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This is a reproduction of an 1893 English translation of an 1858 novel by Dumas. Click here for more information on this work.

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AT about eighteen leagues from Munich (which the Guide in Germany of Messieurs Richard and Quetinde signates as one of the most eminent cities not only of Bavaria, but of Europe; at nine leagues from Augsburg, made famous by the diet in which Melancthon, in 1530, digested the formula of the Lutheran law, at twenty-five leagues from Ratisbon which, in the obscurest rooms of its town-hall, saw, from 1662 to 1806, an assembly of the states of the German Empire) rose, like an advanced sentinel, overlooking the course of the Danube, the little town of Donauwerth.

Four roads led to the ancient city where Louis the Severe, upon an unjust suspicion of unfaithfulness, had the unfortunate Marie de Brabant decapitated; two that come from Stuttgard,that is to say from France, those of Nordlingen and Dillingen; and two that come from Austria, those of Augsburg and of Aichach. The two first follow the left bank of the Danube; the two others, situated upon the right bank of the stream, cross it, on reaching Donauwerth, over a simple wooden bridge.

At the present time, as a railroad passes to Donauwerth, and as steamboats descend the Danube from Ulm to the Black Sea, the city has become somewhat important, and affects a certain activity; but it was not thus at the commencement of this century.

And yet the old free city which, in ordinary times, seems a temple raised to the goddess Solitude and the god Silence, presented, upon the 17th of April, 1809, a spectacle so unusual to its two thousand five hundred inhabitants, that with the exception of the infants in the cradle, and infirm old men, who, the latter from their infirmity, the former from their weakness, were forced to remain at home, all the population encumbered its streets and squares, and particularly the street into which led the two streets coming from Stuttgard and the Place du Chateau.

In short, since the evening of the 13th of April, at the moment when three post-chaises, accompanied by wagons and carts, had stopped at the Hotel de l'Ecrevisse, and from the first had descended a general officer wearing, like the Emperor, a little hat and a frock-coat under his uniform, and from the two others, staff-officers; the rumor bad spread around that the victor of Marengo and Austerlitz had chosen the little town of Donauwerth as a point of departure of his operations in the new campaign which he was to open against Austria.

This general officer, whom the most curious, on that evening, had viewed through the hotel windows, was a man of fifty-six or fifty-seven years of age, whom the better-informed assorted to be the old Marshal Berthier, Prince of Neuchatel, who proceeded the Emperor but by two or three days. He had, on the night of bis arrival, sent couriers in all directions, and ordered, upon Donauwerth, a concentration of troops which, on the third day after, had commenced to operate; so that they heard nothing within and without the town, but drums and trumpets, and saw, coming from the four cardinal points only Bavarian, Wurtemburgian, and French regiments.

Let us say a word upon those two old enemies, who are called France and Austria, and of the circumstances which, having broken the treaty sworn at Presburg between the Emperor Napoleon and the Emperor Francis II., led to all this movement.

The Emperor Napoleon was at war with Spain.

This is how it happened.

The treaty of Amiens which had, in 1803, brought peace with England, had lasted but a year, England having prevailed upon John VI,, King of Portugal, to break his engagement with the Emperor of the French. Napoleon only wrote this one line; signed with his name:

"The House of Braganza has ceased to reign."

John VI., driven from Europe, was forced to trust himself to the waves, cross the Atlantic, and demand shelter in the Portuguese colonies.

Camoens, in his shipwreck upon the coast of Cochin China, had saved his poem, which he upheld with one hand while he swam with the other. John VI., in the tempest which bore him to Rio Janeiro, was compelled to leave his crown behind him. It is true that he found another on his arrival, and that, in exchange for his lost European kingdom, he was proclaimed Emperor of Brazil.

The French armies, which had obtained passage across Spain, occupied Portugal, of which Junot was named governor.

So small a place was Portugal, that they only gave it a governor.

But the Emperor's projects stopped not there.

The treaty of Presburg, imposed upon Austria after the battle of Austerlitz, had assured to Eugene Beauharnais the vice-royalty of Italy; the treaty of Tilsit, imposed on Prussia and Russia after the battle of Friedland, had given to Jerome the kingdom of Westphalia; he now acted to displace Joseph and place Marat.

The precautions were taken.

A secret article of the treaty of Tilsit authorized the Emperor of Russia to take Finland, and the Emperor of the French to take Spain.

There now only remained an occasion to be found.

The occasion was not slow to present itself,

Murat was staying at Madrid with secret instructions. King Charles IV. complained to Murat of big quarrels with his son, who was endeavoring to make him abdicate, and who had succeeded him under the name of Ferdinand VII. Murat counseled King Charles IV. to call in his ally. Napoleon. Charles IV., who had nothing to lose, gratefully accepted the arbitrage, and Ferdinand VIII., who was not the strongest, consented with uneasiness.

Murat urged them gently toward Bayonne, where Napoleon awaited them. Once under the lion's claw, all was done for them. Charles IV. abdicated in favor of Joseph, declaring that Ferdinand VII, was unworthy to reign. Then Napoleon laid his right hand upon the father, his left upon the son; sending the former to Compeigne, the other to the Chateau of Valencais.

If this performance was agreed to by Russia, which had its recompense, it in no way satisfied England, which had gained only the Continental system. So the latter kept her eyes upon Spain, and held herself in readiness to take advantage of the first insurrection, which beside, was not slow to burst out.

The 27th of May, 1808, the day of St. Ferdinand, ten different places were in insurrection, and particularly Cadiz, where the insurgents Seized upon the French fleet, which had taken refuge there after the disastrous encounter at Trafalgar.

Then, in less time than a month, all over Spain, was spread the following catechism:

"Who art thou, my child ?"

"Spaniard, by the grace of God."

"What do you mean by that ?"

"I mean to say that I am a good man."

"Who is the enemy of our felicity ?"

"The Emperor of the French."

"Who is this Emperor of the French ?"

"A wicked man, the source of all evil, the destroyer of all good, the focus of all vices."

"How many natures has he ?"

"Two: human nature and diabolical nature.''

"How many Emperors of the French are there ?"

"One, alone, in three deceitful persons."

"What are they called ?"

"Napoleon, Murat, and Manuel Godoi."

"Which of the three is the worst ?"

"They are all equally bad."

"From what is Napoleon derived ?"

"From sin."

"And Murat ?"

"From Napoleon."

"And Godoi ?"

"From the combination of the two."

"What is the spirit of the first ?"

"Pride and despotism."

"Of the second ?"

"Rapine and cruelty

"Of the third ?"

"Cupidity, treachery, and ignorance."

"Who are the French ?"

"Anciently Christians, now become heretics."

"What torture deserves the Spaniard who fails in his duties ?"

"The death and the infamy of a traitor."

"How ought the Spanish to conduct themselves ?"

"According to the precepts of Our Lord, Jesus Christ."

"What will deliver us form our enemies ?"

"Trust in each other and arms."

"Is it a sin to put a Frenchman to death ?"

"No, father; on the contrary, one gains heaven by slaying one of these heretic dogs."

In the above lie singular principles; but they were in harmony with the savage ignorance of the people who invoked them.

There followed a general rising which resulted in the capitulation of Baylen, signed the 22nd of July, 1808.

On the 31st of the same month, an English army disembarked in Portugal.

On the 21st of August took place the Battle of Vimiero, which cost the French a dozen pieces of cannon, and fifteen hundred men slain or wounded: finally, on the 30th, the convention of Cintra stipulated the evacuation of Portugal by Junot and his army.

The effect of this news had been terrible in Paris.

To reverse it, Napoleon knew but one remedy, his presence.

Fortune still accompanied him. The land of Spain, in its turn, saw the wonders of Rivoli, the Pyramids, Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena and Friedland.

He shook the hand of the Emperor Alexander, assured himself of the dispositions of Prussia and Austria, that the new King of Saxe watched over Dresden, waiting till the new King of Westphalia, Hesse-Cassel, brought him from Germany eight thousand veterans, touched Paris in passing to announce to the legislative body that soon the eagles would be planted upon the towers of Lisbon, and forthwith set off for Spain.

He arrived at Tolosa on the 4th of November. On the 10th Marshal Soult, aided by General Mouton, made himself master of Burgos, took twenty cannon, killed three thousand Spaniards, and took an equal number of prisoners.

On the 12th, Marshal Victor defeated the army of Romana and Blake at Espinosa, killed eight thousand men, ten generals, making twelve thousand prisoners, and capturing fifty cannon.

The 23rd saw Marshal Lannes destroy the army of Palafox and Castanos, gaining thirty guns and three thousand prisoners, and slaying or drowning four thousand men at Tudela.

The road to Madrid is open ! Enter the city of Philip the Fifth, sire. Are you not the heritor of Louis XIV., and do you not know the way to all capitals ? Beside, a deputation from the city of Madrid awaits you, and comes before you to ask the pardon you would accord. Now, ascend upon the platform of the Escurial. and listen; you will hear nothing more than echoes of victory !

Stay, here comes a wind from the east, bearing the sound of the actions of Cardeden Clinas, Slobregat, San Felice, and Molino-del-Rey; five new names to write in the journals, and five the more enemies in Catalonia.

Hold, here is the west wind, in its turn, which wafts gently to your ear the tidings that Soult has beaten Moore's rear guard and has made a Spanish division lay down its arms: then, better still, your lieutenant has passed over the body of the Spaniards; he has reached the English, who have thrown themselves into their vessels, which have opened their sails and disappeared, leaving upon the field of battle the general-in-chief and two generals slain,

Here comes the north wind which, all charged with flames, bears you the news of the taking of Saragossa. They fought twenty-eight days before entering the place, sire! and, twenty-eight days more after entering, where they cut their way from house to house, as at Sagonte, Numance and Calahorra! Men have resisted, women have struggled, children have fought, priests have encouraged! The French are masters of Saragossa, that is to say of what was a city and what is now but a ruin!

Here is the south wind bringing you the news of the taking of Oporto. The insurrection is smothered, or else extinguished in Spain; Portugal is overrun, that is reconquered; you have kept your word, sire! your eagles are planted upon the towers of Lisbon.

But where are you, O vanquisher! and why, as you have come, have you departed with a bound ?

Ah! yes, your old enemy, England, has seduced Austria; she tells her that you are seven hundred leagues from Vienna, that you have need of all your forces around you, and that the moment is good to retake from you, whom Pope Pius the Seventh is going to excommunicate, like Henry IV. of Germany and Philip Augustus of France, the land of Italy and to drive you from Germany. Austria, the presumptuous, has believed it ! she has formed together five hundred thousand men, she has put them in the hands of her three Archdukes Charles, Louis and John, and has said to them: "Go, my black eagles! I give to your talons the red eagle of France."

On the 17th of January, Napoleon set off for Valladolid; the 18th, at midnight, he struck at the door of the Tuileries, saying "Open, it is the future conqueror of Eckmuhl and Wagram!"

The future conqueror of Eckmuhl and Wagram, however, returned to Paris in very bad humor.

The Spanish war, which he had believed useful, was one he had no sympathy for; but once engaged, it had had, at least this advantage, the drawing the English to the continent.

Like the Libyan giant, it was when he touched the earth that Napoleon felt really strong. If he had been Themistocles, he would have awaited the Persians at Athens, and not have detached Athens to transport it to the gulf of Salamis.

Fortune, that mistress who had always been so faithful to him, whom he had forced to accompany him from the Adige to the Nile, or to follow him from Niemen to Mancanarez, Fortune had betrayed him at Aboukir and at Trafalgar.

