character and achievements of the First Consul, recounting many
anecdotes of his early life, from the period when he was a schoolboy
at Brienne to the hour when he dictated the conditions of peace to the
oldest monarchies of Europe, and proclaimed war with the voice of one
who came as an avenger.

I drank in every word he spoke with avidity. The very enthusiasm of his
manner was contagious; I felt my heart bound with rapturous delight
at some hardy deed of soldierlike daring, and conceived a kind of
wild idolatry for the man who seemed to have infused his own glorious
temperament into the mighty thousands around him, and converted a whole
nation into heroes.

Darby's information on all these matters--which seemed to me something
miraculous--had been obtained at different periods from French
emissaries who were scattered through Ireland; many of them old soldiers
who had served in the campaigns of Egypt and Italy.

"But sure, if you 'd come with me, Master Tom, I could bring you where
you'll see them yourself; and you could talk to them of the battles and
skirmishes, for I suppose you spake French."

"Very little. Darby. How sorry I am now that I don't know it well."

"No matter; they'll soon teach you, and many a thing besides. There 's
a captain I know of, not far from where we are this minute, could learn
you the small sword,--in style, he could. I wish you saw him in his
green uniform with white facings, and three elegant crosses upon it
that General Bonaparte gave him with his own hands; he had them on one
Sunday, and I never see'd anything equal to it."

"And are there many French officers hereabouts?"

"Not now; no, they're almost all gone. After the rising they went back
to France, except a few. Well, there'll be call for them again, please
God."

"Will there be another Rebellion, then, Darby?"

As I put this question fearlessly, and in a voice loud enough to be
heard at some distance, a horseman, wrapped up in a loose cloth cloak,
was passing. He suddenly pulled up short, and turning his horse
round, stood exactly opposite to the piper. Darby saluted the stranger
respectfully, and seemed desirous to pass on; but the other, turning
round in his saddle, fixed a stern look on him, and he cried out,--

"What! at the old trade, M'Keown. Is there no curing you, eh?"

"Just so, major," said Darby, assuming a tone of voice he had not
made use of the entire morning; "I 'm conveying a little instrumental
recr