re are the two most conscientious
vassals the king has here."

"But she--who is she?"

"Charette's last mistress," replied the marquis. "She wields great
influence over all these people."

"Is she faithful to his memory?"

For all answer the marquis gave a dubious smile.

"Do you think well of her?"

"You are very inquisitive."

"She is my enemy because she can no longer be my rival," said
Mademoiselle de Verneuil, laughing. "I forgive her her past errors if
she forgives mine. Who is that officer with the long moustache?"

"Permit me not to name him; he wants to get rid of the First Consul by
assassination. Whether he succeeds or not you will hear of him. He is
certain to become famous."

"And you have come here to command such men as these!" she exclaimed in
horror. "Are _they_ they king's defenders? Where are the gentlemen and
the great lords?"

"Where?" said the marquis, coolly, "they are in all the courts of
Europe. Who else should win over kings and cabinets and armies to
serve the Bourbon cause and hurl them at that Republic which threatens
monarchies and social order with death and destruction?"

"Ah!" she said, with generous emotion, "be to me henceforth the source
from which I draw the ideas I must still acquire about your cause--I
consent. But let me still remember that you are the only noble who
does his duty in fighting France with Frenchmen, without the help of
foreigners. I am a woman; I feel that if my child struck me in anger I
could forgive him; but if he saw me beaten by a stranger, and consented
to it, I should regard him as a monster."

"You shall remain a Republican," said the marquis, in the ardor produced
by the generous words which confirmed his hopes.

"Republican! no, I am that no longer. I could not now respect you if you
submitted to the First Consul," she replied. "But neither do I like to
see you at the head of men who are pillaging a corner of France, instead
of making war against the whole Republic. For whom are you fighting?
What do you expect of a king restored to his throne by your efforts? A
woman did that great thing once, and the liberated king allowed her to
be burned. Such men are the anointed of the Lord, and there is danger
in meddling with sacred things. Let God take care of his own, and
place, displace, and replace them on their purple seats. But if you have
counted the cost, and seen the poor return that will come to you, you
are tenfold greater in my eyes th