approached by a Turco, who said to me:

"Are you not Herr Waldfried?"

My heart trembled with emotion.

Was it not Ernst's voice? Before I could collect my thoughts, the
stranger had vanished in the great crowd that followed in the wake of
the Emperor, who was just passing by.

I caught another glimpse of the man with the red fez and called out to
him; but he had vanished.

Had I been awake or dreaming?

It could not have been Ernst. He would not have left me after thus
addressing me. And if it were he after all! I felt sure that he would
return; so I waited in the hope of again seeing the stranger. The
people who passed me seemed like so many shadows, and I felt as if
withdrawn from the world.

Night approached, and I was obliged to go to my lodgings. I told Joseph
of all that had happened. He stoutly maintained that I must have been
dreaming; but nevertheless went with me the next day to the Champs
Elysees where, seated on a bench, we waited for hours without seeing
any sign of the stranger.

On my journey homeward, I spent a whole week with my sister who lives
in the forest of Hagenau. She can cheer me up better than any of my
children can. Her excellent memory enabled her to remind me of many
little incidents connected with our childhood and our parental home. In
her house, I was, for the first time since my affliction, able to
indulge in a hearty laugh.

In the eyes of my brother-in-law, the medal awarded me at the
Exposition invested me with new importance; he never omitted to allude
to this mark of distinction, when introducing me to his acquaintances.
On the 15th of August, Napoleon's _fete_ day, he actually wanted me to
wear the medal on my coat. He could not understand why I would not
carry it about with me constantly, so as to make a show of my medal of
honor, notwithstanding the fact that the French consider their whole
nation as the world's legion of honor. Every individual among them
seems anxious to thrust himself forward at the expense of the rest.

My sister privately informed me that the young sergeant whom I met at
her house was a suitor for the hand of her eldest daughter, and was
only awaiting the satisfactory settlement of the proper dowry on his
future wife. He was a young man of limited information, but was very
polite and respectful towards me. He hoped to win his epaulets in an
early war with Prussia, which had been so bold as to gain Sadowa and
conclude a peace without paying Fra