And it was at the moment when he had gained three victories over the English, killing two of their generals, wounding a third, and repulsing them into the sea as Hector had done to the Greeks in the absence of Achilles, that he had been forced to quit the Peninsula, upon the announcement of what was passing in Austria and also in France.

So, arriving at the Tuileries and entering his apartments, scarce throwing a glance upon the bed although it was two o'clock in the morning, and passing from his bed-chamber into his cabinet, he said:

"Let some one go and awaken the Archchancellor, and warn the Minister of Police and the Grand Elector that I await them, the first at four o'clock, the second at five."

"Ought her Majesty the Empress to be told of your Majesty's return ?" inquired the usher to whom this order had been given.

The Emperor reflected a moment.

"No," said he; "I wish first to see the Minister of Police--only take care that I am not disturbed until his coming; I wish to sleep."

The usher went out and Napoleon remained alone.

Then turning his eyes to the clock he said:

"Quarter past two; at half after I shall awake."

And throwing himself upon an arm-chair, he extended his left hand upon the arm of the seat, passed his right band between his waistcoat and shirt, leaned his head on the mahogany back, closed his eyes, uttered a faint sigh and slept.

Napoleon possessed, like Caesar, that precious faculty of sleeping when he would, where he would, and as long as he pleased; when he once said, "I shall sleep a quarter of an hour," it was rare that the aide-de-camp, the usher or the secretary to whom the order was given, and who, at the precise moment, entered to arouse him, found him not opening his eyes.

Beside, he had another privilege, granted like the first to men of genius; Napoleon awoke without any transition whatever from deep slumber to wakefulness; his eyes, on opening seemed immediately illuminated; his brain was as clear, his ideas as precise a second after his slumber as a second before.

The door was hardly shut behind the usher, charged to call together the three men of state, than Napoleon was asleep, and--strange thing! without one trace of the passions which agitated his mind being reflected on his face.

A single candle burned in the cabinet.

At the desire expressed by the Emperor to sleep a few minutes, the usher had taken away the two candelabras, whose too bright a light might have, striking his eyelids, affected Napoleon's eyes; he had only left the candle, by the aid of which he had lighted his master and lit the candelabras.

The entire cabinet swam thus in one of those soft and transparent half-tints which give to objects so charming and so vaporous a vagueness. It is in the midst of this luminous obscurity, or this obscure light as you will, that pass those dreams caused by sleep, or appear those phantoms which are invoked by remorse.

One would have believed that one of those dreams or one of those phantoms had waited but for this mysterious light to reign around the Emperor; for, instantly he had closed his eyes, the tapestry, which fell before a little door it hid, was upraised, and there appeared a white form having, thanks to the gauze which wrapped it and its flexibility of movements, all the fantastic aspect of a shade.

The figure stopped an instant in the door, as in an encasement of shadows; then with a step so light, so aerial, that the silence was not broken even by the creak of the floor, she slowly approached Napoleon.

When near him, she held out from a cloud of muslin a charming hand which she placed upon the back of the chair, near that head which seemed one of the Roman emperors; she sometime kept her eyes upon the visage, calm as a medal of Augustus, uttered a half retained sigh, laid her left hand upon her heart to compress its beatings, bent over, retaining her breath, kissed the sleeper's brow more with her breath than with her lips, and feeling at that contact, all light as it was, a quiver of the muscles of that face, before so immovable that one would think it a wax mask, she drew herself quickly back.

The motion she had provoked, however, was as imperceptible as passing; that calm countenance, wrinkled a moment by that breath of love, as is the lake by the breeze of night, resumed its placid physiognomy, while, with and still on her heart, the shadowy visitor approached the bureau, wrote some lines on a half sheet of paper, returned to the sleeper, slipped the paper into the opening produced between the shirt and the waistcoat by the introduction of a hand no less white and delicate than her own; then, as lightly as she came, smothering the sound of her steps in the carpet's soft thickness, disappeared by the same door that had given her entrance.

Some seconds after the vanishing of this vision, and as the clock was about to ring the half after two, the sleeper opened his eyes and withdrew his hand from his breast.

The half hour sounded.

Napoleon smiled as would have smiled Augustus, at seeing that he was as much master of himself asleep as awake, and picked up a paper which had fallen as he took out his hand.

Upon this paper, he distinguished some written words, and bent toward the only light which lit up the apartment; but before he could decipher the words, he had recognized the writing.

He sighed and read:

"Thou art here! I have embraced thee. She who loves thee more than all the world."

"Josephine !" murmured he, looking around him, as if he expected to see her appear in the depths of the apartment or leap from behind some piece of furniture.

But he was really alone.

At this moment, the door opened, the usher entered carrying the two candelabras, and announced:

"His excellence Monsieur the Archchancellor."

Napoleon arose, went to the mantel-piece, leant upon it and waited.

Behind the usher appeared the high personage who had been introduced.

REGIS DE CAMBACERES was, at this period, fifty-six years of age, that is to say, fifteen or sixteen years older than they called him.

As to character, he was a kind and benevolent man. A wise jurisconsult, he had succeeded his father as counselor to the court of the exchequer; in 1792 he had been elected deputy to the National Convention; on the 19th of January, 1793, he had voted for the reprieve; he had become in 1794, president of the. committee of public safety; had been appointed the following year, minister of justice; in 1799, had been chosen by Bonaparte as second consul; lastly, in 1804, had been named Archchancellor, created Prince of the Empire, and made Duke of Parma.

As to constitution, he was a man of middling stature, tending to turn to obesity, fond of good living, affected in dress, who, though one of the gentlemen of the long robe, had taken to the air of the court, with a facility and promptitude which was well appreciated by the great reconstructor of the social edifice.

Then, in the eyes of Napoleon, he had yet another sort of merit: Cambaceres had perfectly comprehended that the man of genius who had advanced upon the political scene and who, passing by his side, had attached his fortune to his own, and as his equal received him in his familiarity, had a right to his respect in becoming that elect of destiny who, at the time of which we write, commanded Europe; without descending to humility, he placed himself in the position--not of a man who flatters--but of one who admires.

So, always ready to obey the Emperor's first desire, a quarter of an hour had sufficed for him to make his dressing in a style which would be judged irreproachable in the circle of the Tuileries, and, though aroused at two o'clock of the morning, that is to say in the midst of his slumber, which was to him essentially disagreeable, he arrived with as lively an eye and as smiling a mouth as would have been seen in him at seven o'clock of the evening, to wit, the hour when, after having left table and taken his coffee, he was enjoying that happy state, which, at the end of a good dinner, accompanies an easy digestion.

The visage which received him was far from having the air of good humor which lit up his own; so, perceiving it, the Archchancellor made a movement which bore resemblance to a step in retreat.

Napoleon, with his eagle eye, from which not only nothing of great things escaped, but also none of little ones, saw the movement, understood the cause, and softening the expression of his face, said:

"Oh, come ! come ! M. the Archchancellor! it is not you whom I want !"

" I hope your Majesty may never want me," responded Cambaceres; "for I should be a most unfortunate man the day when I incur your displeasure."

At this moment the valet de chambre retired, leaving the two candelabras and taking the candles.

"Constant," said the Emperor, "close the door, watch in the ante-chamber and let the person whom I expect enter the green saloon."

Then turning to Cambaceres, he said, as he breathed after a long suffocation:

"Ah, here I am in France! here I am at the Tuileries ! We are alone, M. the Archchancellor, let us speak with open hearts."

"Sire," said the Archchancellor, "apart from the respect which sets a barrier to my words, I never speak otherwise to your Majesty."

The Emperor fixed upon him a piercing look.

"You fatigue, Cambaceres: you make sad; contrary to the others, whose design is to throw light, you efface things each day; I do not like that; think that, in the civil order, you are the first after me."

"I know that your Majesty has treated me according to his generosity and not agreeably to my merits."

'"You are wrong, I have treated you pursuant to your worth; it is for that I entrusted to you the bringing up of the laws, not only when they were born, but during the gestation of their mother Justice, before they were born. Well, the Code of criminal examination does not move, does not advance: I told you that I wished it to be terminated in the year 1808, but, here we are at the 23rd of January, 1809, and, although the legislative body will remain assembled during my absence, this code is not finished and may not be perhaps for three months yet."

"Will your Majesty permit me to say, upon that subject, the whole truth?" hazarded the Archchancellor,

"Proceed," said the Emperor.

"Well, sire, I see--I do not say with fear, for I should have no fear while your Majesty holds the sword or the scepter--I see, with regret, that a spirit of inquietude and indiscipline commences to glide over all."

"You have no need to say that, sir, I see it! and it is as much to combat that spirit as to contest the Austrians that I came here."

"So, for instance, sire," resumed Cambaceres, "the legislative body--"

"The legislative body," repeated Napoleon, accenting the two words and shrugging his shoulders.

"The legislative body," continued Cambaceres, like a man determined to finish his thought, "the legislative body, where the rare opposers never can unite more than twelve or fifteen votes against the projects that we submit, the legislative body still resist us, and twice put eighty black balls, once one hundred."

"Well, I will overturn the legislative body!"

"No, sire, you will select a moment when it will be more disposed for approbation. Remain in Paris--when your Majesty is at Paris, all goes swimmingly."

"I know that; but, unfortunately. I cannot stay."

"So much the worse !"

"Yes, so much the worse! Just now I recollected the word, and it reminds me of a certain Malet."

"Does your Majesty say that he cannot remain in Paris ?"

"Do yon think that it was to remain in Paris that I came in four days from Valladolid ? No; in three months I must be in Vienna."

"Oh, sire !" said Cambaceres, with a sigh, "still war."

"You, also, Cambaceres? But it is I who has made this war?"

"Sire, Spain," ventured the Archchancellor.

"Yes, that was, perhaps; but why have I undertaken it ? Because I believe myself sure of the peace with the North. Can I doubt that with Russia for ally, Westphalia and Holland for sisters, Bavaria for friend, Prussia reduced to an army of forty thousand men, can I doubt that from Austria I will cut one of her two heads--Italy? Can I doubt that Austria will find means to raise and arm five hundred thousand men against me ? But they are in the waters of the Lethe, and not in those of the Danube, which runs to Vienna. They have forgotten even the lessons of experience! They must learn new ones ! They shall, and, this time, terrible ones, I answer for it !

"I do not wish war--I have no interest in it--and the whole of Europe is witness that all my efforts, all my attentions, were directed toward that field of battle which England has chosen, namely, Spain. Austria, who has once already saved the English, in 1805, at the moment when I was about to cross the Straits of Dover, saves them again today, at the moment when I was about to drive them, from the first to the last, into the sea ! I know quite well that, disappearing in one place, they would re-appear in another; but England is not, like France, a warlike nation: it is a commercial nation, it is Carthage, without Hannibal. I shall have finished by exhausting its soldiers, or by forcing it to leave India; and, if the Emperor Alexander is true to his word, it is there that I expect--Oh, Austria ! Austria ! She shall pay dearly for this diversion ! She shall instantly disarm, or she shall be made to sustain a war of destruction. If she disarms in a manner that will leave me no doubts of her future intentions, I will myself replace the sword in the sheath, for I am not desirous to draw it save in Spain and against the English. Otherwise I will throw four hundred thousand men upon Vienna, and, for the future, England will have no more allies on the Continent."

"Four hundred thousand men, sire," repeated Cambaceres.

"You ask me where they are, do you not ?"

"Yes, sire: I can scarce see a hundred thousand disposable."

"Ah! they commence to count my soldiers, and you are one of first, the Archchancellor !"

