diers, neatly drawn up in square, and armed with Chassepot rifles.

Colonel de Kerhoel had marshalled his men in such a way as to leave a clear road for any person or body of persons whose object was simply to pass by the church, but also in such a way as to oppose a simple, solid, thoroughly unengaging barrier to anybody who ruminated an attack. The experienced eye of Citizen Bilia took in all this at a glance. He was no fool; more were his men, for they, too, seemed struck by the practical character of the arrangements. However, for the dignity of the thing they kept on advancing, neither did they in any marked degree abate their howlings. These howls were a trifle less enthusiastic, that was all; and when they were all opposite the church together, they halted. The two hosts then stood face to face.

no

One might well have drawn some moral from the contrast they offered. It was the contrast between those old irreconcilable enemies, Provincial France and the Capital. On one side these Bretons a rough lot, dogged, ignorant, far from clean, and speaking no language but their own rude patois, sturdy churls, nevertheless Catholics to the core, believers in amulets, singers of wild, superstitions hymns, and devoted to their God, their priest, and their legitimate chief with a fidelity it would have been as impossible to shake as one of those rugged rocks by their own sea-shore. On the other hand, this mob of Parisians-dirty and ignorant as the countrymen, but believing in nothing and respecting nobody, ready with a grin and a lampoon for everything that was law, order, religion, or morality, and grinning behind the back even at that trumpery leader of theirs whom, in a moment's freak, they had set up to guide them, and with whom, whenever the fancy took them, they would break as unceremoniously as an ape does a nut.

The Parisians looked at the Bretons as bumptious townsmen look at peasants. The Bretons returned the glance as a bulldog eyes a cat able to strangle him, and not reluctant to do it.

The mere exchange of glances was not of long duration, for Colonel de Kerhoel, in a peremptory but off-hand tone, gave the word of command: "Attention! Fix bayonets!"

Bilia felt in his pockets, but finding no cigar, did nothing, and there was a pause. But only for a minute. Impelled by the vociferations of the "Sons of Brutus," who, regarding the cigar as a token of pacific intentions, waxed noisy and sanguine anew, the Citizen Bilia stepped forward, and, in a voice which he meant to be haughtily defiant, but which quavered slightly in his throat, shouted: "Citizen Colonel, in the name of the Republic one and indivisible, we summon the Citizens Tricoche and Robache, and the Citoyenne Verveine, to appear before us."

"Monsieur le Commandant," answered the Colonel politely, "the persons you mention are unknown to me. I have the honour of being acquainted with Madame la Comtesse de Verveine, Monsieur l'Abbé Tricoche, curé of Ste. Rosemonde, and with Monsieur Robache; but they are at this moment engaged, and you will excuse me if I decline interrupting them for the sake of announcing your visit."

"A

“ Oh, là, là!” "Plus de Saints!" bas les aristocrates et les porteurs d'eau bénite!" "A Chaillot les Comtesses!" yelled the gentlemen in the background.

"Citizen Colonel," pursued the Commandant Bilia, making heroic efforts to surmount the lump which was rising in his gullet, "you hear the wishes of the people. I am their delegate. I call upon you to let me pass."

"I must trouble you to stand back,” replied the Colonel simply.

---

"And if I refuse, if I insist upon advancing?"

The Colonel quietly unsheathed his sword. "I shall cleave you in two like a carrot," said he.

But the precious blood of the Citizen Bilia was not destined to flow, for a hand was laid on the Colonel's arm, and Madame de Verveine, who had come out of the church with M. Tricoche, young Robache, the surgeon, and myself, interposed: "You desire to see me, monsieur?" she said to M. Bilia.

The Citizen Commandant was not able immediately to answer, for the disagreeable menace of Colonel de Kerhoel had a little unsettled him. The fact is, he was. not used to be talked to in this way. When he went "demonstrating" before the Government offices, things passed off quite differently. An official secretary, not unfrequently a Minister in person, came down to listen to his observations, and he was always assured that the GovThe next move was the Colonel's, who ernment would give his remarks their took out a cigar and lit it. The Citizen' most attentive consideration, and every

The Citizen Bilia, not to be behindhand, instantly sang out, in a piercing falsetto, "ATTENTION! FIX BAYONETS!"

disposition was shown not to ruffle his | feelings or in any manner irritate him. He scarcely knew what to think of this new form of proceeding, this promise to cleave him in two, a threat which was the more offensive as there was not the slightest reason to suppose M. de Kerhoel would not put it into execution.

