again
swept before him like the long ridges of high-crested wave which the
vexed Ocean directs against the shore.

When the manoeuvres were over the officer galloped back at full speed,
pulled up his horse, and awaited orders. He was not ten paces from Julie
as he stood before the Emperor, much as General Rapp stands in Gerard's
_Battle of Austerlitz_. The young girl could behold her lover in all his
soldierly splendor.

Colonel Victor d'Aiglemont, barely thirty years of age, was tall,
slender, and well made. His well-proportioned figure never showed to
better advantage than now as he exerted his strength to hold in the
restive animal, whose back seemed to curve gracefully to the rider's
weight. His brown masculine face possessed the indefinable charm of
perfectly regular features combined with youth. The fiery eyes under the
broad forehead, shaded by thick eyebrows and long lashes, looked like
white ovals bordered by an outline of black. His nose had the delicate
curve of an eagle's beak; the sinuous lines of the inevitable black
moustache enhanced the crimson of the lips. The brown and tawny shades
which overspread the wide high-colored cheeks told a tale of unusual
vigor, and his whole face bore the impress of dashing courage. He was
the very model which French artists seek to-day for the typical hero
of Imperial France. The horse which he rode was covered with sweat, the
animal's quivering head denoted the last degree of restiveness; his hind
hoofs were set down wide apart and exactly in a line, he shook his long
thick tail to the wind; in his fidelity to his master he seemed to be a
visible presentment of that master's devotion to the Emperor.

Julie saw her lover watching intently for the Emperor's glances, and
felt a momentary pang of jealousy, for as yet he had not given her a
look. Suddenly at a word from his sovereign Victor gripped his horse's
flanks and set out at a gallop, but the animal took fright at a shadow
cast by a post, shied, backed, and reared up so suddenly that his rider
was all but thrown off. Julie cried out, her face grew white, people
looked at her curiously, but she saw no one, her eyes were fixed upon
the too mettlesome beast. The officer gave the horse a sharp admonitory
cut with the whip, and galloped off with Napoleon's order.

Julie was so absorbed, so dizzy with sights and sounds, that
unconsciously she clung to her father's arm so tightly that he could
read her thoughts by the var