h prizes, and so I struck the balance of good and evil fortune, and
found I was the gainer!

Among the presents which I received from the Imperial family was a
miniature of the young Archduchess, whose life I saved, and which I at
once dispatched by a safe messenger to Marshal Marmont, engaging him to
have a copy of it made and the original returned to me. I concluded that
circumstances must have rendered this impossible, for I never beheld the
portrait again, although I heard of it among the articles bequeathed to
the Duc de Reichstadt at St. Helena. Maria Louisa was, at that time, very
handsome; the upper lip and mouth were, it is true, faulty, and the
Austrian heaviness marred the expression of these features; but her brow
and eyes were singularly fine, and her hair of a luxuriant richness rarely
to be seen.

Count Palakzi, my young Hungarian friend, and who had scarcely ever
quitted my bedside during my illness, used to jest with me on my
admiration of the young Archduchess, and jokingly compassionate me on the
altered age we lived in, in contrast to those good old times when a bold
feat or a heroic action was sure to win the hand of a fair princess. I
half suspect that he believed me actually in love with her, and deemed
that it was the best way to treat such an absurd and outrageous ambition.
To amuse myself with his earnestness, for such had it become, on the
subject, I affected not to be indifferent to his allusions, and assumed
all the delicate reserve of devoted admiration. Many an hour have I
lightened by watching the fidgety uneasiness the young count felt at my
folly; for now instead of jesting, as before, he tried to reason me out of
this insane ambition, and convince me that such pretensions were utter
madness.

I was slowly convalescing, about five weeks after the amputation of my
leg, when Palakzi entered my room one morning with an open letter in his
hand. His cheek was flushed, and his air and manner greatly excited.

"Would you believe it, Tiernay," said he, "Stadion writes me word from
Vienna, that Napoleon has asked for the hand of the young Archduchess in
marriage, and that the Emperor has consented?"

"And am _I_ not considered in this negotiation?" asked I, scarcely
suppressing a laugh.

"This is no time nor theme for jest," said he, passionately; "nor is it
easy to keep one's temper at such a moment. A Hapsburgher Princess married
to a low Corsican adventurer! to the--"

"Come, Palakzi,