The Galley Slave's Ring

type of face as his nephew. His long neck, bald head, large and crooked nose like the beak of a bird of prey, and wide-set, round and penetrating eyes, impart

ld not choose but present a fear-inspiring aspect. On a visit to his nephew,

ing. "Not being aware of your return to to

hed at a colonel of dragoons keeping a mis

. On my way from abroad I made a wide tour throu

he colonel incredulously

revolution

, un

unds about you? If no

s-wha

od drafts upon London. The latter

age, uncle?

make by keeping me company.

-this e

efer to serve

med the Count of Ploue

in Paris, within shortly, after

ilippe! The Republic in F

indivisible-proclaimed in our int

in a singular smile as h

ounded. He looked as if he had j

shrugging his shoulders. "Do you see nothing in those revolutionary banquets that have suc

do you take those bibbers of blue wine, those swallowers of ve

to them. There is nothing, in and of itself, so stupid as gunpowder; is there? Yet that does not prevent it from exploding. Well,

l be mowed down like grass. Everybody is so completely at ease regarding the state of Paris that, despite t

s. "If their government is seized with the vertigo, these Orleans will quickl

ommunicated with the boudoir. Promptly upon the raps followed the following ditty, still to

ut of thi

y need

s occa

ene-di

la-fla-fla

, "Pay no attention, I beg you, to the

the previous evening the cape and hat of the brazen girl, rang the bell quickl

he hussy, and have her le

remained impassive, and was at the moment in

am ashamed. But droll creatur

ature. Nevertheless, in the Fifteenth Century, we would have ordered her roasted alive like a little Jewess

rleans dynasty is chased away a

ugged his shoulders an

money, the guillotine, and war with all Europe-and then the thing will last six months at the longest, and Henry V will be brought back triumphant

if so,

no more bourgeois insolent and clamorous Chamber, holding the reins of government as much as the King, seeing it decides upon appropriations and taxes-an ignominious state of things; an end of the present mongrel system-all or nothing, and we want all, to wit, an absolute King resting upon an omnipotent clergy; a strong aristocracy and a merciless army; a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand foreign troops, if needed; the Holy Alliance will lend them to us. Misery will be so frightful, fear so intense, the general lassitude such, that our conditions will be accepted as soon as imposed. Thereupon we shall take prompt and terrible measures-the only effective ones in such emergencies. Our measures will be these: First of all, provost courts; reinstitution of the laws pronouncing sacrilege and lese majesté capital crimes, and making them retroactive, back to 1830; execution to follow verdict within twenty-four hours, in order to smother in their own poison all revolutionists, all people tainted with impiousness; it will be an era of terror-another St. Bartholo

take another pinch of snuff, an

divided by hatre

n of "legitimate Kings." But he did not stop to think that he who wants the end must not object to the means, and that, in order to be lasting in the eyes of its partisans, a complete and absol

f isolating the population is chimerical. The thing is imp

e could have allowed themselves to yield to such diabolical innovations! They may have to pay dear therefor! What did our forefathers do, at the time of the conquest, with a view to subjugate and keep the yoke riveted to the neck of this perverse Gallic race-our vassals by birth and by kind, that has s

ds? You would not tear up the highwa

ifficult a task to hurl against the railroads the mass of brutes whom that infernal invention threw out of their means of earning a livelihood? Anathema-anathema against those proud monuments of haughty Satan! By the blood of my ra

the colonel. "I am not inclined to carry out

at, in order that the large majority of the race of Adam suffer and be meritoriously conscious of its suff

contrast; is that

it to you. I repeat-do as I have done. Realize all your negotiable effects in gold, or in good drafts upon London. Send in your resignation this minute, and let us depart to-morrow at the very latest. Such is the blindne

not be done without the firing of some guns. I wish to do my part-I wish to be quits. Politeness for politeness, wi

e wretches of Orleans!" exclaimed the Cardin

military turn of mind. The army has but one opinion-discipline. In short, if your foresight is correct-and your trained experience inclines me to the belief that you ar

riddled with bullets or brained by the mob on a

termined to fulfil the

ppose you are killed, our house would t

ou I would ma

ights are disgraceful-to die in the mud of

replied the colonel. "In that event it will not be difficult for you to find some sturdy Plouernel bastard of my own ma

men who for fourteen centuries were our vassals and serfs, we are about to wipe out at a single stroke these last fifty years of shame! At the moment when, instructed by experience, and aided by the course of events, we are abo

after rapping at the door, sa

of St. Denis Street has arrived.

the salon of

Cardinal, whom he saw angrily picking

cle, do not go away

way angry; I am g

e, you will thin

r no, depart wit

sible,

nical shout with which the Cardinal furiously