When they left the
academy, the feud continued in all its vigor, and was fostered by a
thousand little circumstances arising out of the state of the times,
till a separation ensued in consequence of an aunt of Antoine de
Chaulieu's undertaking the expense of sending him to Paris to study
the law, and of maintaining him there during the necessary period.

With the progress of events came some degree of reaction in favor
of birth and nobility, and then Antoine, who had passed for the bar,
began to hold up his head and endeavored to push his fortunes; but
fate seemed against him. He felt certain that if he possessed any gift
in the world it was that of eloquence, but he could get no cause to
plead; and his aunt dying inopportunely, first his resources failed,
and then his health. He had no sooner returned to his home, than,
to complicate his difficulties completely, he fell in love with
Mademoiselle Natalie de Bellefonds, who had just returned from Paris,
where she had been completing her education. To expatiate on the
perfections of Mademoiselle Natalie, would be a waste of ink and
paper: it is sufficient to say that she really was a very charming
girl, with a fortune which, though not large, would have been a most
desirable acquisition to de Chaulieu, who had nothing. Neither was
the fair Natalie indisposed to listen to his addresses, but her father
could not be expected to countenance the suit of a gentleman, however
well-born, who had not a ten-sous piece in the world, and whose
prospects were a blank.

Whilst the ambitious and love-sick young barrister was thus pining in
unwelcome obscurity, his old acquaintance, Jacques Rollet, had been
acquiring an undesirable notoriety. There was nothing really bad
in Jacques' disposition, but having been bred up a democrat, with
a hatred of the nobility, he could not easily accommodate his rough
humor to treat them with civility when it was no longer safe to insult
them. The liberties he allowed himself whenever circumstances brought
him into contact with the higher classes of society, had led him into
many scrapes, out of which his father's money had one way or another
released him; but that source of safety had now failed. Old Rollet
having been too busy with the affairs of the nation to attend to his
business, had died insolvent, leaving his son with nothing but his
own wits to help him out of future difficulties, and it was not long
before their exercise was called for. Clau