nt off to the fourth corps to move towards the coast; twelve
regiments have received orders to march; so that before my Lord leaves
Calais, he may witness a review of the army. '"

"Is this true?"

"It is all certain. Read it; here 's the 'Moniteur,' with the official
announcement."

In an instant a dozen heads were bent over the paper, each eager to scan
the paragraph so long and ardently desired.

"Come, Burke, I hope you have not forgotten your English," said the
major. "We shall want you soon to interpret for us in London; if,
pardieu, we can ever find our way through the fogs of that ill-starred
island."

I hung my head without speaking; the miserable isolation of him who has
no country is a sad and sickening sense of want no momentary enthusiasm,
no impulse of high daring can make up for. Happily for me, all were
too deeply interested in the important news to remark me, or pay any
attention to my feelings.

CHAPTER XXVII. THE MARCH TO VERSAILLES

They who remember the excited state of England on the rupture of the
peace of Amiens; the spirit of military ardor that animated every class
and condition of life; the national hatred, carried to the highest pitch
by the instigations and attack of a violent press,--can yet form but an
imperfect notion of the mad enthusiasm that prevailed in France on the
same occasion. The very fact that there was no determinate and precise
cause of quarrel added to the exasperation on both sides. It was less
like the warfare of two great nations, than the personal animosity of
two high-spirited and passionate individuals, who, having interchanged
words of insult, resolve on the sword as the only arbiter between them.
All that the long rivalry of centuries, national dislike, jealousy in
every form, and ridicule in a thousand shapes could suggest, were added
to the already existing hate, and gave to the coming contest a character
of blackest venom.

In England, the tyrannic rule of Bonaparte gave deep offence to all true
lovers of liberty, and gave rise to fears of what the condition of their
own country would become should he continue to increase his power by
conquest. In France, the rapid rise to honor and wealth the career of
arms so singularly favored, made partisans of war in every quarter of
the kingdom. The peaceful arts were but mean pursuits compared with
that royal road to rank and riches,--the field of battle; and their
self-interest lent its share in forming the s