the marquis said to me.

I spoke directly to the sovereign, thereby violating etiquette, my
friend told me afterwards, laughing; and Bonaparte was a stickler for
precedent.

"But all Frenchmen," I could not help reminding the man in power, "are
not faithful friends."

He gave me a sharp look as he passed on, and repeated what I afterward
learned was one of his favorite maxims:

"A faithful friend is the true image."

VIII

"Must you go to Mittau?" the Marquis du Plessy said when I told him what
I intended to do. "It is a long, expensive post journey; and part of the
way you may not be able to post. Riga, on the gulf beyond Mittau, is a
fine old town of pointed gables and high stone houses. But when I was in
Mittau I found it a mere winter camp of Russian nobles. The houses are
low, one-story structures. There is but one castle, and in that his
Royal Highness the Count of Provence holds mimic court."

We were riding to Versailles, and our horses almost touched sides as my
friend put his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't go, Lazarre. You will not be welcome there."

"I must go, whether I am welcome or not."

"But I may not last until you come back."

"You will last two months. Can't I post to Mittau and back in two
months?"

"God knows."

I looked at him drooping forward in the saddle, and said:

"If you need me I will stay, and think no more about seeing those of my
own blood."

"I do need you; but you shall not stay. You shall go to Mittau in my
own post-carriage. It will bring you back sooner."

But his post-carriage I could not accept. The venture to Mittau, its
wear and tear and waste, were my own; and I promised to return with all
speed. I could have undertaken the road afoot, driven by the necessity I
felt.

"The Duchess of Angouleme is a good girl," said the marquis, following
the line of my thoughts. "She has devoted herself to her uncle and her
husband. When the late czar withdrew his pension, and turned the whole
mimic court out of Mittau, she went with her uncle, and even waded the
snow with him when they fell into straits. Diamonds given to her by her
grandmother, the Empress Maria Theresa, she sold for his support. But
the new czar reinstated them; and though they live less pretentiously at
Mittau in these days, they still have their priest and almoner, the Duke
of Guiche, and other courtiers hanging upon them. My boy, can you make a
court bow and walk backwards? You must practice b