However, at the sight of Madame de Verveine, he rallied. He had doubtless heard that in the sphere in which Colonel de Kerhoel moved it was customary for male aristocrats to contain themselves before female aristocrats. So, feeling himself safe, he drew his sword, brandished it above his head, and darting glances of unquenchable fury, hollared:-"Who is it that threatens me? I dare you to do your worst! The people have resolved that the ambulances where our brothers are lying shall no longer be sullied by the persons of the Second Empire. We will have no more Jesuits, and no more he or she comedians..." ("No, no," roared the gentlemen behind. "No more Jesuits.")

"I assure you, you will not find any brother of yours yonder," remarked the surgeon ironically. "All the men in that ambulance are soldiers; there is not a single ragamuffin amongst them."

The Citizen Bilia turned sallow, and stared with evident uneasiness at the closecropped youth whose eyeglass gleamed upon him with the disconcerting fixity of a policeman's lantern.

"Yes, it was a letter sent to my father, then a Minister-a Minister of the Second Empire. Whilst he was in office he received a good many such epistles. I confess they were not characterized for the most part by excess of dignity, but one day he lit upon one which for flatness and servility exceeded anything he had ever fingered before, and he showed it me as a curiosity. The author states his wish to serve that poor Second Empire anyhow and anywhere, as a sub-prefect, a sub-receiver, a clerk of the préfecture de police, in any capacity, in short, where he could prove his devotion towards that august dynasty whose coming had been as that of the blessed manna from heaven' - I remember the very words, they struck me as infinitely poetic. I am glad to perceive, M. le Commandant, that the rejec tion of this petition - which you will have no difficulty in recollecting was signed Christophe Bilia' has not prevented your making your way in another walk.”

"It's a calumny!" gasped the Citizen Bilia, become livid: "a base, hireling calumny." And the gentlemen in the background, beginning to wonder what the conversation could be about, caught at the cry, and shouted all together, with cordial waving of red flags and shaking of

them. A bas les calomniateurs!"

"Tush, tush!" pleaded worthy M. Tricoche. "I am sorry M. le Commandant, that our presence should be a source of annoyance to any one," added he, with imperturbable gentleness. "It is but too true that I am one of those who, at the outset of this unlucky war, spoke other-fists:"Yes, yes, it's a calumny; don't believe wise than they ought to have done, otherwise, I may add, than became my character as a priest; and I shall not think I have done enough even when I have devoted my entire fortune and the energies of my whole life to remedying some of the evils which I have helped to occasion. So if there is any particular form of expiation, Monsieur, which you wish to suggest to me in the name of public opinion, I will pray in all humility for grace to submit to it."

"Excuse me one moment," said young Robache, coming forward. "Before favouring us with his scheme of expiations, M. Bilia will perhaps do well to consider to what extent it will have to be put in practice by himself. How do you do, M. Bilia? I have never had the opportunity of making your personal acquaintance, but it has been given me to peruse a document of your composition; and as the byword says that the style marks the man, I should be almost justified in saying that we are acquainted.”

"Well, well," continued young Robache, "a short memory is no crime; but let us come to another subject, that of this War, which you are good enough to lay on our shoulders. On the 15th of July lastyou see I am precise about my dates - I was driving down the Rue St. George towards seven in the evening. That day M. Thiers-you know M. Thiers?-had made a speech in the Corps Législatif in favour of peace, and a deputation of the sovereign people were marking their grateful sense of the proceeding by putting some stones through his windows. There was one gentleman distinguishing himself particularly in this exercise. He was better dressed than the others, and appeared to be leading them; he moreover shouted, A Berlin! A mort les Allemands! A bas les pacifiques!' with a zeal that did him credit. Somehow, M. Bilia, I would stake my word of honour that this gentleman was yourself."

