infantry by cavalry pickets.

I also learned to speak and write English and German with great ease
and fluency, besides acquiring some skill in military drawing and
engineering.

It is true that the imprisonment chafed sorely against us, as we read of
the great achievements of our armies in various parts of the world--of
the great battles of Cairo and the Pyramids, of Acre and Mount Thabor,
and of which a holiday and a fete were to be our only share.

The terrible storms which shook Europe from end to end only reached us
in the bulletins of new victories, and we panted for the time when we,
too, should be actors in the glorious exploits of France.

It is already known to the reader that of the country from which my
family came I myself knew nothing. The very little I had ever learned of
it from my father was also a mere tradition; still was I known among my
comrades only as 'the Irishman,' and by that name was I recognised,
even in the record of the school, where I was inscribed thus--'Maurice
Tiernay, _dit l'Irlandais_.' It was on this very simple and seemingly
unimportant fact my whole fate in life was to turn; and in this wise-But
the explanation deserves a chapter of its own, and shall have it.

CHAPTER XVI. AN OLD GENERAL OF THE IRISH BRIGADE

In obedience to an order which arrived at Saumur one morning in the July
of 1788,1 was summoned before the commandant of the school, when the
following brief colloquy ensued:--

'Maurice Tiernay,' said he, reading from the record of the school, why
are you called _l'Irlandais?_'

'I am Irish by descent, sir.'

'Ha! by descent. Your father was, then, an _emigre?_

'No, sir--my great-grandfather.'

'_Parbleu!_ that is going very far back. Are you aware of the causes
which induced him to leave his native country?'

'They were connected with political trouble, I've heard, sir. He took
part against the English, my father told me, and was obliged to make his
escape to save his life.' 'You, then, hate the English, Maurice?' 'My
ancestor certainly did not love them, sir.'

'Nor can you, boy, ever forgive their having exiled your family from
country and home; every man of honour retains the memory of such
injuries.'

'I can scarcely deem that an injury, sir, which has made me a French
citizen,' said I proudly.

'True, boy--you say what is perfectly true and just; any sacrifice of
fortune or patrimony is cheap at such a price; still you have suffered a
wrong--a