events for a time, to
any such thoughts. As he was sitting one evening, disconsolately
enough, on the parapet of a small outwork, he heard footsteps
approaching him, and on looking up he recognised at once the small and
well-remembered figure of the Marquis de Montcalm. Almost mechanically
he rose and saluted. Montcalm, apparently struck by his appearance,
stopped and eyed him curiously; his singularly retentive memory never
failed him at such a moment.

"Truly," said he at last, "I could hardly have believed it possible.
Who would have thought of seeing you here, Colonel de Beaujardin--and
in such a disguise too!" he added, with a searching and somewhat
suspicious glance at Isidore's costume, which had little of the soldier
about it.

"I do not call myself Colonel de Beaujardin now," replied Isidore,
bitterly, "but Claude Breton, general, at your service."

"Breton--Breton!" exclaimed the marquis, considering for a moment. "It
was reported to me, I recollect, that a Canadian called Breton showed
great courage and coolness in a little affair of outposts a few days
since. Was it you?"

Isidore bowed slightly, but made no other answer.

Montcalm was silent for a minute or so, and fidgeted with his
sword-knot, though he kept his eyes intently fixed on his _quondam_
aide-de-camp.

"Monsieur de Beaujardin," said he at length, with his usual rapidity of
utterance, "I believe you know as well as any one that I have always
held that men seldom lose caste and come down in the world without some
fault of their own. I should be sorry indeed to think this is the case
with you, but you beyond all other men had at your command everything
that could ensure an honourable and even brilliant career. What can
have brought you to this?"

"No fault of mine, sir," replied Isidore, proudly. "I have been the
victim of circumstances which it was beyond my power to control."

"Beyond your power! What! with a father in the position of the marquis
to assist you?" rejoined Montcalm. "There is no man whom I would more
willingly believe, or more willingly assist, but----"

"General Montcalm will have the goodness to remember that I have
neither sought nor solicited his assistance," answered Isidore,
haughtily.

"I do not forget it, sir," was the reply, "indeed it is that which
justifies my doubts. I, at all events, am not changed, and if Monsieur
de Beaujardin has nothing to reproach himself with, he may without
scruple claim