aris), a
great heiress. The Marquis de Ronquerolles, a clever diplomatist under
the new dynasty, his sister, Madame de Serizy, and the Chevalier du
Rouvre agreed, in order to save their fortunes from the dissipations of
the marquis, to settle them on their niece, to whom, moreover, they each
pledged themselves to pay ten thousand francs a year from the day of her
marriage.

It is quite unnecessary to say that the Polish count, though an exile,
was no expense to the French government. Comte Adam Laginski belonged
to one of the oldest and most illustrious families in Poland, which was
allied to many of the princely houses of Germany,--Sapieha, Radziwill,
Mniszech, Rzewuski, Czartoryski, Leczinski, Lubormirski, and all the
other great Sarmatian SKIS. But heraldic knowledge is not the most
distinguishing feature of the French nation under Louis-Philippe, and
Polish nobility was no great recommendation to The bourgeoisie who were
lording it in those days. Besides, when Adam first made his appearance,
in 1833, on the boulevard des Italiens, at Frascati, and at the
Jockey-Club, he was leading the life of a young man who, having lost his
political prospects, was taking his pleasure in Parisian dissipation. At
first he was thought to be a student.

The Polish nationality had at this period fallen as low in French
estimation, thanks to a shameful governmental reaction, as the
republicans had sought to raise it. The singular struggle of the
Movement against Resistance (two words which will be inexplicable thirty
years hence) made sport of what ought to have been truly respected,--the
name of a conquered nation to whom the French had offered hospitality,
for whom fetes had been given (with songs and dances by subscription),
above all, a nation which in the Napoleonic struggle between France and
Europe had given us six thousand men, and what men!

Do not infer from this that either side is taken here; either that
of the Emperor Nicholas against Poland, or that of Poland against the
Emperor. It would be a foolish thing to slip political discussion into
tales that are intended to amuse or interest. Besides, Russia and Poland
were both right,--one to wish the unity of its empire, the other
to desire its liberty. Let us say in passing that Poland might have
conquered Russia by the influence of her morals instead of fighting her
with weapons; she should have imitated China which, in the end, Chinesed
the Tartars, and will, it is to be