail from Paris to the bright Norman district of
Calvados, visiting Caen and Bayeux, whose attractions have been
briefly sketched in the letter of George Howe to Master Lewis. The
next journey was to Avranches, or the "Village of the Cliff," by the
way of Falaise, the residence of Duke Robert, father of William the
Conqueror, and to the quaint town of Vire, famous for its cleanly,
industrious inhabitants its grand old hills buried in woods, its great
wayside trees, and its ancient clock-tower.

[Illustration: CLOCK TOWER AT VIRE.]

The Class met few people on this journey. The cantonniers were
evidently busy with their own simple industries. Once or twice the
boys saw gentlemen, whom Master Lewis said were cures, at work in
cool, green gardens; and often th