"Sire--"

"They say; 'He has no more than two hundred thousand men: but a hundred and fifty thousand, but a hundred thousand!' They say; 'We may escape the master enfeebled, the master is no more than two armies !' They are wrong--"

Napoleon struck his forehead.

"My strength is here !"

Then, extending both his arena, he added:

"And here are my armies. You would like to know how I can get together four hundred thousand men ? I will tell you."

"Sire--"

"I will tell you--not for you, Cambaceres, who may perhaps yet have faith in my fortune--I will tell you that you may repeat it to others. My army of the Rhine counts one-and-twenty regiments of infantry, which are four battalions each; they ought to have five; but in face of reality, not illusion ! that will make me eighty-four battalions strong; that is to say, seventy thousand infantry. I have, over that, my four divisions, Carra, St. Cyr, Legrand, Boudet and Molltor; they are only three battalions, say thirty thousand men; that makes a hundred thousand, without reckoning the five thousand men of the division Dupas. I have fourteen regiments of cuirassiers, which will give me twelve thousand horsemen at least, and taking all that remain disposable in the depots, I shall bear away fourteen thousand. I have seventeen regiments of light cavalry, put them at seventeen thousand men; besides, my depots overflow with dragoons ready formed; they will come from Languedoc, Guieene, Poitou, and Anjou, so I shall easily have five or six thousand. We have already a hundred thousand infantry and thirty-five thousand cavalry,"

"Sire, all that only amounts to one hundred and thirty-five thousand men, and your Majesty said four hundred thousand."

"Wait; twenty thousand artillery, twenty of the guard, a hundred thousand Germans."

"That sire, makes in all two hundred and seventy-five thousand men."

"Good ! I will draw fifty thousand from my Italian army; they will march by Tarvis and join me in Bavaria. Add to them ten thousand Italians and ten thousand Frenchmen drawn from Dalmatia, and we have seventy thousand men the more."

"Which makes us three hundred and forty-five thousand men."

"Well, you will see that we shall have too many in a moment."

"I seek for the balance, sire."

"You forget my conscripts, sir, you forget that your senate authorized, in last September, two levies of men."

"One, that of 1809, is already under arms; that of 1810 ought not, according to the law, serve the first year, save in the interior."

" Yes, sir; but do you believe that one hundred and fifty departments are not sufficient for eighty thousand men ? No; I shall carry the levy to a hundred thousand, and I will have a recall of twenty thousand upon the classes of 1809, 1808, 1807, and 1806. That will give me eighty thousand men, and eighty thousand men made, men of twenty, twenty-one, two, and three years of age, whilst those of 1810 are but eighteen years old, so I can, without inconvenience, let them grow up."

"Sire, the one hundred and fifteen departments every year have never furnished more than three hundred and thirty-seven thousand men of the age of military service; take one hundred thousand men from three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, that is, taking more than a quarter, and there is not a population that would not soon perish if they took each year a quarter of the males who have reached the age of manhood."

"And who told you they are to be taken every year ? These eighty thousand men are to form my guard; it will be for them but a three months' affair. Once is not always, it is the first and the last. Before the end of April, I shall be upon the Danube with four hundred thousand men; then, as she has done today, Austria may count my legions, and I tell you, if she forces ma to strike, Europe will be forever dismayed at the blows I will strike!"

Cambaceres sighed.

"Your Majesty has no other orders to give me ?" said he.

"Tomorrow let the legislative body assemble."

"It has been in session since your departure, sire."

"That is true--tomorrow it will know my will."

Cambaceres made a movement to withdraw; but returning, he said:

"Your Majesty spoke of a certain General Malet--"

"Ah! you're right--but it is with M. Fouche, I will speak of that. Say, as you pass, that they may send me M. Fouche, who ought to be in the green saloon,"

Cambaceres bowed and went toward the door, when, as he reached it, Napoleon cried in his most gentle voice, accompanying the farewell with a friendly sign:

"Adieu, my dear Archchancellor."

This made the latter leave the room more tranquil for himself, but no less uneasy for France.

Again alone, Napoleon paced the room with long strides.

Since nine years of reigning, for the consulate had been a reign, be had seen, beneath the admiration he had inspired, mistrust and disapprobation even, but never doubt.

They doubted now--what ? his good fortune.

They even blamed! and from whence had he first been censured ? in his army, in his guard, in his veterans.

Baylen, with its fatal capitulation, had dealt a terrible blow to his renown.

Varus, at least, had been slain with the three legions he had asked of Augustus: Varus had not surrendered.

Before quitting Valladolid even, Napoleon was instructed upon all which Cambaceres had told him, and on more beside.

The evening of his departure, he had reviewed his grenadiers; he had been informed that these praetorians murmured at his leaving them in Spain; he wished to see all these old faces embrowned by the sun of Italy and Egypt, to know if they had the audacity to be discontented.

He dismounted and passed their ranks on foot.

The grenadiers, mute and gloomy, presented arms; not a single cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" was to be heard. One man muttered;

"Sire, in France!"

This is what Napoleon expected.

With an irresistible movement he snatched the gun from his hands and drawing him from the ranks, said;

"Wretch! you deserve to be shot, and but little keeps me from doing it."

Then addressing the others, he added:

"Ah, I know how it is; you wish to return to Paris, to resume your habits and your mistresses. Well, I will keep you under arms twenty-four years!"

And he threw the gun back to the grenadier, who let it fall from grief.

In this moment of exasperation, he perceived General Legendre, one of the signers of the capitulation of Baylen.

He went right up to him with a threatening eye.

The general stopped as if his feet had taken root in the ground.

"Your hand, general," said he.

The general held out his hand with hesitation.

"This hand," said the Emperor, regarding it, "how is it that it has not withered by signing the capitulation of Baylen!"

And he threw it from him as he would have done that of a traitor.

The general who, in signing, had only obeyed superior orders, remained thunderstruck.

Then Napoleon, mounting his horse, with flaming visage, had returned to Valladolid from whence, as we have said, he started the following day for France.

He was still in this frame of mind when the usher, again opening the door, announced:

"His Excellency the Minister of Police."

And Fouche's pale face, more pallid from fear, appeared hesitatingly upon the door-sill.

"Yes, sire," said Napoleon, "I can understand why you hesitate to present yourself to me."

Fouche was one of those characters which recede before the unknown danger, but who march to it, or await it, when it has taken a form.

"I, sire?" said he raising his head with its yellow hair, livid tint, sleepy blue eyes and large mouth; "I, the former iron monger of Lyons, why should I hesitate to present myself before your Majesty?"

"Because I am not a Louis XVI. !"

"Your Majesty makes allusion--and it is not the first time--to my vote of the 19th January--"

"What if I do make allusion to that ?"

"I answer then that, as deputy to the National Convention, I swore an oath to the nation and not to the king; I kept my oath to the nation."

"And to whom did you make oath on the 13th Thermidor, the year VII.? Was it to me ?"

"No, sire."

"Why did you then serve me so well on the 18th Brumaire?"

"Does your Majesty recollect the saying of Louis XIV.: 'The State, it is I?' "

"Yes, sir."

"Well, sire, on the 18th Brumaire, the nation was you; that is why I served you."

"That did not prevent me, in 1803, from taking away the portfolio from you."

"Your Majesty hoped to find a Minister of Police, if not more faithful, at least more skilful, than I--He returned me my portfolio in 1804."

Napoleon made a few paces before the mantel, his head bowed upon his breast, crushing in his hand the paper on which Josephine had written some words.

"Who authorized you," demanded he, suddenly stopping, uplifting his bead and fixing his falcon eye, as Dante says, upon his Minister of Police, "who authorized you to speak of divorce to the Empress ?"

If Fouche had not been too far from the light, one could have seen a more livid tint than the first pass over his countenance.

"Sire," responded he, "I thought I knew that your Majesty ardently desires divorce."

"Have I confided that desire to you ?"

"I said I thought I knew, and I also thought it would be agreeable to your Majesty to prepare the Empress for the sacrifice."

"Yes, brutally, according to your habit."

"Sire, one never changes his nature; I commenced by being perfect among the Oratorians and by commanding unruly children: there has always remained to me some of my youth's impatience, I am a tree without fruit, ask no flowers of me."

"Monsieur Fouche, your friend" (Napoleon designedly emphasized these two words), "your friend M. de Talleyrand makes but one recommendation to his servants; 'Not too much zeal.' "

"I will borrow his axiom to apply it to you; you had too much zeal, that time; I wish no one to precede me in affairs of state or affairs of family."

Fouche kept silence.

"And, apropos of M. de Talleyrand," said the Emperor, "how comes it that, having left you mortal enemies, I find you intimate friends ? During ten years of reciprocal hate and disparagement, I have heard you treat him as a frivolous diplomatist, and have heard him treat you as a rude intriguer; you, scorning a diplomacy which goes alone, you pretend, while aided by victory; he, railing the vain display of a police which the general submission renders easy and even useless. Is the situation so serious that, sacrificing yourself to the nation, as you say, you mutually forget your disagreements? Reproached by officials, you are publicly reconciled, and publicly visit; you say in a low tone that I may meet in Spain the knife of a fanatic or in Austria a cannon-ball; is that what you say ?"

"Sire," rejoined Fouche, "Spanish knives have known great kings: witness Henry IV. Austrian bullets are known to captains: witness Turenne and Marshal Berwick."

"You reply by a flattery to a fact, sir; I am not dead, and do not wish my succession to be shared and I living."

"Sire, that idea is far from all my thoughts, and especially from ours."

"So little is it far from your thoughts, on the contrary, my successor is already chosen, designated by you. Why have they not had him consecrated in advance? The moment is a good one--the Pope is about to excommunicate me! Do you believe, sir, that the crown of France fits all heads ? They may make of a grand-duke of Saxe a king of Saxe, Monsieur; but they do not make of a grand-duke of Berri a king of France nor an emperor of the French; to be one, he must be of the blood of Saint Louis; to be the other, he must be of mine. It is true that you have a means of hastening the moment when I shall be no more."

"Sire," said Fouche, "I wait for your Majesty to indicate that means to me."

"Eh, morbleau ! it is to leave conspirators unpunished."

"What ! have men conspired against your Majesty and remained unpunished ? Sire, name them."

"Oh, that's nothing difficult, and I will name you three."

"Your Majesty means the pretended conspiracy discovered by your Prefect of Police, M. Dubois ?"

"Yes, my Prefect of Police, M. Dubois, who is not like you, devoted to the nation, Monsieur Fouche, but who is devoted to me."

Fouche slightly shrugged his shoulders; the movement, imperceptible, as it was, did not escape the emperor.

"Raise your shoulders, not daring to raise your voice !" said Napoleon, frowning. "I never like these strong minds; they make plots."

"Does your Majesty know the men he speaks of ?"

"I know two of them, sir, I know General Malet, an incorrigible conspirator."

"Does your Majesty believe that General Malet conspires ?"

"I am sure of it,"

"And your Majesty fears a conspiracy headed by a madman ?"

"You are doubly wrong; first, I fear nothing; next, General Malet is not a madman."

"He is at least a monomaniac."

"Yes but one whose monomania is terrible, you will allow; for it consists in taking advantage, one day or another, of my absence, also in waiting until I am three hundred, four hundred, six hundred leagues, perhaps, away, to suddenly spread around the rumor of my death, and with that tidings, make an uprising."

"Does your Majesty believe the thing possible?"

"While I have no heir, yes."

"That's why I made so bold as to speak of divorce to her Majesty the Empress."