The Citizen Bilia's first impulse was ap

V.

parently to renew his protestations with have hurt you more than all your foes redoubled scorn, but a better mode of together." tactics presented itself to his imagination. Drawing himself up to his full height, of five feet three or thereabouts, he hurled out the indignant cry of the fox who has set a trap and fallen into it himself: "Citizens," shrieked he, "we have got into an ambush. Let us have nothing to say to these people who lie in wait to slaughter Republicans. Citizen Colonel, I call all here present to witness that you have threatened my life, and that had I not been actuated by the most patriotic forbearance a conflict might have ensued between us. Citizens, let us withdraw. It shall not be said that whilst the enemy is at the gates we allowed ourselves to be provoked into civil strife. If these people wish to enter into rivalry with us they know where to find us. Let them follow us to the field of battle, and fight by our sides - if they dare." Hereupon he wheeled to the right about, put himself at the head of his men, gave the order to march, and strode off superbly. And his men followed as before, not a little impressed by his eloquence, and reflecting that, after all, it would have been absurd to attack these Bretons, who were a low herd, imbued with degrading prejudices, and who, besides, would have been just as likely as not to fire at them.

"Heaven grant that it may all end well," answered she fervently, but with a sigh. "You cannot think," she added, mournfully, "what a sorrow it is to me that, at a time when we ought all to be united, there should be such enmities as these between fellow-countrymen. It is more cruel than the war itself."

The Colonel became suddenly grave.

66

WHITHER the Citizen Bilia betook himself upon leaving the Ambulance Tricoche, and whether he ever put into execution his threat of proceeding to the battle-field, in order to shame those dastard Bretons who had lain in wait to slay a Republican, are points which I am not in a position to clear up. But I am inclined to think that the Citizen Bilia did not visit the battlefield. A man cannot devote his mind to two things at once, and M. Bilia and friends found plenty to occupy them inside the city, without seeking for adventures out of doors. On the 31st of October they tried to overturn the Government, in the month of December they tried again, and on the 21th of January they made a third effort, not more successful than the other two, but more glorious in this respect, that it resulted in a certain number of deaths, which always reads well in newspaper accounts. By this time, however, M. Bilia had ceased to be a Commandant, having been despotically cashiered, as he feelingly expressed it; and his battalion had also been disbanded, and there were some unpleasant rumours that if the Government caught M. Bilia it intended shooting him, which I believe to have been a false report, for the Government of the National Defence would not have harmed a fly, not even a Prussian if it could have helped it- but which nevertheless had the effect of confining M. Bilia to out of-the-way garrets, where he led an occult existence, only relieved by those occasional sorties to which I have just alluded. He reappeared altogether at the close of the siege, and I heard without surprise that he had been elected to represent an important democratical constituency in the National Assembly. There is a brilliant political future open before that young man. If he is fortunate enough to keep out of the hangman's hands there is no reason why he should not become Prime Minister, President of a Republic - Emperor, even, if the fancy

takes him.

Ay," said he, bitterly, "and do you The fates of the other personages I have not think it rends my heart to pieces to cursorily introduced were perhaps less enthink that the man I have just treated like viable than that of the Citizen Bilia, pera dog was a Frenchman? I could cry haps more so, according to the point of with shame at the thought. Yes, God view. Colonel de Kerhoel was shot in knows how it will all end; but if you are that second attack on the Bourget with beaten, my poor France, it is not the five hundred out of his eight hundred Krupp guns or the German generals that men. Young Robache, not yet cured of his will have defeated you: your own children wound, but able to lift his arm sufficiently

to hold a rifle, decamped from his ambulance without surgeon's leave, on the morning of the battle of Villiers, and was buried the next day in the small village church-yard, which was all too narrow to contain the number of French graves that had to be dug. The surgeon himself was carried off by a stray shell whilst picking up the wounded on the field of Montre-interlocutor, filliping an ash from his "Oh, haven't you heard?" said my tout; and at about the time of this, the last battle of the siege, I met with cigar and laughing. "M. Tricoche has resigned." the following two lines in most of the papers:

From The Spectator.

