there, young fellow; not so fast. Here he is.'

"'Ah, Truguet, _mon ami!_' cried the Emperor, placing both hands on the old
fellow's shoulders, 'how long have you been in waiting?'

"'Two hours and a half,' said he, producing in evidence a watch like a
saucer.

"'What, two hours and a half, and I not know it!'

"'No matter; I am always happy to serve your Majesty. But if that fine
fellow had not told me that you were going to ask me to dinner--'

"'He! He said so, did he?' said Napoleon, turning on me a glance like a
wild beast. 'Yes, Truguet, so I am; you shall dine with me to-day. And you,
sir,' said he, dropping his voice to a whisper, as he came closer towards
me,--'and you have dared to speak thus? Call in a guard there. Capitaine,
put this person under arrest; he is disgraced. He is no longer page of the
palace. Out of my presence! away, sir!'

"The room wheeled round; my legs tottered; my senses reeled; and I saw no
more.

"Three weeks' bread and water in St. Pelagie, however, brought me to my
recollection; and at last my kind, my more than kind friend, the Empress,
obtained my pardon, and sent me to Fontainebleau, till the Emperor should
forget all about it. How I contrived again to refresh his memory I have
already told you; and certainly you will acknowledge that I have not been
fortunate in my interviews with Napoleon."

I am conscious how much St. Croix's story loses in my telling. The simple
expressions, the grace of the narrative, were its charm: and these, alas!
I can neither translate nor imitate, no more than I can convey the strange
mixture of deep feeling and levity, shrewdness and simplicity, that
constituted the manner of the narrator.

With many a story of his courtly career he amused me as we trotted along;
when, towards nightfall of the third day, a peasant informed us that a
body of French cavalry occupied the convent of San Cristoval, about three
leagues off. The opportunity of his return to his own army pleased him far
less than I expected. He heard, without any show of satisfaction, that the
time of his liberation had arrived; and when the moment of leave-taking
drew near, he became deeply affected.

"_Eh, bien_, Charles," said he, smiling sadly through his dimmed and
tearful eyes. "You've been a kind friend to me. Is the time never to come
when I can repay you?"

"Yes, yes; we'll meet again, be assured of it. Meanwhile there is one way
you can more than repay anything I have don