n.
Hand-in-hand, according to our custom, we returned home, in silence, but
with happy hearts.

I went straight to the cure, and said to him: "_Monsieur le cure_, I
wish to be a soldier."

The good man was astounded.

"How is it, my dear child," said he, "that you desire to leave me? Do
you no longer love me? Do you no longer love Pierrette? What have we
done to you that you have grown tired of us? And is all the education I
have given you to be thrown away? Answer, you naughty boy!" he
commanded, with a shake of my arm.

With my eyes fixed upon my shoes, I repeated:--

"I wish to be a soldier."

Pierrette's mother, who had brought in a glassful of water to cool the
cure's agitation, began to cry. Pierrette wept also, but _she_ was not
angry with me, for she knew well it was in order to marry her that I
wished to go away.

At this moment appeared two tall, powdered lackeys and a lady's-maid,
who inquired whether the little girl had got ready the costume asked for
by the Queen and the Princess de Lamballe.

When these visitors had gone, and the commotion they caused had
subsided, I was left alone with the cure, Pierrette and her mother
having withdrawn in great excitement to "try on" the contents of the box
which the Queen had sent in exchange for the little girl's frock and
cap.

My guardian then requested me to relate to him the occurrences of the
morning, which I did, somewhat more briefly than I have told them here.

[Illustration: "THE OTHER LADY NOW CAME FORWARD."]

"And it is for this you would leave us, my son?" said my old friend,
when I had ended my recital, holding my hands in his. For a long time he
pleaded earnestly with me, setting forth the numerous hardships, perils,
and temptations of a soldier's life, which, said he, would unfit me for
becoming the husband of such a good, pure little being as Pierrette.

To all which I replied, doggedly:--

"I wish to be a soldier."

I had my way.

III.

I enlisted into the noble corps of the Royal Auvergne. My training
began, and I was promised that, if I behaved well, I should be admitted
by-and-by into the first company of Grenadiers. I soon had a powdered
_queue_ falling in an imposing fashion over my white vest, but I no
longer had Pierrette, or her mother, or the cure of Montreuil, and I
made no more music.

One fine day, when I, confined to the barracks, was undergoing some
absurd little punishment for having made three errors in the man