to Jacobinism. If
he would listen to my advice, he would make use of the twelve hundred
thousand soldiers which our friends have placed at his disposal, to
bring his subjects to a sense of their duty. Twelve hundred thousand
bayonets have far more eloquence than the articles of a charter."

He continued his remarks on this subject until the carriage approached
Sairmeuse.

Though but little given to sentiment, he was really affected by the
sight of the country in which he was born--where he had played as a
child, and of which he had heard nothing since the death of his aunt.

Everything was changed: still the outlines of the landscape remained the
same; the valley of the Oiselle was as bright and laughing as in days
gone by.

"I recognize it!" he exclaimed, with a delight that made him forget
politics. "I recognize it!"

Soon the changes became more striking.

The carriage entered Sairmeuse, and rattled over the stones of the only
street in the village.

This street, in former years, had been unpaved, and had always been
rendered impassable by wet weather.

"Ah, ha!" murmured the duke, "this is an improvement!"

It was not long before he noticed others. The dilapidated, thatched
hovels had given place to pretty and comfortable white cottages with
green blinds, and a vine hanging gracefully over the door.

As the carriage passed the public square in front of the church, Martial
observed the groups of peasants who were still talking there.

"What do you think of all these peasants?" he inquired of his father.
"Do they have the appearance of people who are preparing a triumphal
reception for their old masters?"

M. de Sairmeuse shrugged his shoulders. He was not the man to renounce
an illusion for such a trifle.

"They do not know that I am in this post-chaise," he replied. "When they
know----"

Shouts of "Vive Monsieur le Duc de Sairmeuse!" interrupted him.

"Do you hear that, Marquis?" he exclaimed.

And pleased by these cries that proved him in the right, he leaned from
the carriage-window, waving his hand to the honest Chupin family, who
were running after the vehicle with noisy shouts.

The old rascal, his wife, and his children, all possessed powerful
voices; and it was not strange that the duke believed the whole village
was welcoming him. He was convinced of it; and when the berlin stopped
before the house of the cure, M. de Sairmeuse was persuaded that the
_prestige_ of the nobility was great