"Do not let us return to that. You scorn Malet; you have set him at liberty. Do you know one thing, Monsieur, one thing that my Minister of Police knows ? It is that Malet is but one of the threads of an invisible conspiracy which even has hold in my army !"

"Ah, yes, the Philadelphians--does your Majesty believe in the magic of Colonel Oudet?"

"I believe in Arena, Monsieur; I believe in Cadoudal--I believe in Moreau. General Malet is one of these dreamers, one of these illuminati, one of these madmen if you will; but one of those dangerous madmen who must have cells and strait jackets; you have put yours at liberty ! As for the second conspirator, M. Servan, is he a madman ? rather a regicide !"

"Like me, sire."

"Yes, but a regicide of the class of the Girondists, an old lover of Madame Roland, a man who, as the minister of Louis XVI., betrayed Louis XVI., and who to wipe away his disgrace made the 10th August."

"With the people."

"Monsieur, the people did what they were made to do! See your two faubourgs, the Faubourg Saint Marceau and the Faubourg Saint Antoine so disturbed under Alexandre and Santerre, do they stir today when my hand is over them ? I do not know the third fanatic, a M. Florent Guyot, but I know Malet and Servan; would you set those two at defiance ! beside one is a general, the other a colonel; it is a bad example under a military government, for two officers to conspire."

"Sire, an eye shall be kept upon them."

"And now, Monsieur, there remains for me to make a reproach more grave than I have yet addressed you."

Fouche bowed like a man who awaits.

"What have you done with the public mind, sir ?"

Fouche understood perfectly; only, to have time to answer he pretended not to have heard aright.

"The public mind ?" repeated he; "I must ask what your Majesty means ?"

"I mean," resumed Napoleon, whose anger passed all words, "you have allowed minds to wander upon the events of the day, you have permitted them to interpret my last campaign, marked at each step by success, as a campaign overflowing with reverses. Such are the words by which Paris elevates the foreigner ! Do you know from whence they come ? From Saint Petersburg. I have enemies whom you give free speech; you let them say that my authority is enfeebled, that the nation is disgusted at my policy, that my means of action are diminished; the result is, Austria, who believes all this idle talk, deems the moment favorable and would attack me--but, enemies without or within, I will exterminate all ! By the bye, you received my letter the 31st of December ?"

"Which, sire ?"

"Dated from Benevent."

"That in which there was question of the sons of emigres ?"

"You seem to have forgotten it a little."

"Would your Majesty have me repeat it word for word ?"

"I will not be displeased at assuring myself of your memory. Let us have it."

"First," said Fouche, drawing a portfolio from his pocket, "here's the letter."

And he took the letter from the portfolio,

"Ah, ah!" said Napoleon, "you have it about you ?"

"Your Majesty's autographical correspondence never quits me, sire. When I was prefect with the Oratorians, I every morning read my breviary; since I have become Minister of Police, I each morning read your Majesty's letters. Here," continued Fouche without opening the letter, "here is what this dispatch contains--"

"Oh, sir, it is not the text I want, it is the substance."

"Well. Your Majesty said that the families of emigres have kept their children from the conscription; he added that he desired me to draw up a list of ten of these families from each department and of fifty from Paris, that there might be sent to the military school of Saint Cyr all the young men of those families who should be of the age of eighteen years. Your Majesty added besides that, if they lodged any complaints, I was to purely and simply reply that it was his pleasure."

"That is correct ! I do not wish, by the division of families which are not in the system, a fraction of France, minute though it be, to keep back efforts which make the present generation form the glory of the generation to come--now go, that is all I have to say."

Fouche bowed; but as he did not retire with the promptitude of a dismissed man, Napoleon inquired:

"Well?"

"Sire, returned the Minister, "your Majesty has told me many things to prove that my police is badly formed."

"Well ?"'

"I will state one fact alone to prove the contrary. At Bayonne your Majesty stopped two hours."

"Yes."

"Your Majesty had a report presented him,"

"A report ?"

"Yes, upon things he believes he has against me, a report desiring me to be revoked and replaced by M. Savary."

"Is that report signed ? "

"It is signed, sire; and just as I have upon me your Majesty's letters, your Majesty has that report--there, sire, in the left pocket of your coat."

And, with his finger, Fouche designated the part of the uniform where was situated the. pocket.

"You see, sire," added he, "that my police is as well made as upon certain points, are those of M. Lenoir and M. Sartine."

And without waiting for the Emperor's reply, Fouche, who was near the door, disappeared.

Napoleon said nothing; only he put his hand in the pocket, drew out a sheet of paper folded twice, unfolded it, cast his eyes upon it, then turning to the door, he said, with an almost imperceptible smile:

"Ah ! you are right; you are still the most skillful."

And added in a lower tone:

"Why are you not also honest ?"

Then tearing the paper, he threw the fragments into the fire.

At this moment the usher announced:

"His Excellency the Grand Chamberlain."

And the smiling face of the Prince of Benevento appeared behind that of the usher.

Poets invent nothing.

When, accompanying the Prussian armies who went to fight at Valmy, Goethe, that prince of doubt, that king of sophism, wrote his drama of Faust, he never surely imagined that God had already created his human hero as well as his diabolical character, and that the two were incessantly appearing upon the scene, the one with his dreamy brow, the other with his cloven foot.

Only, the Faust of God was called Napoleon; only, the Mephistopheles of God was called Talleyrand.

As Faust was sounding the depths of science, Napoleon was exhausting politics; and as Mephistopheles caused Faust's ruin by saying: "again! again!" so did Talleyrand lose Napoleon by saying: "Always! always!"

The same also as Faust, in his moments of disgust, endeavored to deliver himself from. Mephistopheles, Napoleon, in his hours of doubt, attempted to withdraw himself from Talleyrand; but, as if they were bound to each other by an infernal compact, they were not separated, but when the soul of the dreamer, the poet, the conqueror, fell into the abyss.

Perhaps, of the three persons sent for by the Emperor, that heart which beat the quickest was that of M. de Talleyrand; but, to a certainty, it was he who presented himself with the most smiling air.

Napoleon regarded him with a sort of nervous shudder; then, extending his hand that he might penetrate no farther into the cabinet, he said:

"Prince de Benevento, I have but two words to say to you. What I most of all in the world detest are not those persons who disavow me; but those who, to disavow me, disavow themselves. You say all around that you are a stranger to the Duke d'Enghein's death; above all you repeat that you are a stranger to the war with Spain. A stranger to the Duke d'Enghein's death ? you counseled it in writing ! a stranger to the Spanish war ? I have letters in which you adjured me to recommence the policy of Louis XIV ! Monsieur de Talleyrand, to fail in memory is a great defect in my eyes; you will send me tomorrow your key as chamberlain, which not only is destined, but has already been given beforehand to M. de Montesquiou."

Thereupon, without adding a word, without dismissing the Prince, without taking leave of him, Napoleon left the cabinet by the door which led to Josephine's apartments.

M. de Talleyrand staggered as on the day when, upon the steps of the Church of St. Dennis, he had received a cuff from Maubreuil; but, this time, the shock only hurt his fortune, and the Grand Chamberlain reckoned, as Mephistopheles upon Faust, upon gaining back more than he had lost.

And now our readers will recollect that, in that same night, Napoleon had said to Cambaceres that he would be before the end of April upon the Danube with four hundred thousand men; that is why, on the 11th April, in the morning, all the population of Donauwerth crowded the streets and squares of the city

It expected Napoleon.

TOWARD nine o'clock of the morning, a great movement swayed the throng, and cries, running like flame along a train of powder, from the extremity of the Street of Dillingen toward the center of the town, announced that something new had happened.

What had occurred was this; a courier clad in green and gold lace, preceded the Emperor's coach, which was coming half a league behind him.

He rapidly crossed the Street of Dillingen, making signs with his whip for the crowd to open and give him passage; then he proceeded up the streets which mounted to the upper city; reappeared upon the castle square, and was buried under the massive portal of the former Abbey of Holy Cross, become the royal palace.

It was here that lodgings had been prepared for the Emperor, and that Berthier awaited,

The courier's arrival had brought, however, no news to the Prince of Neuchatel: holding an excellent glass, and mounted upon the abbey roof, he had, ten minutes before the courier's coining, descried the imperial coaches advancing at full speed along the highway.

On April the 9th, the Archduke Charles sent the following letter, addressed to the "General-in-Chief of the French Army." The letter bore no other direction; was it the Emperor Napoleon whom the Archduke Charles designated by this title, and was the Marquis de Buonaparte for him as for the Abbe Loriquet, only the General-in-Chief of his Majesty Louis XVIII ? If thus it was, the Archduke inclined to stubbornness ! Whether it was the General-in-Chief, the Marshal, the Prince, the King or the Emperor who was designated by that title, here is what the letter contained:

"After the declaration of his Majesty, the Emperor of Austria, I warn M. the General-in-Chief of the French Army, that I have the order to proceed onward with the troops placed under my command, and treat as enemies all those who offer me resistance."

This letter was dated the 9th; on the evening of the 12th, the Emperor Napoleon, at that moment at the Tuileries, had been informed by a telegraphic despatch, of the commencement of hostilities.

He set off on the morning of the 13th, and on the 16th, reached Dillingen, where he had fought the King of Bavaria, who had abandoned his capital, and retired twenty leagues from it.

Fatigued with his seventy-two hours' march, Napoleon had stopped at Dillingen to pass the night, and had promised to restore the fugitive king to his capital before fifteen days.

Then, at seven in the morning, he had again set off, and, doubtless wishing to regain that lost night, he had ridden with slackened bridle.

He passed through the streets like a lightning flash, climbed the mountain's steep without relaxing the pace of the horses, and finally put foot to ground in the castle court, at the foot of the staircase where the Major-General awaited him.

Compliments were brief with Napoleon; he let fall one "Good day, Berthier !" which the Prince of Neuchatel received grumbling and biting his nails as habitual to him, made a sign of the hand to the staff, and guided by a dozen domestics placed like stakes driven into the ground for landmarks, he darted toward the apartment which had been prepared for him.

A large map of Bavaria, on which each tree, torrent, valley, village, every house even, indicated, awaited him, ready opened on an

immense table,

Napoleon ran to the table, while an aide-de-camp laid upon a stand the travelling portfolio, and the servant drew the bed from its leathern wrapper, and arranged it in a corner of the saloon.

"Well," said he to Berthier, putting his finger upon Donauwerth, otherwise upon the place he was now in; "are you in communication with Davoust ?"

"Yes, sire," rejoined Berthier.

"With Massena ?"

"Yes, sire."

"With Oudinot ?"

"Yes, sire."

"All's right, then. Where are they ?"

"Marshal Davoust is at Ratisbon, Marshal Massena and General Oudinot are at Augsburg; the officers sent by each of them awaited your Majesty to give him news."

"Have you sent spies out ?"

"Two have already returned; I expect soon the third, the most skilful."

"What are you to do ?"

"I shall, as closely as possible, conform to your Majesty's plans, which are to march direct from Ratisbon upon Vienna by the high road of the Danube, confiding to the stream the sick, the wounded, and all the weighty portions of the army."

"Good ! the boats will not fail you; I have brought up all that could he found upon the rivers and streams of Bavaria and they should descend into the Danube as soon as they cross the tributary streams; lately I have brought twelve hundred of my best Boulogne seamen in case we have a battle upon the islands. Have you purchased the picks and shovels ?"

"Fifty thousand; is that enough ?"

"It is not too much--to conclude, what have you done since the evening of the thirteenth you were here ?"

