o handkerchiefs with tears.

"One must always part from those nearest the heart," said he on going
out of church. "But God and I are made to understand each other! After
all, what is God but a little more universal Napoleon!"

A Pantagruelic feast, presided over by Mlle. Virginie Sambucco in a
dress of puce-colored silk, followed immediately upon the marriage
ceremony. Twenty-four persons were present at this family _fete_, among
others the new colonel of the 23d and M. du Marnet, who was almost well
of his wound.

Fougas took up his napkin with a certain anxiety. He hoped that the
Marshal had brought his brevet as brigadier general. His expressive
countenance manifested lively disappointment at the empty plate.

The Duke of Solferino, who had been seated at the place of honor,
noticed this physiognomical display, and said aloud:

"Don't be impatient, my old comrade! I know what you miss; it was not my
fault that the _fete_ was not complete. The minister of war was out
when I dropped in on my way here. I was told however, at the department,
that your affair was kept in suspense by a technical question, but that
you would receive a letter from the office within twenty-four hours."

"Devil take the documents!" cried Fougas. "They've got them all, from my
birth-certificate, down to the copy of my brevet colonel's commission.
You'll find out that they want a certificate of vaccination or some such
six-penny shinplaster!"

"Oh! Patience, young man! You've time enough to wait. It's not such a
case as mine: without the Italian campaign, which gave me a chance to
snatch the baton, they would have slit my ear like a condemned horse,
under the empty pretext that I was sixty-five years old. You're not yet
twenty-five, and you're on the point of becoming a brigadier: the
Emperor promised it to you before me. In four or five years from now,
you'll have the gold stars, unless some bad luck interferes. After which
you'll need nothing but the command of an army and a successful campaign
to make you Marshal of France and Senator, which may nothing prevent!"

"Yes," responded Fougas; "I'll reach it. Not only because I am the
youngest of all the officers of my grade, and because I have been in the
mightiest of wars and followed the lessons of the master of Bellona's
fields, but above all because Destiny has marked me with her sign. Why
did the bullets spare me in more than twenty battles? Why have I sped
over oceans of steel and f