te
was slipped into my hand. It ran thus:--

Dear Sir,--Burke is safe. An order for his transmission
before a military tribunal has just been signed by the First
Consul. Stop all the evidence at once, as he is no longer
before the court

The court-martial will be but a formality, and in a few days
he will be at liberty.

Yours, D'AUVERGNE, Lieut,-General.

Before I could recover from the shock of such glad tidings, the
President rose, and said,--

"In the matter of the accused Burke, this court has no longer
cognizance, as he is summoned before the tribunal of the army. Let him
withdraw, and call on the next case,--Auguste Leconisset."

D'Ervan stooped down and whispered a few words to the Procureur-General,
who immediately demanded to peruse the order of council. To this my
advocate at once objected, and a short and animated discussion on the
legal question followed. The President, however, ruled in favor of my
defender; and at the same instant a corporal's guard appeared, into
whose charge I was formally handed over, and marched from the court.

Such was the excited state of my mind, in such a confused whirl were
all my faculties, that I knew nothing of what was passing around me; and
save that I was ordered to mount into a carriage, and driven along at
a rapid pace, I remembered no more. At length we reached the quay
Voltaire, and entered the large square of the barrack. The tears burst
out and ran down my cheeks, as I looked once more on the emblems of the
career I loved. We stopped at the door of a large stone building,
where two sentries were posted; and the moment after I found myself
the occupant of a small barrack-room, in which, though under arrest, no
feature of harsh confinement appeared, and from whose windows I could
survey the movement of the troops in the court, and hear the sounds
which for so many a day had been the most welcome to my existence.

CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE CUIRASSIER.

Although my arrest was continued with all its strictness, I never
heard one word of my transmission before the military tribunal; and
a fortnight elapsed, during which I passed through every stage of
expectancy, doubt, and at last indifference, no tidings having ever
reached me as to what fortune lay in store for me.

The gruff old invalid that carried my daily rations seemed but
ill-disposed to afford me any information, even as to the common events
without, and seldom made