to accept the explanations
with which he justified the contradictions between his conduct and his
professions, the colonel, who was a good shot and could defy the most
adroit fencing-master, and possessed the coolness of one to whom life is
indifferent, was quite ready to demand satisfaction for the first sharp
word; and when a man shows himself prepared for violence there is little
more to be said. His imposing stature had taken on a certain rotundity,
his face was bronzed from exposure in Texas, he was still succinct in
speech, and had acquired the decisive tone of a man obliged to make
himself feared among the populations of a new world. Thus developed,
plainly dressed, his body trained to endurance by his recent hardships,
Philippe in the eyes of his mother was a hero; in point of fact, he had
simply become what people (not to mince matters) call a blackguard.

Shocked at the destitution of her cherished son, Madame Bridau bought
him a complete outfit of clothes at Havre. After listening to the tale
of his woes, she had not the heart to stop his drinking and eating and
amusing himself as a man just returned from the Champ d'Asile was
likely to eat and drink and divert himself. It was certainly a fine
conception,--that of conquering Texas with the remains of the imperial
army. The failure was less in the idea than in the men who conceived
it; for Texas is to-day a republic, with a future full of promise. This
scheme of Liberalism under the Restoration distinctly proves that the
interests of the party were purely selfish and not national, seeking
power and nothing else. Neither men, nor occasion, nor cause,
nor devotion were lacking; only the money and the support of the
hypocritical party at home who dispensed enormous sums, but gave nothing
when it came to recovering empire. Household managers like Agathe have
a plain common-sense which enables them to perceive such political
chicane: the poor woman saw the truth through the lines of her son's
tale; for she had read, in the exile's interests, all the pompous
editorials of the constitutional journals, and watched the management
of the famous subscription, which produced barely one hundred and fifty
thousand francs when it ought to have yielded five or six millions. The
Liberal leaders soon found out that they were playing into the hands of
Louis XVIII. by exporting the glorious remnants of our grand army, and
they promptly abandoned to their fate the most devoted, the