sage, and the poor little creature, pushing open a door on the left, cried, "Here she is!" Then we saw Catinetta, sitting in a crazy old armchair in a corner before a small table with cards upon it. Her thick and matted grey hair hung tangled over her shoulders; she had a hump upon her back, and looked just like a wild cat arching its back.

The dirty copper lamp hanging from the ceiling lighted up in every corner heaps of poor rags; a torn gobeline tapestry closed in her alcove; a few broken chairs were visible in the dim light. There could scarcely be a more miserable hovel than this filthy old rat-hole.

I was just thinking of retreating, when the hag began shuffling her cards, saying, "Well, who shall I begin with ?"

"Begin with this pretty maiden," said Zimmer; "and speak up, because we all want to hear."

Then, taking hold of my hand, she examined me for a few minutes, while I was trembling all

over.

"Don't be frightened," said she; "you have a very good hand."

Then, spreading her cards upon the table, she explained them to us, telling me that I had no need to complain of my lot; that I should be married to one of the three soldiers present; that we should have both joy and misery, but more of the former than of the latter; and that I should rise in the world. In a word, everything that these old. women always tell young girls who like to believe them.

I was laughing, when, picking up the cards and beckoning to Zimmer, she told him to cut.

Having fallen back a little way, I listened, and I remember all her words just as if it had been yesterday.

You," she said, "will be a fighter all your life; you will carry your sword right and left, north and south, and you will never care where or why. You will be all for fine horses, good wine, and money to spend. You will go in different regiments because of your stubborn temper, but in the end you will have the command of a cavalry regiment."

Zimmer did not believe that he should ever be a captain, because in those days none but nobles got promotion, and he was not of a noble family.

"Never mind!" she cried; "what I tell you will be sure to happen, for so it is written. But it will all come to an end with a stroke."

"What! at one stroke?"

"A ball will pass through your body!" she said.

"That's all right!" cried Zimmer; "I ask for no better. You have satisfied me quite."

He threw on the table all the big coppers that he had, and Catinetta swept them into a bag.

Then came Rosenthal, but he and the old woman whispered, and I could only hear him replying, "I don't care; if only Françoise loves me it doesn't signify for the rest."

From that moment I loved none but him. Only Bernadotte was left. He had sat quietly down in the darkest corner, with his legs crossed

66

'No, thank you; I had rather have the pleasure of being surprised, supposing anything good is to happen to me."

"There now!" cried Zimmer; "you know my fate, and I want to know yours. We are old comrades; don't let there be any secrets between us. If you cannot pay, Jean Baptiste, I will stand; and, if there's no help for it, I will pledge my watch."

"You won't cut?" said the old woman; "then I will cut for you." Then, looking at the cards, she cried, "Were there ever such cards as these? Never have I seen the like!" and, turning to Bernadotte, who did not move, she said, with much deference, "Come, young gentleman, I will show you such a fortune as nobody ever saw before! Show me your hand."

And as Zimmer and Rosenthal and I pressed him he came forward, laughing incredulously, and saying, "Well, if you want me to, I will; it is not worth quarrelling about."

He took off his glove and presented his hand, and the old creature now gazed upon it, shuffling her cards and muttering confused words. "That is well," said she, “now cut."

He obeyed; and she, laying out the cards, looked more astonished still. Again she mixed the cards and made him cut three times, and the same cards came back each time. So that Bernadotte, losing patience, exclaimed, "Well, old lady, are you not satisfied yet? Is not that enough?"

"Yes, yes," she replied, "I have seen it all; but I cannot believe my own eyes. For thirty years I have had all the principal people of the place-officers, soldiers, and sailors-coming to consult me, but never did I see such a hand as this."

And lifting her eyes, she said to Bernadotte, who was smiling still, "Young man, you will be a general, and you will win battles."

Jean Baptiste, hearing this, changed colour, for he was very ambitious. He had enlisted at seventeen, believing that promotion would not. always be for the rich. He, like many others, foresaw great political changes; to win battles was the dream of his life.

So he answered not a word, and Catinetta, again shuffling, gave him the cards to cut, and then giving them but a glance, she said, "Young man, you will become a prince!"

"Oho! a prince!" he cried, with a mocking air. "They have made no princes for a thousand years. That's out of the question."

"But princes will be made," she rejoined, with animation. "Come, cut again!"

We were listening behind, wondering. Once Zimmer cried out, "I am not surprised at that.

