Volume I Part 6 (1/2)

That same evening the lieutenant left the chateau; and in about two months after came a letter, expressing his grat.i.tude for all the kindness of his host, and withal a present of a gun and a cha.s.seur's accoutrement for Alfred.. They were very handsome and costly, and he was never weary of trying them on his shoulder and looking how they became him; when, in examining one of the pockets for the twentieth time, he discovered a folded paper: he opened it, and found it was an appointment for a cadet in the military school of St. Cyr. Alfred de Vitry was written in pencil where the name should be inscribed, but very faintly, and so that it required sharp looking to detect the letters. It was enough, however, for him who read the words: he packed up a little parcel of clothes, and, with a few francs in his pocket, he set out that night for Chalons, where he took the _malle_. The third day, when he was tracked by the Pere, he was already enrolled a cadet, and not all the interest in France could have removed him against his consent.

I will not dwell on a career which was in no respect different from that of hundreds of others. Alfred joined the army in the second Italian campaign--was part of Dessaix's division at Marengo--was wounded at Aspern, and finally accompanied the Emperor in his terrible march to Moscow. He saw more service than his promotion seemed to imply, however; for, after Leipsig, Dresden, Bautzen, he was carried on a litter, with some other dying comrades, into a little village of Alsace--a lieutenant of hussars, nothing more.

An hospital, hastily constructed of planks, had been fitted up outside the village--there were many such, on the road between Strasbourg and Nancy; and here poor Alfred lay, with many more, their sad fate rendered still sadder by the daily tidings, which told them that the cause for which they had shed their blood was hourly becoming more hopeless.

The army that never knew defeat now counted nothing but disasters.

Before Alfred had recovered from his wound, the allies bivouacked in the Place Carrousel, and Napoleon was at Elba!

When little dreaming that he could take any part in that general joy by which France, in one of her least-thinking moments, welcomed back the Bourbons, Alfred was loitering listlessly along one of the quays of Paris, wondering within himself by what process of arithmetic he could multiply seven sous--they were all he had--into the price of a supper and a bed; and while his eyes often dwelt with lingering fondness on the windows of the _restaurants_, they turned, too, with a dreadful instinct towards the Seine, whose eddies had closed over many a sorrow and crime.

As he wandered thus, a cry arose for help: an unfortunate creature--one whose woes were greater, or whose courage to bear them less, than his own--had thrown herself from the Pont-Neuf into the river, and her body was seen to rise and sink several times in the current of the rapid stream, It was from no prompting of humanity--it was something like a mere instinct, and no more--mayhap, too, his recklessness of life had some share in the act;--whatever the reason, he sprung into the river, and, after a long and vigorous struggle, he brought her out alive; and then, forcing through the crowd that welcomed him, he drew his miserable and dripping hat over his eyes. He continued his road--Heaven knows he had little purpose or object to warrant the persistence!

He had not gone far when a number of voices were heard behind him, calling out,--

”That is he!--there he is!” and at the same instant an officer rode up beside him, and, saluting him politely, said that her royal highness the d.u.c.h.ess of Berri desired to speak to him;--her carriage was just by.

Alfred was in that humour when, so indifferent is every object in life, that he would have turned at the bidding of the humblest _gamin_ of the streets; and, wet and weary, he stood beside the door of the splendid equipage.

”It was _thou_ that saved the woman?” said the d.u.c.h.ess, addressing him, and using the conventional ”Du,” as suitable to his mean appearance.

”Madame,” said Alfred, removing his tattered hat, ”I am a gentleman!

These rags were once--the uniform of the Guard.”

”My G.o.d!--my cousin!” cried a voice beside the d.u.c.h.ess; and, at the same instant, a young girl held out her hands towards him, and exclaimed,--

”Knowest thou not me, Alfred? I am Alice--Alice de Vitry--thy cousin and thy sister!”

It would little interest you to dwell on the steps that followed, and which, in a few weeks, made of a wretched outcast--without a home or a meal--an officer of the _Guard du Corps_, with the order of St. Louis at his breast.

Time sped on, and his promotion with it; and at length his Majesty, graciously desiring to see the old n.o.bility resume their place and grade, consented to the union of Alfred with his cousin. There was no violent love on either side, but there was sincere esteem and devoted friends.h.i.+p; and if they neither of them felt that degree of attachment which becomes a pa.s.sion, they regarded each other with true affection.

Alice was a devoted Royalist: all that she had suffered for the cause had endeared it to her; and she could forgive, but not forget, that her future husband had shed his blood for the Usurper.

Alfred was what every one, and with reason, called a most fortunate fellow: a colonel at twenty-eight--a promotion that, under the Empire, nothing but the most distinguished services could have gained--and yet he was far from happy. He remembered with higher enthusiasm his first grade of ”corporal,” won at Aspern, and his epaulettes that he gained at Wilna. His soldiering had been learned in another school than in the parade-ground at Versailles, or the avenue of the Champs Elysees.

”Come, _mon ami!_” said Alice, gaily, to him one morning, about ten days before the time appointed for their marriage; ”thou art about to have some occasion for thy long-rusting sword: the Usurper has landed at Cannes.”

”The Emperor at Cannes!”

”The Emperor, if thou wilt--but without an Empire.”

”No matter. Is he without an army?” said Alfred.

”Alone--with some half-dozen followers, at most. Ney has received orders to march against him, and thou art to command a brigade.”

”This is good news!” said Alfred; for the very name of war had set his heart a-throbbing; and as he issued forth into the streets, the stirring sounds of excitement and rapid motion of troops increased his ardour.

Wondering groups were gathered in every street, some, discussing the intelligence, others, reading the great placards, which, in letters of portentous size, announced that ”the Monster” had once more polluted by his presence the soil of France.