les of France--men
whose proud station was the pledge for their chivalrous devotion. But
why do I discuss the question with thee? He who deserts his faith may
well forget that his birth was noble. Go, boy, join those with whom
your heart is already linked. Tour lesson will be an easy one--you have
nothing to unlearn. The songs of the Girondins are already more grateful
to your ear than our sacred canticles. Go, I say, since between us
henceforth there can be no companionship.'

'Will you not bless me, pere,' said I, approaching him in deep humility;
'will you not let me carry with me thy benediction?'

'How shall I bless the arm that is lifted to wound the Holy Church?--how
shall I pray for one whose place is in the ranks of the infidel? Hadst
thou faith in my blessing, boy, thou hadst never implored it in such a
cause. Renounce thy treason--and not alone my blessing, but thou shalt
have a 'Novena' to celebrate thy fidelity. Be of us, Maurice, and thy
name shall be honoured where honour is immortality.'

The look of beaming affection with which he uttered this, more than the
words themselves, now shook my courage, and, in a conflict of doubt and
indecision, I held down my head without speaking. What might have been
my ultimate resolve, if left completely to myself, I know not; but at
that very moment a detachment of soldiers marched past in the street
without. They were setting off to join the army of the Rhine, and were
singing in joyous chorus the celebrated song of the day, 'Le chant du
depart.' The tramp of their feet--the clank of their weapons--their
mellow voices--but, more than all, the associations that thronged to my
mind, routed every other thought, and I darted from the spot, and never
stopped till I reached the street.

A great crowd followed the detachment, composed partly of friends of the
soldiers, partly of the idle loungers of the capital. Mixing with these,
I moved onward, and speedily passed the outer boulevard and gained the
open country.

CHAPTER VI. 'THE ARMY SIXTY YEARS SINCE'

I followed the soldiers as they marched beyond the outer boulevard and
gained the open country. Many of the idlers dropped off here; others
accompanied us a little farther; but at length, when the drums ceased
to beat, and were slung in marching order on the backs of the
drummers, when the men broke into the open order that French soldiers
instinctively assume on a march, the curiosity of the gazers appeared
t