What is to be will be. If heaven and earth are to be moved for it, it will come to pass. I was always sure this Jean Baptiste was lucky. I could see that very plainly at Bastia, at Corté, at Calvi. He was born under a lucky star."

But the game began again. The cards were shuffled and cut again for the fifth time, and he who had believed nothing now believed everything, and followed the movements of the old woman with a restless expression.

We were bending over the table when the old woman, having inspected the cards, raised herself up straight, and said to Bernadotte,

"You will be a king!"

His countenance and his manner had struck us with amazement. No one spoke, and Bernadotte, himself silent and self-contained, seemed as if he was in a dream. After a few minutes' silence he abruptly said, "Let us go!" But remembering that he had given nothing, he threw down a crown-piece upon the table. We were following Bernadotte into the passage, when Rosenthal, following him closely, said,

"I had rather have my fortune than yours;" and lowering his voice to a whisper, he added, "Give up Françoise, and I will give up to you the throne of Sweden."

No doubt he was only joking. But Bernadotte was serious; and standing there in the moonlight, he answered, "Done! give me your hand," and they did shake hands, much to my dissatisfaction.

Zimmer and I came out last. He offered me his hand, saying,

"Françoise, if you like, you shall be a captain's wife!"

His big red moustaches, his great bony face, and his huge jaws frightened me. It was Bernadotte that I should have preferred. Not having heard him give me up to Christian, I let go Zimmer's arm and took Rosenthal's, saying,

"Take me, Christian; I love only you, and will have no one but you."

He was very glad, but Zimmer got angry. They insulted each other in the street, and next day they fought. Both were wounded. But their time was not yet, and in five weeks both left the hospital. Only Christian came to see me now. never went to dance again, for fear of more quarrels, and it was known in our neighbourhood that I was engaged to Rosenthal.

THIS

II.

I

HIS happened in 1788, in the year when the Notables were convoked at Versailles. Soon after, Rosenthal, being discharged, married Françoise Janin. But a year after, not knowing what else to do, he re-enlisted as a private soldier in the regiment of Auvergne. Françoise had a little money, and obtained from the Marquis de Cambon the post of cantinière to the regiment.

The Revolution was beginning. Everywhere soldiers were mutinying and claiming their pay, which they could not get. Foreign regiments were employed to reduce them to submission, and this led to the massacres of August, 1790. Rosenthal's

regiment was broken up, and he and his wife opened a small cabaret at Sainte-Suzanne. Unfortunately the emigrés had carried away all the money. Business was at a standstill; the Prussians were pouring into the Champagne; the youth of the country were flying to the rescue of la patrie en danger; and the battle of Valmy, the siege of Mayence, and the rising of La Vendée soon followed.

In the midst of all these events the name of Bernadotte was already beginning to be heard of. He had been in 1790 an officer of inferior rank at Marseilles; in 1792 a colonel in Custine's army. When Françoise read of his first exploits of arms she was greatly troubled because she had married Christian instead of Jean Baptiste; and Rosenthal boiled over with rage because he, a possible descendant of kings, was obliged to serve out drams behind a bar, while the other fellow was prancing on horseback at the head of a regiment.

Things went from bad to worse. Soon the Austrians and Prussians broke into Alsace and Lorraine, blockaded Landau, and threatened Sainte-Suzanne.

No

In this distress Françoise secretly wrote to her dear Bernadotte, telling him of all their sufferings, and entreating him to help them. sooner had the letter gone when Hoche totally defeated the Germans at Woerth, in Alsace, and drove them back, to the great joy of all the inhabitants, and a week after Rosenthal was astonished to receive the appointment of conservator of woods and rivers in the principality of Pirmasens, while all the nobles of the Grand Duchy went off to rejoin their princes in Zurich, Vienna, and St. Petersburg.

Never did Rosenthal learn to whom he owed his appointment. Of course, he supposed that the republic had discovered his extraordinary administrative capabilities, which in no way surprised him, for he had an excellent opinion of himself. What great services a clever and sensible woman is able to do for her husband without his suspecting it! So Françoise and Rosenthal

started for their new residence in a cart loaded with their goods and chattels-exactly as we have seen the Germans coming in our time, in 1871, to occupy all the good posts in Alsace and Lorraine, and thrusting out the original holders. Rosenthal was a pretty good reader and writer, and could keep accounts, but he had not the remotest idea of the management of woods and waters. But that troubled neither him nor his wife. He had the place and got the pay. The rest is mere matter of detail. What signifies? It is not worth mentioning.

