terous levity. Their presumptuous revelry seemed to be every moment
on the increase. The Austrian and Russian officers looked upon them with
disgust and alarm, and entreated them to desist; but the French officers
were regardless of all etiquette. During the dessert, Belleville and
some of his friends arose and drew near the table at which the queen
and the princesses were seated; this was in the middle of the room, and
slightly separated from the other tables. They gazed at the princesses
with insolent eyes, and, placing themselves behind the chair of the
queen, they began to crack nuts with their teeth, and throw the shells
carelessly upon the floor, near her majesty.

The queen continued a quiet conversation with the Princess Wilhelmina,
and appeared wholly unconscious of this rudeness and vulgarity; but her
face was pallid, and her eyes filled with tears.

"I pray your majesty to rise from the table!" said the Princess
Wilhelmina. "Look at the Princess Amelia; her countenance glows with
anger; there is a tempest on her brow, and it is about to burst upon
us."

"You are right; that is the best way to end this torture." She rose from
the table, and gave a sign for a general movement. When the queen and
her suite had left the room, Baron Marshal drew near Count Belleville.

"Sir." said he. "I told you before that I was not sufficiently credulous
to take you for a nobleman. Your conduct at the table has proved that
I did well to doubt you. Yourself and friends have shown that you
are strangers to the duties of cavaliers, and utterly ignorant of the
manners of good society."

"Ah!" cried Belleville, "this offence demands satisfaction."

"I am ready to grant it," said Baron Marshal; "name the time and place
of meeting."

"You know well," cried Belleville, "that I am a prisoner, and have given
my word of honor not to use my sword!"

"So you were impertinent and shameless, because you knew you were
safe? You knew that, thanks to your word of honor, you could not be
chastised!"

"Sir," cried Belleville, "you forget that you speak not only to a
nobleman, but to a soldier."

"Well, I know that I speak to a Frenchman, who lost his powder-mantle
and pomatum-pot at Rossbach."

Belleville, beside himself with rage, seized his sword, and half drew it
from the scabbard.

"God be praised, I have a sword with which to revenge insult!" he cried.
"I have given my word not to use it on the battle-field against the
Prussia