utches of
Bonaparte; after successfully eluding the conscription, he was forced
to send him to the army in 1813, to join the Emperor's bodyguard. After
Leipsic no more was heard of him. M. de Montriveau, whom the father
interviewed in 1814, declared that he had seen him taken by the
Russians. Mme. de l'Estorade died of grief whilst a vain search was
being made in Russia. The Baron, a very pious old man, practised that
fine theological virtue which we used to cultivate at Blois--Hope!
Hope made him see his son in dreams. He hoarded his income for him, and
guarded carefully the portion of inheritance which fell to him from the
family of the late Mme. de l'Estorade, no one venturing to ridicule the
old man.

At last it dawned upon me that the unexpected return of this son was the
cause of my own. Who could have imagined, whilst fancy was leading us
a giddy dance, that my destined husband was slowly traveling on foot
through Russia, Poland, and Germany? His bad luck only forsook him
at Berlin, where the French Minister helped his return to his native
country. M. de l'Estorade, the father, who is a small landed proprietor
in Provence, with an income of about ten thousand livres, has not
sufficient European fame to interest the world in the wandering Knight
de l'Estorade, whose name smacks of his adventures.

The accumulated income of twelve thousand livres from the property of
Mme. de l'Estorade, with the addition of the father's savings, provides
the poor guard of honor with something like two hundred and fifty
thousand livres, not counting house and lands--quite a considerable
fortune in Provence. His worthy father had bought, on the very eve
of the Chevalier's return, a fine but badly-managed estate, where he
designs to plant ten thousand mulberry-trees, raised in his nursery
with a special view to this acquisition. The Baron, having found his
long-lost son, has now but one thought, to marry him, and marry him to a
girl of good family.

My father and mother entered into their neighbor's idea with an eye to
my interests so soon as they discovered that Renee de Maucombe would be
acceptable without a dowry, and that the money the said Renee ought
to inherit from her parents would be duly acknowledged as hers in the
contract. In a similar way, my younger brother, Jean de Maucombe, as
soon as he came of age, signed a document stating that he had received
from his parents an advance upon the estate equal in amount to one-thi