And, moreover, all the old servants of Prince Yeri Hans came out to meet the citizen Rosenthal. They did not behave like the Alsacians, who received the Prussians with dark looks, and then shut themselves in. And all the honourable personages of Pirmasens came up in powdered wigs and ceremonial dresses, accompanied by their ladies and their daughters, to present their respects to the new official. So did the peasants. come forward with smiles and welcomes, and cries of "Vive Citizen Rosenthal, our new master! and long live his lovely lady!”

All that was most affecting. But, as Robespierre had many admirers in the neighbourhood, Rosenthal, like a prudent man, took care to make a speech to all these people upon the rights of man and the dignity of the citizen.

Which being over, he settled himself down in his château, where everything was so comfortable; hid away the cart in which he had come; occupied the apartments of the prince; tried on his robe de chambre and his furred slippers; and occupied his grand four-posted bedstead with Françoise, who thought it was just like a chapel !

I

N this manner the prophecies of Catinetta were coming to pass-"You shall have joy and misery, but more of joy than of misery, and you shall rise in the world."

And yet Rosenthal and his wife were in imminent danger without being aware of it; for the citizen Saint-Just, who was haunting the western provinces, found out that a crowd of delegates sent out by the republic to democratise the conquered countries were enjoying the places and emoluments of their new positions and giving themselves up without scruple to the delights of Capua; and, as a virtuous republican, he was displeased. He therefore drew up a list of these aristocrats, with the name of Christian Rosenthal von Löwenhaupt at their head, and determined to eliminate them for the encouragement of a virtuous posterity; which undoubtedly he would have done if he had not himself disappeared in the storm of Thermidor.

Rosenthal having happily escaped this rock, passed from that time forward for a determined and able Thermidorian; he confined himself to his place on the frontier in the midst of the forests of Hundsrück; and there he shut himself up safe like a rat in its cheese, caring for nothing but to keep out of the revolutionary troubles. And what would you have? We are not all Spartans-and Rosenthal, imbued with high-bred prejudices, republican though he was, and paid by the republic, had only one idea in his head-that of renewing in his own person the broken line of the Löwenhaupts; and as soon as there came a quieter time he hastened to reconstruct, with the help of a learned scholar of Heidelberg whom he handsomely rewarded for his trouble, the genealogical tree of his ancestors from the time of Olaus III in the year 1000.

That tree, hung on the wall, filled a whole salon, in which Rosenthal walked for hours with crossed arms contemplating his glory. The explanation of this is that there was something German about the man, and it is well known that all Germans worship titles.

I have two splendid life-like and life-size portraits by an Italian artist of my father-in-law Rosenthal and his wife on the pinnacle of their greatness. Monsieur le conservateur stands in a purple gala dress with a white waistcoat, lace fall, and silver-hilted sword; his countenance rosy and smiling, his wig well powdered, following you

with his great blue eyes and bidding you welcome; you would never have supposed that this could be the former publican, but rather Prince Yeri Hans himself, and the more when you see in the background the castle peeping out from among the oak-trees. Then there was a good hunting picture, and it would be very interesting to the ratepayers of Pirmasens to know how much that

cost.

The other portrait was that of his widow, Françoise, smiling and rosy like her husband, nose slightly turned up, lips full and graciously smiling, and opening to show a set of ivory teeth.

And when I remember all that my grandmother told me of her little levées where all the aristocracy of Pirmasens were proud to appear, the old councillors in Voltairean wigs; the ladies in their grandeur; the evening parties where sonatas of Bach, Mozart, and Haydn were performed with much solemnity, the hunting parties in autumn on horseback, the sledge parties in winter, the return to the château, the tables loaded with game and fish, and decorated with flowers in December, and the blazing fires-when I remember all this, I am not at all surprised that citizen Saint-Just, foreseeing what all this might come to, should have marked the name of Rosenthal von Löwenhaupt with a red cross. But I am surprised that later on Bonaparte, first consul, then emperor, should have allowed a conservator of woods and forests to live in that sumptuous style-he who was so keen to observe whatever concerned himself personally. Perhaps, however, the long genealogical tree dazzled his eyes-for great dynasties and little dynasties were a weakness of his.