"I first of all ordered a concentration of all the troops at Ratisbon--"

"Did you not receive my letter which ordered you, on the contrary, to unite them at Augsburg ?"

"I did, sire; I, consequently, countermanded the order, and sent Oudinot and his men, they having already started; but I believed it my duty to leave Davoust at Ratisbon."

"Then the army is divided into two masses: one at Ratisbon, the other at Augsburg ?"

"With the Bavarians between the two."

"Has there been any collision in any spot ?"

"Yes, at Landshut."

"Between whom ?"

"Between the Austrians and the Bavarians ?"

"What division ?"

"The division Duroc."

"Are the Bavarians well conducted ?"

"Perfectly, sire; nevertheless, they were obliged to fall back from four times their number."

"Where are they at this moment ?"

"Here, sire, in the forest of Durnbach, protected by the Abens."

"What number are they ?"

"To the number of about twenty seven thousand."

"And where is the Archduke ?"

"Between the Isar and Ratisbon, sire; but the country is so covered, that it is impossible to have positive information."

"Bid the officer who came from Marshal Davoust enter."

Berthier transmitted the order to an aide-de-camp, who opened a door, and introduced a young officer of the light horse, appearing to be from twenty-five to twenty-six years of age.

The Emperor cast upon the newcomer a rapid glance and made a satisfied sign; it was impossible to see a finer and more elegant horseman.

"You come from Ratisbon, Lieutenant ?" said the Emperor.

"Yes, sire," returned the young officer.

"At what hour did you start ?"

"At one of the morning, sire,"

"Are you sent by Davoust ?"

"Yes, sire."

"In what situation was he at the moment of your departure ?"

"Sire, he had with him four divisions of infantry, one of cuirassiers, one of light cavalry."

"In all ?"

"About fifty thousand men, sire; only Generals Nansouty and Espagne, with the heavy cavalry and a portion of the light cavalry; General Demont, with the four battalions and the park, have taken the left of the Danube."

"Was the concentration around Ratisbon made without difficulty ?"

"Sire, the divisions Gudin, Morand and St. Hilaire arrived without firing a shot; but the division Friant, which covered them, has constantly been skirmishing with the enemy, and, although it has destroyed all the bridges of the Wils behind it, it is probable that today Marshal Davoust will be attacked at Ratisbon."

"How many hours did it take you to come from Ratisbon here ?"

"Seven hours, sire."

"The distance is--"

"Twenty-two leagues."

"Are you too much fatigued to take the saddle again in two hours ?"

"His Majesty knows well that no one is ever fatigued in his service. Let another horse be given me and I will go when your Majesty pleases."

"Your name ?"

"Lieutenant Richard."

"Go, and lie down for two hours. Lieutenant; but be ready in two hours."

Lieutenant Richard saluted and then went out.

At this moment an aide-de-camp came to speak to Berthier in a low tone.

"Let Marshal Massena's envoy enter," said the Emperor.

"Sire," responded Berthier, "I do not think it necessary; I questioned him and drew from him all it is useful to know; Massena is at Augsburg with Oudinot, Molitor, Boudet, the Bavarians and the Wurtemburgers, that is to say with about ninety thousand men. But I believe I have something better to offer your Majesty."

"What ?"

"The spy has returned."

"Ah!"

"He passed through the Austrian lines."

"Let him come in."

"Your Majesty knows that these men often refuse to speak before many persons."

"Leave me alone with him."

"Does not your Majesty fear--"

"What have I to fear ?"

"They speak of illuminati, of fanatics."

"Let him enter first and I will see if you may leave me alone with him."

Berthier went and opened a little door giving entrance to a cabinet and drew out a man of thirty years of age, clad in the dress of a woodcutter of the Black Forest.

The man made a few steps into the chamber, then he stopped before Napoleon and, making the military salute, said:

"May God preserve your Majesty from all evil."

The Emperor eyed him attentively.

"Oh, oh ! it seems we are acquainted, my man!"

"Sire, it is I who, the eve of Austerlitz, gave you, at the bivouac, information upon the positions of the Russian and Austrian army."

"Information perfectly exact, Master Schlick."

"Ah, time and thunder !" cried the false woodcutter employing the oath most used by the Germans, "the Emperor remembers me ! All's right, then !"

"Yes," said the Emperor, "all is right." And, making a sign to the chief of staff, he added:

"I think you can without inconvenience leave me alone with this man."

This was probably the thought of the Prince of Neuchatel also; for he withdrew with his aide-de-camps without making the least observation.

"First of all," said the Emperor "let us get on more quickly. Can you give me news of the Archduke ?"

"Of him or of his army, sire ?"

"Of both, it possible."

"Yes, sire, I can tell you of both; I have one of my cousins who serves in his army and my brother-in-law who is his valet-de-chambre."

"Where is he, and where is the greater part of his army ?"

"Without reckoning General Beilegarde's fifty thousand men who march from Bohemia to the Danube, and who ought, at Ratisbon, exchange cannon-shot with Marshal Davoust, the Archduke has under his hand one hundred and fifty thousand men; the 10th of last April, the Prince with sixty thousand men, crossed the Inn."

"Can you follow upon a map all the movements which you name ?"

"Why not ? one has been to school, thank heaven ?"

The Emperor pointed out to the spy the map spread upon the table.

"Then, look out the Inn upon that map."

The spy had only need to throw a glance upon it, and put his finger between Passau. and Tittmaning.

"It was here, sire," said he, "that the Archduke crossed the river; at the same time General Hohenzollern, with thirty thousand men, passed it above Mulheim; lastly, another body of forty thousand men, commanded--I can't say by whom, for I was by the Archduke, whom I never lost sight of, crossed the river at Scharding."

"Near the Danube, therefore ?"

"Precisely, sire."

"But how is it that, having passed the Inn on the 10th, the Austrians are not farther advanced ?"

"Ah! because they were benumbed with cold and remained for four days between the Inn and the Isar; it was but yesterday that they passed the Isar before Landshut, and there they were warmed--"

"By the Bavarians ?"

"By the Bavarians; only, as the latter, with their twenty-seven or twenty-eight thousand men, could not resist, they retired into the forest of Durnbach."

"So we are no more than a dozen leagues from the enemy ?"

"Not so much as that even ! for, since the morning he has been marching. It is true that one cannot march quickly when one is forced to cross a network of little rivers, like the Abens, to the left the great and little Labor; to the right, woods, swamps and marshes, and they have only two causeways, that from Landshut at Neustadt, and that from Landshut at Kelheim,"

"There remains to him still that of Eckmuhl, which leads more directly to Ratisbon."

"Sire, I saw the Austrian troops moving on the two other roads, and knowing that your Majesty should be today at Donauwerth and that he would wish to have news, I set out and here I am."

"That is right; you have not told me much; but I have learnt what you know."

"Will not your Majesty ask me other questions ?"

"Of what ?"

"Of the state of the country, for instance; upon the secret societies, the holy Vehm."

"What ! you are paying attention to that sort of business, are you?"

"I take care of all in my line."

"Well, I ask nothing better than to know what Germany thinks of us."

"She is simply exasperated against the French, who, not content with beating and humiliating her, occupy and devour her."

"These Germans of yours don't know Marshal Saxe's proverb: 'War must nourish war' "

"Excuse me, sire, they do know it; but they would rather have themselves nourished than nourish others. Thus, sire, they speak of freeing those princes who do not know how to deliver themselves from you."

"Ah, ah! by what means'"

"By two means; the first is general insurrection."

Napoleon made a movement of his lips which meant scorn.

"That might happen if I was beaten by the Archduke Charles; but--"

"But ?" repeated the spy. "But I shall beat him," said Napoleon, "and consequently the insurrection will not take place. Pass on to the second means of deliverance."

"The second is a stab of a knife, sire." "Bah ! they do not kill a man like me." "They killed Caesar." "Ah ! circumstances are different; then it was a piece of good luck for Caesar to be killed. He was something like fifty-three years of age, that is to say, the age when the genius of man commences to decline; he had always been fortunate: 'Fortune loves young men !' as Louis XIV. said to M. de Villeroy; she had perhaps turned her back on him. One or two defeats, and Caesar would no more have been an Alexander; he would have been a Pyrrhus or a Hannibal. He had the luck to find twenty fools who did not understand that Caesar was not a Roman, but was the soul of Rome; they slew the Emperor, but from the very blood of the Emperor, was born the Empire ! Be easy, I am not of the age of Caesar; France is not, in 1800, what Rome was in the year 44 B.C. I they will not kill me, Master Schlick."

And Napoleon began laughing at this historical outbreak he had made before a peasant; it is true that he had answered less to that peasant than to his own thought.

"That is all possible," returned Schlick; "but I no less caution your Majesty to pay attention to those hands which approached too near, and above all, when those hands belong to the members of the Union of Virtue."

"I thought all these associations extinct."

"Sire, the German Princes and Queen Louise, especially, have rekindled them with vigor; so that at this hour there are, perhaps, in Germany, two thousand young men who have vowed to assassinate you."

"And has this sect places of meeting ?"

"Undoubtedly; not only points of Union, but, moreover, its formulas, its initiations, its devices, its signs of recognition."

"How do you know all this ?"

"I am one of it."

Napoleon, despite himself, made a step back.

"Oh, fear nothing, sire. I am, like the buckler is for the armor--to parry the blows."

"And where do the members meet ?"

"Wherever there is a ruin or a cave; the Germans are great lovers of the picturesque, as your Majesty knows, and they mingle poetry with everything. For example, if your Majesty goes to Abensberg, and visits the old castle, the castle in ruins which crowns the mountains and overlooks the Abens--well, in one of its halls I was received, eight days ago."

"Well and good;" said Napoleon; "without giving the intelligence more attention than it deserves, I shall not neglect it. Go ! I will look to you when I have need of you."

Schlick saluted and left by the same door which had given him entrance.

Napoleon remained pensive.

"A knife-thrust !" murmured he, "he is right, 'tis soon given and as soon received ! Henry IV., also, prepared an expedition against Germany, when he was stabbed; but Henry IV. was of the age of fifty-seven years like Caesar, he has achieved his work. I!--I have not finished mine; and then great misfortunes do not come but when one is past fifty; Hannibal, Mithridates, Caesar, Henry IV. There was Alexander, who died at three-and-thirty years," added he, "but to die like Alexander is not a misfortune."

At this moment an aide-de-camp entered.

"What is it ?" demanded Napoleon.

"Sire," said the aide-de-camp, "it's an officer arriving from the Italian army, and coming from the Viceroy. Does your Majesty wish to see him ?"

"Yes, this instant !" said Napoleon, "bid him enter."

"Enter, sir," said the aide-de-camp.

The officer appeared upon the sill of the door, holding his three-cornered hat in his hand.

He was a young man of from twenty-five to twenty-six years of age, wearing the uniform of the officers of the Viceroy's staff, to wit, a blue coat with silver shoulder-knots, and the collar broidered with silver.

As for his appearance, there must something peculiar have existed in it, for, on seeing him, Napoleon who was on the point of speaking, stopped short; then, eyeing the young man from head to foot, he inquired:

"What is the object of this masquerade, sir ?"

The young man looked round about him to be sure that this question was addressed to him: but seeing that he was alone with the Emperor, he said:

" Sire, excuse me; I do not understand."

"Why have you this blue coat on, instead of the green one you wore just now ?"

"Sire, since the two years I have had the honor to form a part his Highness the Viceroy's staff, I have worn no other dress than that under which I have the honor of presenting myself to you."

"Since when have you arrived ? "

"I just got down from my horse, sire."

"Whence came you ?"

"From Pordenone."