THE CHANCES OF THE COMTE DE CHAM

BORD.

The

as being rather courteous triflings of a gentlemanly and even commendable kind, than serious intrigues. On the other hand, Of all the problems and they are end- it must not be forgotten that the first Resless-presented by the condition of toration revealed an unexpected depth of France, no one is so perplexing to Eng- regard for the old line, and was followed lishmen as the extent of the strength or by the dangerous popular movement so weakness of the Legitimist idea. Is Henri well described by Louis Blanc under the Cinq merely a name, or has the respecta- title of "The White Terror." No sooner ble gentleman of fifty-one who bears that again is government in the provinces overtitle any substantial chance of mounting thrown and the country left to itself, than the throne of France? Ask any French- the peasants send up troops of Legitimists man you will, not a Legitimist, his opinion, as representatives, till they are the strongand he will tell you that loyalty in the oldest fraction in the Chamber, and observers sense is utterly dead in France; that the of some experience, though doubtless also people have forgotten the Bourbons, or of much prejudice, like the Parisian correassociate them only with tithes; that spondent of the Times, affirm that the AsHenry V. is to them a mere name; that sembly as a body has decided to acknowlLegitimacy is the highly honourable tradi- edge the right of the exile of Frohsdorf to tion of a few great families, or the highly the throne of France; and serious politidishonourable affectation of a few men cians interest themselves in projects of fuwho use its profession as a passport to sion, which on the usual theory ought to good society, but that it is in no sense and be about as important as an arrangement among no class a working political creed. between the two lines of Reuss. The love for the White Flag is, in fact, an Church declares herself friendly to the antiquarian sentiment. This belief has cause of the dynastic pretender, and been entertained by a succession of rulers, Henry V. himself is so much encouraged some of whom at all events must be held that he, for the first time, puts forward a to have understood France. Napoleon I., programme intended to be something more though he warred with the Vendéans, than a purely literary effort. Hitherto he never dreaded or disliked the Legitimists has contented himself with asserting and as individuals, and though he shot the Duc reasserting his historical "rights," but d'Enghien, systematically trusted them in his declaration of May 8 is an intelligible his diplomatic service. Louis Philippe in- and, in some respects, an able political sulted the party, as in the affair of the programme, suggesting either that the Duchess de Berri, without fear, while per- Comte de Chambord is an abler man of the petually making concessions to the Bona- reflective kind than he was believed to be, partists, who, as he always believed, out- or that some one of modern capacity has numbered his own friends. Napoleon III., at last obtained his ear. He does not, of detesting and dreading the Orleanists, not course, surrender his own theory of his only courted the Legitimists, but tried to own place on earth — that would have utilize the historic sentiment in their fa- ruined him morally with his own party vour for the benefit of his own dynasty, but he does offer some grave pledges insuggesting, for example, in a public mani- tended to diminish suspicion as to the defesto, that one day the fittest title for his ductions he draws from his claim to be own son, then just born, would be the old King by right divine. He renounces forone of Child of France. And finally, Gam-mally and distinctly any intention of exbetta, besides employing them readily inercising absolute power, and pledges himall departments, omitted them with strong self to "submit all acts of his Government words of praise from his denunciations and to the careful control of representatives decree of disqualification. This confidence, freely elected." This pledge is intended, So strange in men who towards other par- of course, to conciliate all those Orleanists ties exhibited a feeling of distrustful an- who are rather Parliamentarians than foltipathy, was justified by almost all the lowers of any dynasty, and may have a visible facts. During forty years the Le- great effect upon the bourgeoisie, while it gitimists have never been able to raise an will not offend his own party, which, insurrection, nor during those years can though it asserts the doctrine of divine they ever be said to have had out of Brit- right with almost incredible vehemence, tany a party at the polls. A few great has never denied the right of its head to Legitimists, like Berryer, rose to Parlia- use any agency or take any advice he mentary distinction; but their relations pleased. Then he declares that he will with Frohsdorf were tolerated on all hands, not if restored interfere with equality,