At any rate, this lasted for twenty years, and in these twenty years old dynasties vanished and new ones arose, war swept over the world, the map of Europe was several times remodelled, treaties were made and unmade every year, opinions changed, the noblesse returned to their domains, the Church was again set up, a thousand fortunes were made, thanks to these events, and still M. le Conservateur Rosenthal was there smiling out of his great gilt frame upon his Françoise, who smiled back at him out of hers. Nothing moved them.

In the meanwhile Jean Baptiste had won battles; he had been made brigadier-general, general of division, ambassador to Vienna, marshal of France, Prince of Ponté Corvo, Governor of the Hanseatic League, and Prince Royal of Sweden! And at every one of these promotions Françoise wrote to Jean Baptiste from her heart to congratulate him on his prosperity, and Bernadotte sent her each time a gracious reply. There is nothing in life like old friends; they alone know the toils of the way. Their sympathetic admiration touches our very souls. The rest are only fair-weather friends.

At Pirmasens calls, compliments, congratulations, Christmas-trees, and all the small ceremonies of the small German courts, went on without intermission, under all the rules of etiquette.

There was a kind of a bond of affection between M. von Löwenhaupt and the simple people of

Hundsrück, whose natural protector he believed himself to be, after the fashion of good kings who are the fathers of their subjects.

Oh yes, that good man was rocking himself pleasantly in the cradle of his illusions, and he was happy in believing in himself. Never had

his people under him been more submissive and more devoted. He was smiled upon, bowed to as far as he could be seen; when all at once every face grew dark. Fortune was turning her back upon us, and the French, always conquerors hitherto, had at last been defeated.

Then it happened, as it is told in the book of Job, how one servant after another came in quick succession with the news of the destruction of all his cattle by the Sabæans and by fire from heaven, the loss of all his servants and his camels by the Chaldeans, and the death of all his sons and daughters.

Now those terrible messengers who came to put an end to the dancing and the fêtes and complimentary visits were called Baylen, Talavera, Arapiles, and Vittoria; these came from the south. Others were called Moscow, Beresina, Kulm, Dennewitz, Gross Beeren; they came from the north, powdered with snow, in the uniforms of Calmuks, lance in rest, and attended by wolves and ravens.

Everybody shuddered, for these messengers knocked at every door and every window, shouting hoarsely, "Hurrah! here we are! here is the end come!"

On

The last messenger of all was named Leipzig; he drew after him innumerable waggons filled with wounded, dead, and dying men. Fear followed him, and treason was not far behind. the nights of December 31st, 1813, and January 1st, 1814, the enemy crossed the Rhine over all the bridges. Whether by treason or through neglect, the posts had been weakened along the river and the troops withdrawn from the islands, just when the allied forces were making preparations to effect the passage.

Alsace and Lorraine were invaded; our decimated regiments were falling back by forced marches into the interior.

One day, at two in the afternoon (said Grandmother Françoise, trembling at the very remembrance), I was alone, with my little girl in my arms, looking out of a window of the château up the road to Landshut, and thinking of the sad future that lay before us. By that road the allies were expected; they were already occupying Kaiserslautern, a few leagues off.

Since the evening before we had been carefully watched by the Kammerrath Piper, our fastest friend, who used to come every morning and bring apples and gilded walnuts to our little Anna, and to myself a bouquet of hothouse flowers, amusing us with silly compliments and telling me all the news and the gossip of the place for my entertain

ment.

This excellent man had very suddenly altered his tune. At the head of twenty other friends he had run in the night before to arrest us, with our waggons of movables, just as we were going to take flight to Bitche, and had sent us in again, crying, "Stay where you are, Monsieur and

46 WAIT FOR THE ORDERS OF OUR VIRTUOUS PRINCE"

And so we were imprisoned in our own house, and I was gazing up the high road, anxious and pale, expecting every minute to see our innumerable enemies. Rosenthal was confined to his room by two peasants armed with pitchforks. The child was crying. An old Lorraine servant and an old Alsacian man-servant alone remained faithful to us, and they were in custody as well as we.

While I was thus looking before me full of fears, suddenly a dozen French hussars appeared on the right at the edge of the wood coming over the hill-side to reach the road through the valley. They were trotting through fields of snow, but without haste. Their commander, fifty paces to the front, sitting close in his saddle, with the fur of his colback over his eyes, his nose in the air, and his enormous red moustaches stretching to his ears, was examining the country. At first I thought I had never seen such a barbarous-looking ruffian, with his ragged pelisse, heavy trousers leathered to the knees, his feet firmly planted in the stirrups, and his sword swinging from a long strap.

