you wish to take away. My conscience will
then be clear about them.'

I promised readily that I would do so.

'And when would you come?' he asked eagerly. Something in the tone of
his voice aroused my suspicions, and glancing at him I saw exultation in
his eyes. I remembered the warning of Sibylle.

'I cannot come until I have learned what my duties with the Emperor are
to be. When that is settled I shall come.'

'Very good. Next week perhaps, or the week afterwards. I shall expect
you eagerly, Louis. I rely upon your promise, for a Laval was never
known to break one.' With another unanswered squeeze of my hand, he
slipped off among the crowd, which was growing denser every instant in
the salon.

I was standing in silence thinking over this sinister invitation of my
uncle's, when I heard my own name, and, looking up, I saw de
Caulaincourt, with his brown handsome face and tall elegant figure,
making his way towards me.

'It is your first entrance at Court, is it not, Monsieur de Laval,' said
he, in his high-bred cordial manner; 'you should not feel lonely, for
there are certainly many friends of your father here who will be
overjoyed to make the acquaintance of your father's son. From what de
Meneval told me I gather that you know hardly anyone--even by sight.'

'I know the Marshals,' said I; 'I saw them all at the council in the
Emperor's tent. There is Ney with the red head. And there is Lefebvre
with his singular mouth, and Bernadotte with the beak of a bird of
prey.'

'Precisely. And that is Rapp, with the round, bullet head. He is
talking to Junot, the handsome dark man with the whiskers. These poor
soldiers are very unhappy.'

'Why so?' I asked.

'Because they are all men who have risen from nothing. This society and
etiquette terrifies them much more than all the dangers of war.
When they can hear their sabres clashing against their big boots they
feel at home, but when they have to stand about with their cocked hats
under their arms, and have to pick their spurs out of the ladies'
trains, and talk about David's picture or Passaniello's opera, it
prostrates them. The Emperor will not even permit them to swear,
although he has no scruples upon his own account. He tells them to be
soldiers with the army, and courtiers with the Court, but the poor
fellows cannot help being soldiers all the time. Look at Rapp with his
twenty wounds, endeavouring to exchange little delicate drolleries w