"What's your name ?"

"Lieutenant Richard."

Napoleon looked at the young man with still more attention.

"Have you some letters from Eugene for me ?"

"Yes, sire."

At the same time the young man drew from his pocket a letter bearing the arms of the Viceroy of Italy.

"What if this letter had been taken from you," asked Napoleon, "or it had been lost ?"

"His Highness made me learn it by heart,"

"But, sir," said Napoleon, "will you tell me how it is that an hour ago you came from Ratisbon in the costume of a light horseman of the guard, and how, ten minutes ago, you came from Pordenone in the dress of an officer of Eugene's staff ? how, in short, are you charged at the one time to give me news from Davoust and from the Viceroy of Italy ?"

"I beg your pardon, sire, but did not your Majesty say that an hour ago there arrived, coming from Marshal Davoust, an officer of the guard ?"

"An hour ago, yes."

"About five or six-and-twenty years ?"

"Of your age."

"Who resembles me ? "

"So as to be taken for you."

"And he is called ?--your Majesty will excuse my questioning him, but I am so glad !"

"He is called Lieutenant Richard."

"He is my brother, sire I my twin brother ! it's five years since we saw each other."

"Ah ! I comprehend--well, you shall see him."

"Oh, sire, let me embrace him Dear Paul and I will go anywhere on the instant after."

"Are you in a state to journey again ?"

"Sire, I hope to have the honor of bearing your orders."

"Well ! go and embrace your brother, and hold yourself ready to start."

The young man, at the summit of his joy, saluted and went out.

Napoleon, once more alone, unsealed the letter.

Upon the first lines, his brow became clouded.

"Oh, Eugene! Eugene!" said he, "my weakness for you has blinded me; a good colonel, not so good a general, and a bad general-in-chief! The Army of Italy in retreat upon Sacile, all of a rear guard destroyed by the fault of General Sahuc! Luckily I shall have no need of the Army of Italy--Berthier! Berthier!"

The chief of the staff appeared.

"My plan is stopped," said Napoleon.

"Have ten couriers ready to bear my orders, let each order be tripled and sent to its destination by three different roads."

WHILE Napoleon gives to ten different messengers orders whose results we shall soon see; while the two brothers, Paul and Louis Richard, who have not met for five years, and whose astonishing resemblance had led to the singular quid pro quo which was produced under our eyes, are throwing themselves into each other's arms, with the feeling of two brothers who at any moment may be separated by a ball or a bullet, let us see what passes in the little town of Abensberg, situated about seven or eight leagues from Ratisbon.

Four young men from sixteen to eighteen years of age, belonging, one to the University of Heidelberg, the other to the University of Leipsic, the third to the University of Tubingen, the fourth to the University of Gottingen, are walking along, arm-in-arm, singing the march of Major Schill, who came to uprear at Berlin the standard of revolt against Napoleon.

At the sound of this march, another young man of about twenty or twenty-one years of age, seated near a young girl of sixteen years who was embroidering at a tambourine-frame whilst her sister, a child of nine years, played in a corner with her doll, started, rose and went to the window.

At the moment when the four singers passed, they perceived his brow, which had become slightly pale in a second riveted to the glass, and they made him a sign which he replied to with another almost imperceptible. The young girl, on seeing him rise, had followed him with her eyes and, skillfully as had been made the sign by which he had answered, she had remarked it.

"What is it, Frederic ?" inquired she.

"Nothing, my dear Margaret," replied the young man, resuming his seat beside her.

The young girl whom we designate by the name of Margaret was, in all respects, worthy to bear that name, if we give it for patron the poetic creation of Goethe's which was then quite the rage in Germany.

She was fair as a true daughter of Arminius, with blue eyes the color of the sky; her long hair, when untwisted, would fall to the ground, and, when she bent over the bank of the Abens to look like an undine into the transparent river, the water, which murmuring with astonishment, went to flow into the Danube, believed it was reflecting the image of some woman turned to a flower, or some flower transformed into a woman.

Her sister was yet only one of those white and rosy children who play upon the golden sands which destiny scatters from heaping hands upon the delicious path over which one enters life.

As for the student who, on hearing Major Schill's March, had flattened his face against the window-pane and who, on Margaret's call had seated himself by her side, he was, as we have said, a young man of twenty, of middling stature, a little thin, either from fatigue or night studies, or from one of those terrible thoughts which shade the face of Cassius or Jacques Clements; his long light hair, curling naturally, fell upon his shoulders; his mouth was small, but firm in contour, and, when opened, displayed teeth white as pearls; an undefinable expression of melancholy overspread his countenance.

"Nothing,'' he had responded on coming to reseat himself by Margaret; but that reply had not encouraged the young girl; and though she had not answered and had, in appearance, resumed working with the utmost attention, Frederic, who enclosed her in his ardent regard, had seen two tears silently hang upon the long eyelashes, tremble and instant at their extremity like two pearls, and fall upon the carpet.

The little girl, who had quitted the corner where she had been playing to come and ask Margaret's advice upon her doll's dress, saw the tears fall also; for, with the indiscretion and simple curiosity of children, she inquired:

"Why are you weeping. Sister Margaret ? Has Frederic made you cry ?"

These words struck the student to the depths of his heart.

He knelt down at the young girl's feet:

"Oh Margaret ! dear Margaret," said he, "pardon me."

"Pardon what ?" demanded the young girl, casting upon her lover her fine eyes, still humid with that rain of the heart which is called tears.

"Pardon me my sadness, my preoccupation, my folly even !"

The young girl shook her head, but said nothing.

"Listen to me," resumed Frederic, "there may he a means yet for us to be happy."

"Oh, what is it ? say it !" rejoined the maiden; "and if it is in my power for me to give you happiness, if I must sacrifice my life, you shall be happy, Staps !"

"Well, obtain from your father the permission for our marriage without delay, and, once married, let us fly ! let us quit Germany; let us go into some corner of the world where that man's name has not been heard."

"You require two impossible things, my poor Frederic," responded the young girl. "Leave my father ! you well know, when you told me for the first time that you loved me, and when I, in my heart's simplicity said that I also loved you, you know well that an indisputable condition was attached by me to our union."

"Yes," said Fritz, rising and pressing his head between his two hands; "yes, not to quit your father, it is true."

And, after making a few steps into the chamber, he fell, near the window, upon a large armchair.

The young girl rose in her turn, and went to kneel before him.

"Fritz," said she, "be reasonable! you know our position; you know my father's scanty fortune; my mother, on dying, left him with a child in the cradle, and I have taken her place in the cares of the house and those which Lieschen must receive--"

"I know, Margaret, you are an angel, and you learn nothing new when I say that."

"I should have believed you had forgotten that, nevertheless, Frederic, when you propose our marriage, for us to fly, for me to abandon my father."

"But if your father consents?"

"Oh, selfish heart !" said the young girl. "There's no doubt he would consent, because in one hand be would hold my happiness, in his other his isolation, and be would rather live alone than have his daughter unhappy."

"He would not live alone, Margaret, for little Lieschen would he with him."

"And what service could that little child of eight years render him, if he could exist an impossible life ? My fathers curacy brings him in four hundred thalers; well, thanks to my economy, that sum suffices for the needs of us three; but, when another person would be here, four hundred thalers would not be enough for two."

"My parents have some fortune, Margaret: they will make a sacrifice, and your father shall want for nothing."

"What of his daughter, ingrate ? what of his daughter whom you bereave him of ? O Staps, when you entered this house that fine spring morning; when you saluted the inmates with the friendly words: 'God and happiness be with pure hearts and humble fortunes !' you should have said: 'M. Stiller, you are receiving a man who will love your daughter Margaret--and who, when he shall be beloved by her, in recompense for your paternal welcome, your cordial hospitality will do all he can to take away your daughter, under the pretext that he can only be happy in a country where the name of Napoleon has not resounded.' "

"Oh, Margaret--Margaret ! I cannot, nevertheless, be happy but on that condition, I swear to you; and, beside," muttered he, in a scarcely intelligible voice, "I shall not be happy but by breaking the most holy oaths !"

It may be that Margaret had not heard the second portion of the phrase which the young man had forced through his closed teeth, or it may be that, having heard them, she had not understood; in either case, however, she only replied to the first part.

"You can only be happy in a land where the name of the terrible Emperor has never been heard, you say ? Where is this land ? in what part of the world is it situated ? You have doubtless some way, poor dear insane one, to reach one of the stars which twinkle above our heads; and yet, who can say that the inhabitants of those planets do not hang over to see what happens in our world ?"

"You are right," responded Frederic, attempting to smile; "and it is I who am a madman."

" No, Fritz," said Margaret, with profound sadness "no, you are not a madman. I know what you are."

"Margaret--"

"You are a conspirator, Fritz."

"Do they call him a conspirator who would free his country ?" cried the young man, and from his eyes was ejected a double flame.

"They call conspirator him who forms part of a secret society or of a mysterious brotherhood. Can you look me in the face and dare you say that you do not belong to the Burschenshaft.*"

* Burschenschaft: a union of all the universities in one general fraternity.

"Why should I deny it ? All Germany's loyal hearts are with us."

"Dare you say, Frederic, that Major Schill's March which you heard, which made you start, rise and go to the window, is not a signal ?"

"Margaret," rejoined Fritz, "see how I love you, and how that love I bear to you is ready to make me do shameful things. Yes, I do belong to the Union of Virtue; yes, I am one of the wissende; † yes, that march is a signal; yes, what you have not said, the Antichrist is but eight leagues from us; well, if you tell me: 'Frederic, let us go and be happy ! let us live one for the other, and one by the other !' I will forget my friends--my oaths; I will forget Germany, and go with you, Margaret, leaving my name to be nailed with a dagger to the defaming tree ! Dare you say, now, that I love you not !"

†Wissende: those who know or are in a secret; a term which comes down from the ancient Tribunal of the Fehm Gericht.

"In you turn, Frederic, you shall see if I do not love you also. Why do you not take a gun ? why are you not in the ranks of the defenders of Germany ? why are you not fighting in the name of your country ? you risk your life, it is true; but all Germans owe their lives to Germany."

"So have I thought, Margaret; but that man is enchanted: like the old knights of our legends, be passes through the midst of fire, balls and bullets, and the fire is extinguished, the balls fall short, the bullets go wide of the mark !"

"Yes, but is the steel more sure ?"

"Margaret--"

"Fritz, here's my father ! for heaven's sake, hide from him what you have not concealed from me: he will curse thee and drive thee away !"

"Is he then, so bad a German and so good a Frenchman ?" said Fritz, with a bitter smile.

"He is neither German nor French, he is a Christian! he deplores all wars which sovereigns style glorious encounters, and which he calls cruel butcheries, and his good heart has wished the realization of that impossible dream, the seeing men loving instead of hating each other !"

And, while little Lieschen, leaving her doll and playthings, ran to meet Pastor Stiller, Margaret resumed her work upon which rolled two new tears which she did not even try to conceal like the previous ones.

The pastor entered, very sad--almost dejected. He embraced his two daughters and held out his hand to Frederic.

"Well," demanded Staps, "what news ?"

"Hark !" said the pastor, "listen."

Every one lent the ear and they heard the Austrian trumpeters sounding Lutzow's March.

"Ah," cried Frederic with joy, "here at last are the avengers !"

And he rushed out of the house, to be one of the first, to welcome those soldiers whom the Archduke Charles entitled the Savers of Germany.

They were the men of the Austrian General Thierry, who was going to take his position at Arnhofen.

On the very instant even, scouts were sent out toward Ratisbon.

