to confide to his family, and particularly to
his grandfather, the old Marechal de S. a glorious veteran of many
campaigns and an ardent Royalist. His father approved, although it was
a terrible falling off from all the lessons and examples of his
family--but it was a difficult confession to make to the Marechal. I
will give the scene in his own words (translated, of course--the
original is in French).

"I was obliged to return to Chalenoy to relate my 'coup-de-tete' to my
grandfather. I arrived early in the morning and approached his bed in
the most humble attitude. He said to me, very sharply, 'You have been
unfaithful to all the traditions of your ancestors--but it is done.
Remember that you have enlisted voluntarily in the Republican army;
serve it frankly and loyally, for your decision is made, you cannot
now go back on it.' Then seeing the tears running down my cheeks (he
too was moved), and taking my hand with the only one he had left, he
drew me to him and pressed me on his heart. Then giving me seventy
louis (it was all he had), he added, 'This will help you to complete
your equipment--go, and at least carry bravely and faithfully, under
the flag it has pleased you to choose, the name you bear and the
honour of your family.'"

The present Count, too, has played a part in politics in these
troublous times, when decisions were almost as hard to take, and one
was torn between the desire to do something for one's country and the
difficulty of detaching oneself from old traditions and memories.
People whose grandfathers have died on the scaffold can hardly be
expected to be enthusiastic about the Republic and the Marseillaise.
Yet if the nation wants the Republic, and every election accentuates
that opinion, it is very difficult to fight against the current.

When I first married, just after the Franco-Prussian War, there seemed
some chance of the moderate men, on both sides, joining in a common
effort against the radical movement, putting themselves at the head of
it and in that way directing and controlling--but very soon the
different sections in parliament defined themselves so sharply that
any sort of compromise was difficult. My host was named deputy,
immediately after the war, and though by instinct, training, and
association a Royalist and a personal friend of the Orleans family, he
was one of a small group of liberal-patriotic deputies who might have
supported loyally a moderate Republic had the other R