opts the evident and plausible view of the situation.
The new soldier brings along his footman to carry his equipments, the
officers of the regiment, colonel at the head, come out to welcome him,
the sentry on duty is petrified with astonishment. This was supposed to
be designed with reference to the celebrated M. Max Labaudy; but it is
curiously at variance with the real facts in his case. This too-rich
young man, the _Petit Sucrier_ of the Boulevards, was the son of a great
sugar refiner, deputy to the Chamber from the department of
Seine-et-Marne, and who left a fortune of more than two hundred millions
of francs. The young man in question spent his portion with commendable
freedom, but when he drew an unlucky number in the conscription he was
declared eligible, though it was said at the time that he was already
threatened with an affection of the lungs. He speedily fell ill; there
was immediately raised such a violent demagogic outcry that his illness
was feigned that "not one military commission dared to declare him unfit
for service, he was transferred from one hospital to another, from
Vernon to Rouen, from Rouen to Val-de-Grace, from Val-de-Grace to
Amelie-les-Bains, where he died,--died of his millions, it may be said,
for if he had been only a poor devil he would have been immediately
mustered out." The young man, fully recognizing the disability under
which he labored in the eyes of his cowardly and truckling superiors,
wrote pathetic letters from his hospitals, regretting his fatal
millions.

For the service of the city of Paris, there is a special _corps
d'elite_, the Garde Republicaine, comprising an infantry force of two
thousand two hundred and ten men and one of one hundred and ninety
mounted men. This is recruited from the sous-officiers, brigadiers,
corporals, and soldiers of the active army under certain conditions.
Each applicant must have served at least three years uninterruptedly in
the regular army, have an irreproachable record, be able to read and
write correctly, be at least twenty-four years of age and not over
thirty-five, and have a stature of, at least, 1 metre, 66
centimetres--1.70 metres for the cavalry. The members of this force have
special privileges of pay, pension, ability to compete for the grade of
brigadier and succeeding ones, and of resigning from the service after
having complied with the requirements of the recruiting law. Those who
serve as guards at the theatres and the ra