The result of their inquiries was that Napoleon had that very morning arrived at Donauwerth.

It would be difficult to tell the impression which this news had upon the Austrian soldiers; but, unquestionably it had the influence to exalt the hatred of the students of the different universities who, no one knew why, for some time since had seemed to be assembling in the little town of Abensberg.

A second time four students, arm in arm, passed through the place singing Major Schill's March, as If they feared it had not been heard the first time.

Aside from the tidings of Napoleon's arrival at Donauwerth, all other news was vague: the Austrian officers, and even the general himself, had not one certain detail upon the position of the French army; they only knew that the greater portion of the troops were at Ratisbon and Augsberg,

They made a halt; they hesitated to venture, without more positive information, into the country thickly wooded and intersected by many little rivers.

Night came; the posts were placed with all the precautions of watch-words and countersigns which are taken before an enemy. The sentinels were all over, even on the draw-bridge of the old castle in the ruins of Abensberg.

The sentinels were every hour relieved. He who watched from midnight to one of the morning, at the post of the old castle, saw, at that moment when the last stroke of twelve sounded, two men enveloped in cloaks approaching him.

He cried: "Who goes there ?"

"Friends !" replied in German one of the two men.

Then, nearing the sentinel and opening his mantle to prove that he did not bear arms either offensive or defensive, he gave the watchword with such exactness that the sentinel made no attempt to stop the passage of him and his companion.

Five minutes after, another man appeared.

The same challenge was said, the like precautions taken and the same answer returned.

Fourteen persons alike wrapped up in brown mantles, passed in this manner between midnight and a quarter of an hour later, marching sometime one by one, again two together and often by threes, but nevermore.

Once past the sentinel, each of these mysterious personages drew a black mask from under his mantle and fitted it to his face.

A quarter after twelve rang out at the moment when the two last presented themselves, making the number sixteen.

These latter are the ones we will follow.

Like the others, they crossed the draw-bridge; like the others, they entered the ruins; but, on reaching a gigantic pillar which seemed of itself to support the whole vault, the one of the two men who went before the other, stopped.

"Lieutenant," said he in French, in a low tone, "do not forget that it is no schoolboy's prank we are playing; either of us recognized, we are dead men."

"I know it," responded the second; "but do you believe they will recognize me by my accent?"

"Oh, no ! you speak German like a native, and if you are recognized it will not be by your words."

"Then, by what will they find me out ? It is not from my face, since we are masked."

"The moment will come when you must unmask."

"This is the first time I ever was in Abensberg, and I was in Ratisbon since yesterday only."

"Have you seriously reflected ?"

"I have reflected."

"Again I remind you that it is no childish game they play there, although they are boys who play it; it is a life or death affair; upon a suspicion, you will be stabbed !"

"You speak of life as if it were an important thing to one who risks his any day upon the battle-field."

"On the field of battle, yes, 'tis all very well, in broad daylight, to gain a second epaulette or a cross; but here, if the worst comes, it is darkly the thing happens, in the gloom, at the bottom of a cave ! No one delights in being struck in the back or strangled like a Russian czar or an Ottoman vizier."

"Master Schlick," said, in a firm voice, he in whom the other thought to inspire fears, "I have received a mission and I shall accomplish it."

"Be it so," returned the spy, "I have warned you, you are free to do as you please."

"I am warned."

"In case of danger, do not calculate upon my aid; I will only share your fate and not save you. I think much of the napoleons of his Majesty the Emperor of the French; but I think still more of my head."

"I claim nothing from you, but the thing you have engaged yourself to do, to wit, to introduce me among the brothers of the Union of Virtue, and present me to them as an adept."

"Remark that at the least danger I shall deny you and rather thrice than once, like St. Peter."

"I permit you to do so."

"So you persist ?"

"I persist."

"Then, say no more."

With these words. Master Schlick pushed a spring hidden in the sculpture of a pillar which turned upon itself, and discovered a narrow opening large enough for a man to pass.

A flight of stairs seemed to conduct to a subterranean hall; it was lit up by a lamp, suspended in the very inside of the pillar, which may have been a dozen feet in exterior circumference.

The guide, through the eyeholes in black mask, threw a last look upon his companion as if to say:

"There is time yet."

And, in truth, they were out of the sentinel's sight; not a sound was to be heard in the ruins, and a black sky, without moon or stars, seemed to weigh down upon the holes which the hand of time had made in the gigantic walls.

"Let us go on," said the one of the two companions who is unknown to us.

As if he had only waited for these last words, the guide stepped upon the winding stairs.

The stranger followed him.

Behind them the door closed.

Arriving at the bottom of the steps, he who served as guide to the other encountered a door of bronze, upon which he knocked three times at different equally distant intervals; each of the three blows resounded on the door as if the striker had beat an Indian tom-tom.

"Attention!" said Schlick, "the door will open, and the watcher awaits us on the other side."

The door indeed opened and a masked man presented himself at the opening; it was the watcher.

"What hour is it ?" demanded the watcher of the two companions.

"The hour when comes the day," responded Schlick.

What dost thou do so early in the morning ?"

"I rose with the day."

"What to do ?"

"To strike."

"Whence comest thou ?"

"From the west."

"By whom art thou sent ?"

"By the avenger."

"Give the proof of thy mission."

" 'Tis here."

And he presented to the watcher a little piece of wood of octagonal form, like those which hang to the keys of the German inns.

Upon this slip was written the word BADEN.

The watcher thereupon let this token of the newcomer's identity fall into an urn where had already been deposited the little boards of the brothers who had preceded Schlick.

"And this one," demanded the watcher of Schlick, as he pointed with his finger to the unknown, "who is he?"

"A blind man," replied the latter, in excellent German.

"What seekest thou here ?"

"Light."

"Hast thou a sponsor ?"

"Aye, he who proceeded me."

"Does he answer for thee ? "

"Ask that of him."

"Dost thou answer for him whom thou presentest, brother ?"

"I answer for him."

" 'Tis well," said the watcher; "let him enter the chamber of meditation. When the hour to receive him shall come, he will be called."

And opening a door sunken in the wall, he introduced Master Schlick's companion into a sort of dungeon illuminated by a lamp, and having no other furniture than a seat and a stone table, like those on which, according to the legend of the Rhine, is seated and sleeps in an enchanted slumber, which is to last until Germany awakes in one whole unity, the Emperor Frederic Barbarossa.

As for Schlick, leaving his young comrade to his meditations, he advanced toward a grating which gave entrance into the principal hall.

The grate, pushed by the watcher, opened before him.

THROUGH this grate one entered, as we have said, upon a subterranean hall; the chamber was called the hall of council; it was hung with black, and was lighted by a single lamp, which descended from the ceiling, sustained by an iron chain.

Beneath the lamp was a heap of weapons composed of guns, swords, and pistols thrown there without order, but nevertheless disposed in such a manner that on the cry of alarm each one could on the instant, with a single bound, select the weapon most agreeable to him. The light of the lamp fell upon the barrels of guns and pistols, upon the blades of sabres and swords, and was reflected in menacing flashes.

On the other side of this pile of arms, in front of the grate, was a black marble table destined for the president of the gloomy assembly, and placed upon the stage three steps high.

Behind the table rose the high back of the presidential chair, surmounted with a bronze eagle which was neither the double-headed eagle of the old house of Hapsburg, the two-headed eagle of the old house of Russia, or the Byzantine eagle of Charlemagne; this seat served at once as chair and throne.

Sixteen small barrels of powder, placed circularly on each side of the pyramid of arms, were the seats of the affiliated; these barrels indicated that, in case of surprise, it would be the duty of the members of the association to blow up themselves and comrades rather than surrender.

A single door led to the hall.

Perhaps, under the black hangings we have mentioned, there existed other doors; but, if there were such, they were hidden from the eyes and were only known to the seers.

Just as the grating closed behind Schlick, the half hour of midnight was rung out from an invisible clock.

A masked man detached himself from one of the groups the members formed, and, mounting upon the platform, said:

"Brothers, hearken to me."

All were silent and they turned toward him who spoke.

"Brothers," repeated he, "the night advances, time passes."

Then, addressing the watcher, he asked:

"Watcher, how many seers ?"

"Sixteen, myself comprised," responded the other.

"Then the seventeenth is a traitor, a prisoner, or is dead," said the personage who had questioned him; "for who dares fail at this meeting, when its object is the deliverance of Germany ?"

"Brother,'' returned the watcher, "the seventeenth is not a traitor, or a prisoner, or is he dead; he mounts guard at the door under the uniform of an Austrian soldier."

"In that case the sitting may open ?"

The heads bowed in token of acquiescence.

"Brothers," continued the game orator," do not forget that, the same as each minister at the congress represents a king, so we here, represent a people. Watcher, read the names."

The watcher pronounced one after another the following names:

"Baden, Nassau, Hesse, Wurtemberg, Westphalia, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Bohemia, Spain, the Tyrol, Saxe, Luxemburg, Hanover, Holstein, Mecklenburg, Bavaria."

To each of these names, excepting that of Hanover, had the answer "Present" been made.

It was the representative of Hanover who stood sentinel outside.

"Draw one of the names from the urn," continued the man who had already spoken, "and the brother whose name it bears shall be our president."

The watcher plunged his hand into the urn and drew out a little wooden tablet.

"Hesse," said he.

"That is I," replied one of the men.

And whilst the brother who till then had presided, descended the three steps, the president who had been appointed by fate ascended and seated himself, with the marble table before him.

"Brothers," said he, "take your places."

The fifteen members sat down leaving one seat vacant; to wit that of the representative of Hanover.

"Brothers," said the president, "we are to receive a novice, and are to select by chance one of us who is to be the avenger. Let us first proceed with the reception and afterward draw lots. Who answers for the new brother ?"

"I," said Schlick rising.

"Who art thou ?"

"Baden."

" 'Tis well; let the two youngest brothers rise and go seek the candidate."

Each of the members said their ages aloud; then the two youngest, who were the representatives of Tyrol and Bavaria, being one of the age of twenty, the other of one-and-twenty years, rose and went to the neophyte, who an instant after appeared at the grating where his sponsor awaited him.

His eyes were bandaged.

Those who were with him conducted him into the hall some four or five paces, then turning away they returned to their places.

The sponsor of the new member alone remained with him.

A deep silence reigned around; all eyes were turned upon the neophyte; then, in the midst of the stillness, was heard the voice of the president, who demanded in an imperious voice:

"Brother, what hour is it ?"

"The hour when the master wakes and the slave sleeps," rejoined the candidate.

"Did you count the strokes ?"

"I have heard nothing since it rang for the master."

"When will you hear ?"

"When it shall have awakened the slave."

"Where is the master ?"

"At table."

"Where is the slave ?"

"On the ground."

"What drinks the master ?"

"Blood."

"What drinks the slave ?"

"Tears."

"What would you do to the two ?"

"I would seat the slave at the table and the master should lie on the earth."

"Are you master or are you slave ?"

"Neither one nor the other."

"What are you then ?"

"I am nothing yet; but I aspire to be something."

"What?"

"One who may see."

"Do you know the functions ?"

"I will learn them."

"Who will inform you ?"

"God."

"Have you weapons ?"

"I have this cord and dagger."

"What is that cord ?"

"The symbol of our strength and our union."

"What are you according to that symbol ?"

"I am one of the hempen threads whom the union has wrought and the strength has twisted."

"Why have you taken this cord ?"

" To bind and to strengthen."

"Why that dagger ?"

"To cut and to disunite."

"Are you ready to swear that you will make use of that cord and dagger against all condemned whose names shall be inscribed in the book of blood ?"

