lure that tempts thee--if
to confront peril be thy wish--there is enough of it. Be a soldier,
then, and gird thee for the great battle that is at hand. Ay! boy, if
thou feelest within thee the proud darings that foreshadow success,
speak the word, and thou shalt be a standard-bearer in the very van."

I waited not for more; but springing up, I clasped my arms around his
neck, and cried, in ecstasy, "Yes! Pere Michel, you have guessed aright;
my heart's ambition is to be a soldier and I want but your blessing to
be a brave one."

"And thou shalt have it. A thousand blessings follow those who go forth
to the good fight. But thou art yet young, Maurice--too young for this.
Thou needest time and much teaching, too. He who would brave the enemy
before us, must be skillful as well as courageous. Thou art as yet but a
child."

"The general said he liked boy-soldiers," said I, promptly; "he told me
so himself."

"What general--who told thee?" cried the Pere in trembling eagerness.

"General Lacoste, the Chef-d'-Etat, major of the army of the Rhine; the
same who gave me a rendezvous for to-morrow at his quarters."

It was not till I had repeated my explanation again and again, nor,
indeed, until I had recounted all the circumstances of my last night's
adventure, that the poor Pere could be brought to see his way through a
mystery that had almost become equally embarrassing to myself. When he
did, however, detect the clew, and when he had perceived the different
tracks on which our minds were traveling, his grief burst all bounds. He
inveighed against the armies of the Republic as hordes of pillagers and
bandits, the sworn enemies of the church, the desecrators of her altars.
Their patriotism he called a mere pretense to shroud their infidelity.
Their heroism was the bloodthirstiness of democratic cruelty. Seeing me
still unmoved by all this passionate declamation, he adopted another
tactic, and suddenly asked me if it were for such a cause as this my
father had been a soldier?

"No!" replied I, firmly; "for when my father was alive, the soil of
France had not been desecrated by the foot of the invader. The Austrian,
the Prussian, the Englishman had not yet dared to dictate the laws under
which we were to live."

He appeared thunderstruck at my reply, repealing, as it seemed to him,
the extent of those teachings, whose corruptions he trembled at.

"I knew it, I knew it," cried he, bitterly, as he wrung his hands. "The