"I was never further from sleep, and my eyes were so wide open that I
saw more than I ever did before in my life."

"And what did you see, my wise John?"

"I saw generals and nations crossing the mountains down there. I saw
through a space of many centuries, and the last I saw was your Napoleon
leading his troops over the Great St. Bernard to Marengo."

Lannes' eyes flamed like stars.

"And the great marshal whose name I bear was there with him," he said.
"It was near Marengo that he won his Dukedom of Montebello. Napoleon
cannot come back, but victory may perch again on the banners of France."

John understood him. He knew how Frenchmen must have writhed through all
the years over Gravelotte and Sedan and Metz. He knew how deeply they
must have felt the taunt that they were degenerate, and the prediction
of their enemies that they would soon sink to the state of a second
class power. He knew how Americans would have felt in their place, and,
while he had never believed the sneers, he knew they had been made so
often that some Frenchmen themselves had begun to believe them. He
understood fully, and the ties that were knitting him so strongly to
Lannes increased and strengthened.

"They were really republicans who won the victories of Napoleon," he
said, "and you have been a republic again for forty-four years.
Republics give life and strength."

"I think they do, and so does a liberal monarchy like that of England.
Freedom makes the mind grow. Well, I hope we've grown so much that with
help we'll be able to whip Germany. What's become of the Alps, John?"

"The clouds have taken 'em."

There was nothing now in the south but a vast bank of gray, and
presently John felt drops of rain on his face. Besides, it was growing
much colder. He did not know much about flying, but he was quite sure
that in the midst of a great storm of wind and rain they would be in
acute danger. He looked anxiously at Lannes, who said reassuringly:

"We'll go above it, John. It's one of the advantages of flying. On earth
you can't escape a storm, but here we mount so high that it passes
beneath us. After you get used to flying you'll wonder why people trust
themselves on such a dangerous place as the earth."

John caught the twinkle in his eye, but he was learning fast, and his
own heart thrilled too as they swung upward, rising higher and higher,
until the thin air made the blood beat heavily in his temples. At last
he looked down agai