"Yes."

"Swear it."

"I swear it."

"Will you yield yourself to the cord and the steel if you should betray the oath which you are to make upon the blade and the cross ?"

"I will yield."*

" 'Tis well; you are received among the number of the friends of the Union of Virtue. And now you are free; accordingly as your heart is confiding or mistrustful, take off or keep on your mask."

The young man, without hesitation, with the one movement, took off both bandage and mask; at the same time he let fall his cloak.

"He who fears naught," said he, "may look and be looked at with uncovered face."

They then saw a handsome young man of from five to six-and-twenty years of age, with a military hearing, with blue eyes and deep nut-brown hair and mustache, clad in the complete apparel of a student, although. In all likelihood, he had quitted, for many years, the benches of the university.

But, at the moment when all eyes were turned on him, the door of bronze in the center pillar abruptly opened, and the seventeenth member, who represented Hanover and who had mounted guard without, entered in the greatest confusion.

"Brothers," cried he, "we are lost !"

"What do you mean ?" inquired the president.

"More than a hundred persons have entered the ruins, who have said the watchword, whom consequently I mistook for brothers and who are probably enemies who surround us !"

"Why do you believe that ?"

"Firstly, because you are but sixteen here."

"Well?"

" Then, relieved from my post, I entered the castle ruins in my turn but, instead of descending", I concealed myself behind a hillock, suspecting some treachery, and from thence spied who succeeded me, who I am sure is not one of us. At the end of a few instants, a troop of nearly fifty men, all armed came to him: the chief of the band advanced, and the sentinel let pass both troop and leader, who are dispersed throughout the ruins. Then I ran here to alarm you, and I hoped to arrive in time, if not to save you, at least to die with you. Then, to arms, brothers ! to arms !"

There was a moment of terrible confusion, during which each one ran to the arsenal and selected the weapon in the use of which he was most skilled. In the midst of the disorder, Schlick, approaching the candidate, said hurriedly to him:

"Put on your mask and endeavor to fly, the hall has many issues."

"I will put on my mask. but I shall not fly," replied the young man.

"Then arm yourself and fight !"

The young man darted toward the heap of arms; but, during his words with Schlick, short though they had been, his companions had taken away the guns and pistols; a sword only remained to him. During this time also, they had heard from without the pillar the clash of weapons, and suddenly through the door of bronze, which the representative of Hanover, in his precipitation, had not tightly shut, they saw appear the menacing points of bayonets.

"Fire !" cried the president.

Ten members of the cabal obeyed; but they only heard the strike of the flint upon the pan, and they saw but the sparks flying off from the shock.

"We are betrayed !" cried the students, "these muskets were discharged. To the secret doors, brothers ! to the secret doors !"

And the affiliated, like men who had foreseen the danger, rushed toward different points of the tapestry; but the tapestry was torn down in five or six places, on the moment, and through each they saw flash the steel of gun barrels and swords.

The students stopped and looked bewildered around them, they were enclosed in a circle of bayonets; a hundred and fifty soldiers in the Bavarian uniform enwrapped them.

"Brothers," said the president, "there remains to us but one thing, we can die !"

"Then in a lower tone, he commanded:

"Put fire to the powder !"

The order circulated in the ranks and as if they were receding before the bayonets, the conspirators, by a man ever as skillfully combined as the others, withdrew from the circumference to the center, followed and compressed by the Bavarian soldiers, who closed them in.

On reaching the middle, the students made ready artillery fusees prepared beforehand for this extremity, then each one lit his fusee and rushed toward the cask which served him as a seat.

But they gave vent to a cry of rage; for the match enclosing and rubbed in powder, had been substituted an ordinary match that would not take fire.

"Betrayed ! sold !" cried from all sides the students, throwing down their useless weapons.

"The devil !" exclaimed Schlick in his companion's ear, "it seems to me that all goes bad--it is true," added he, speaking still lower, "that we will get out of the affair; by saying who we are, since the Bavarians are your Emperor's allies."

And he went to mingle with the group of students.

At this moment the Bavarian soldiers were so close, that they had no more than five or six paces to make for the bayonets to touch the breasts of the eighteen conspirators.

"Gentlemen," said the Captain who commanded the troop: "in the name of King Maximilian of Bavaria, you are prisoners !"

" 'Tis true,?" said the president, "for we are under the reign of force; only we are prisoners, not persons who gave themselves up."

"That matters little to me," responded the officer: "I have not come to play upon words, but to do my duty by accomplishing the orders I have received."

"Friends," cried the president, "prisoners to the King of Bavaria, in the bands of the King of Bavaria about to die by the blows of the King of Bavaria, what is the judgment you mete out to him ?"

"The King of Bavaria," said a voice, "is a traitor."

"Who should be stricken off from the great Germanic family ?" said another.

"Who ceases to be a German prince and who shall hereafter sign himself: Ally of the French!"

"Whom all members of one of our human societies have the right to strike with the dagger."

"Whose heart all members of human society have the right to pluck out !"

"Silence !" said the officer. In a terrible voice.

"Germany forever !" cried as with one voice all the students.

"Silence," said the officer, "let every one of you form a line without resistance."

"So be it," said the president, "if we are to be shot. True soldiers of Germany to your ranks."

The members obeyed, taking their place with high head and defiant look.

The Captain drew a paper from his pocket and read:

"Captain Ernest de Muhldorf will take one hundred and fifty men and will surround the ruins of Abensberg Castle which serves as receptacle of a band of conspirators; he will arrest all those he finds in the place called the council hall, which was formerly the hall of the secret tribunal; he will have them placed in a line; if there are ten, he will shoot one; if twenty he will shoot two, and so on. The execution over, the others may be set at liberty."

"Munich, the 16th April, 1809."

"MAXIMILIAN"

"Germany forever !" was the prisoners' sole reply.

"Eh!" whispered Master Schlick to his companion," try to change your place, Lieutenant; I believe you're exactly the tenth."

But he to whom this warning had been made, gave no reply, and did not stir.

"Gentlemen," said the Captain, "I do not know who you are; but I am a soldier, and a soldier must do his duty. Military justice is rapid, and I am charged to do Justice."

"Do it !" returned one voice.

"Do it !" responded in chorus all the voices.

The Captain counted from right to left to the tenth.

As Schlick had said, his comrade, the new seer, was the tenth.

"Leave the ranks," said the Captain.

The young man obeyed.

"It is you who are to pay the tithe of blood, sir," said the Captain.

"Very well, sir," responded the candidate in a calm voice.

"Are you ready ?"

"Quite ready."

"Have you any requests to make ?"

"Not one."

"Have you no parents--no friends--no family ?"

"I have a brother. The man who introduced me ought to be free when I have paid for all; that man knows my brother and will tell him how I died."

"Are you Catholic or Protestant ?"

"Catholic."

"Perhaps you desire a priest."

"I risk death every day, and God, who rules my heart, knows I have nothing to reproach myself with."

"So you ask neither grace nor delay ?"

"I am taken with arms in my hands, conspiring against the ally of the King of Bavaria, and, in consequence, against the King of Bavaria himself--do with me as you will."

"Then prepare yourself to die."

"I have already told you I was ready."

"You are free to keep on your mask or take it off; if you keep it on you shall be buried with it and no one shall know who you are."

"But if I keep it on it will be believed I did so to prevent my pallor from being perceived; I take it off."

And the young man, tearing away the black covering, showed his smiling visage.

A murmur of admiration ran though the assemblage.

A Bavarian soldier approached the prisoner, holding in his hand a folded handkerchief.

The prisoner raised his hand and pushed aside the hand and the handkerchief.

"You asked me just now if I had not some request to make you," continued the young man with the same firmness of voice, the same dignity of look; "I have one."

"What is it?" demanded the Captain.

"I am a soldier like you, sir; an officer like you; I desire to have my eyes unbandaged, and ask to command the fire."

"Granted."

"Well, then," said the young man, "it is I who am waiting."

One of the affiliated left the ranks, and, extending his hand, said:

"Brother, In the name of Bavaria, I salute thee, martyr !"

The seventeen others did likewise, each in the name of a people.

The Captain did the same, vanquished, without doubt, by that all powerful feeling which is taken by courage upon a soldier's heart.

The prisoner went himself to the wall.

"Am I right here, Captain ?" inquired he.

The captain made an affirmative sign.

"Eight men," said the Captain.

Eight men advanced.

"Place yourselves ten paces from the condemned, in two rows, and obey the command."

The eight men went to the designated place.

"Are your guns loaded ?" demanded the condemned.

"Yes," responded the Captain.

"That will shorten my work," said the young man, smiling. Then. in a loud tone, he said:

"Attention, comrades !"

The eight men's eyes were fixed upon him.

"Carry arms !"

The soldiers obeyed the command.

"Present arms !"

The movement followed the order with true military precision.

"Butt to the cheek," continued the condemned.

The muzzles of eight guns were lowered and pointed to him.

"My sponsor," said he, with a smile, "bring a light near my face, so that you may witness if your son does you honor,"

"That is useless, sir," said the Captain; "we are sure you are a brave man."

"In that case, fire !"

The eight shots were fired, making but one detonation; but to the condemned man's great astonishment, he not only remained standing, but moreover was untouched and felt no pain.

"Germany forever," cried with one voice students and soldiers.

"What means this ?" exclaimed the young member, doubting his senses.

"The meaning is," said Schlick, "it is a proof, and one you have passed though gloriously !"

"Long live Germany !" repeated every voice.

"Now, brother," said to Schlick's candidate the same young man who had been the first to shake his hand, and salute him as martyr, "now, brother, it is permitted you to turn pale, you are not allowed to tremble."

The young officer came from the wall, and going to him who had just spoken, he took his hand, and, for all answer, applied it to his heart.

"I bow before you," said the other; "for my heart beats quicker than yours."

"And now, brothers," demanded the prisoner set free, the condemned returned to life, "have you no work to be done ?"

"Brothers," said the president to the Captain and his soldiers," you may retire, leave us alone, and watch over us."

The Captain and his men withdrew.

During this time, Schlick had approached his companion, and said in a low voice:

"Time and thunder ! you have a proud courage, and my belief is that from this day you have the right to call yourself Coeur de Lion."

The president followed with his eyes the brothers of an inferior order who had played the part of officers and soldiers, until the last had gone out.

Then turning to the seers, he said:

"Brothers, retake your places."

And he went to reseat himself in his chair, while each member of the association took the places they had quitted to face the danger.

"Silence !" said the president.

Sound seemed to die away, and all life appeared extinct, even to the beating of the heart.

"Avengers," said the president, "what hour is it ?"

One of the associates arose.

"Who is that who got up?" inquired Richard Coeur de Lion, of his sponsor.

"The accuser," rejoined Schlick.

The accuser responded to the president's demand in these words:

"It is the hour of resolution."

"Avengers, what is the weather ?"

"The tempest is ready to burst."

"Avengers, in whose hands is the thunderbolt ?"

"In the hands of God and in ours."

"Avengers, where is the holy Fehme ?"

"It died in Westphalia, it is revived in Bavaria."

"What proof have you of your words ?"

"This meeting itself."

"Brother, I give you permission to accuse. Accuse; we will judge."

"I accuse the Emperor Napoleon of undertaking the greatest crime that exists in a German's eyes, that of wishing to destroy the nationality of Germany. It is to destroy that nationality that he appointed his brother-in-law, Murat, Grand Duke of Berg; it is to destroy that nationality that he dethroned the Emperor Francis the Second, and put in his place his brother