tation at Modena a too-zealous detective of the French police,
struck with the Alsatian accent of the orderly, immediately decided
that they were two Prussian spies, and refused to allow them to proceed,
since they could show him no passports.

"Passports!" cried Henri de Prerolles, accompanying his exclamation with
the most Parisian oath that ever had reverberated from the Rue Laffitte
to the Madeleine.

"Here is my passport!" he added, drawing from his pocket his officer's
cross, which he had taken good care not to allow to become a souvenir
in the hands of his jailer. "And if that does not satisfy you, give me a
pen."

Suiting the action to the word, he seized a pen and wrote out the
following telegram:

"DEPUTY OF WAR, TOURS:

"Escaped from prisons of the enemy, I demand admittance to France,
and official duties suitable to my rank, that I may cooperate in the
national defence.

"DE PREROLLES, Commandant."

He handed the paper to the police agent, saying: "Do me the favor to
forward this despatch with the utmost expedition."

As soon as the agent had glanced at the message, he swept a profound
salute. "Pass on, Commandant," said he, in a tone of great respect.

Promoted to a higher rank, and appointed commander of a regiment of
foot, the Lieutenant-Colonel de Prerolles rejoined the army of Chanzy,
which, having known him a long time, assigned to him the duties of a
brigadier-general, and instructed him to cover his retreat from the
Loire on the Sarthe.

In the ensuing series of daily combats, the auxiliary General performed
all that his chief expected of him, from Orleans to the battle of Maus,
where, in the thick of the fight, a shell struck him in the breast. It
is necessary to say that on the evening before he had noticed that the
little medallion which had been given to him by Fanny Dorville, worn
from its chain by friction, had disappeared from his neck. Scoffing
comrades smiled at the coincidence; the more credulous looked grave.

The wound was serious, for, transported to the Chateau de Montgeron,
a few leagues distant, the Marquis was compelled to remain there six
months before he was in fit condition to rejoin his command. Toward the
end of his convalescence, in June, 1871, the brother and sister resolved
to make a pious pilgrimage to the cradle of their ancestors.

Exactly nine years had elapsed since the castle and lands had been sold
at auction and fallen into th