lass of crisp
black heads. But Dr. Hirsch saw innumerable beds in a hospital, upon the
inmates of which he could experiment without fear of any interference
from the police. The first few weeks, therefore, of his sojourn at Paris
seemed to Madou very sweet. If only the sun would shine out brightly, if
the fine rain would cease to fall, or the thick fog clear away; if, in
short, the boy could once have been thoroughly warm, he would have been
content; and if Kerika, with her gun and her bow, her arms covered with
clanking bracelets, could occasionally have appeared in the _Passage des
Douze Maison_, he would have been very happy.

But Destiny altered all this. M. Bonfils arrived suddenly one day,
bringing most disastrous news of Dahomey. The king was dethroned, taken
prisoner by the Ashantees, who meant to found a new dynasty. The royal
troops and the regiment of Amazons had all been conquered and dispersed.
Kerika alone was saved, and she dispatched M. Bonfils to Madou to tell
him to remain in France, and to take good care of his Gri-gri, for it
was written in the great book that if Madou did not lose that amulet, he
would come into his kingdom. The poor little king was in great trouble.
Moronval, who placed no faith in the _gri-gri_, presented his bill--and
such a bill!--to M. Bonfils, who paid it, but informed the principal
that in future, if he consented to keep Madou, he must not rely upon any
present compensation, but upon the gratitude of the king as soon as the
fortunes and chances of war should restore him to his throne. Would
the principal oblige M. Bonfils by at once signifying his intentions?
Moronval promptly and nobly said, "I will keep the child." Observe that
it was no longer "his Royal Highness." And the boy at once became
like all the other scholars, and was scolded and punished as they
were,--more, in fact, for the professors were out of temper with him,
feeling apparently, that they had been deluded by false pretences. The
child could understand little of this, and tried in vain all the gentle
ways that had seemed to win so much affection before. It was worse still
the next quarter, when Moronval, receiving no money, realized that Madou
was a burden to him. He dismissed the servant, and installed Madou in
his place, not without a scene with the young prince. The first time
a broom was placed in his hands and its use explained to him, Madou
obstinately refused. But M. Moronval had an irresistible argume