His lean black horse, long-maned and longtailed, was a wild-looking animal, and by its way of stretching out its neck it must have been a Hungarian or a Cossack horse.

Yet, as I observed this horseman reconnoitring, some distant recollection seemed to say, "I have seen that man before." The others, all old soldiers with mutton-chop whiskers and long moustaches, had a look of their chief about them.

After reaching the road, the chief, still in front, galloped to the top of the hill on the left to observe the Kaiserslautern road; from that spot he could also see Pirmasens at the foot of the hill behind the château. After that he trotted back and began to speak to his men with great animation. His gestures were rapid, and he was pointing in the direction of Landshut, saying that the enemy would come in that direction."

But whilst I was watching and looking for an instant towards Pirmasens, imagine my feelings on seeing debouching from the principal street, behind our park wall, fifteen horsemen in white uniforms and feathered shakos. They were pushing on at the double, close under the walls, and could not see the hussars-who on their side were not expecting them either. These horse soldiers were followed afar by a crowd of people, townsfolk and countryfolk, armed with sticks; and at their head marched the Kammerrath Piper, from which I understood plainly that an Austrian advanced guard had reached Pirmasens that morning, and our good friends having denounced us, had come to seize us. And Rosenthal too could see them coming.

Our position was a very painful and a very dangerous one; for all that mob were evidently bent upon ill-using us, and I could not but tremble for my child. But, thank God, deliverance was at hand.

On reaching the road, after passing the park wall, the Germans found themselves two or three hundred yards from the hussars, who were making

ZIMMER'S RETURN.

for Landshut, and looking round when they heard the galloping, recognised the enemy. Instantly the swords flashed in the sun. All my life long I shall remember the hussar officer darting down the first upon the Austrian like a hawk. Surprised at this sudden attack, the German took

a step aside to avoid the encounter, and spurring his horse leaped over the low wall of our yard; but the Frenchman followed him as if on wings, and there before my eyes, with one sabrethrust, he killed the Austrian.

Scarcely had I seen this when he had already leaped back, and was rushing into the midst of the conflict; at every sweep of his sword an enemy fell, and at that moment, in the midst of my terror, I cried, "There's Zimmer!" And as I opened the window, holding my little one in my arms, to call for help, the Austrians were already in full retreat towards Wissembourg, leaving five of their number on the ground.

All those excellent people, who had been on guard over us in the château, had escaped down the park avenue. I ran down the principal staircase. In the court I saw the Austrian officer, a tall fair man, whose breast was covered with medals and orders, stretched on the ground, with arms extended as if to stop me; but fear lending wings, I passed over his body and pushed open the gate, crying in the utmost distress,

"Zimmer! Zimmer! save us! save my child! save me!"

Then the officer of hussars, with his sword dropping blood still in his hand, turned roundand his men also-and looked at me.

I was raising my child, and Zimmer-for it was indeed he cried joyfully, yet roughly, "What! is that you, Françoise? I am glad to see you again," and he was off his horse in a moment, greeting me most warmly. "Well, Françoise, for twenty years I have been thinking about you. There's nothing in the world like first love."

I held out my little girl to him, and he looked attentively at her and said, "She is just like you. She mustn't be frightened at my moustaches. I must kiss her."

And all his men on horseback round us, with the excitement of battle still fresh upon them, looked on with pleasure.

Zimmer sheathed his sword and said, "Dismount! The enemy are gone far enough; but two men will stand and watch both here and there"-pointing to Landshut and Wissembourg.

Then, handing his bridle to a man, he turned round, and, taking me by the arm as he used to do, he cried, "Let us go in, Françoise."

They

Rosenthal had just come downstairs. recognised each other and shook hands. Upstairs, in the salon, I said a few words to Zimmer about our position, and then we soon found out that he had learnt many things in his twenty years of fighting, for, calling out of the window to one of his hussars, he ordered him to mount instantly and gallop to Pirmasens, to the Hôtel de Ville, and to order two thousand rations-bread, meat, eaude-vie-and provender for six hundred horses, the which to be found by ten that night, the burgo master and notables to be responsible. Then, turning round to us and laughing, he said,

"Pack up! Put your money and all your valuables in a good strong cart. You have got horses; put in the two best that you have. If you require four, take four, for the roads through the woods to Bitche are abominable. I have been campaign