less reaching after military glory,
the weary, cynical adventurer, that the boy at St. Cyr took as his
model.

Royalist as was Harden-Hickey by birth and tradition, and Royalist as
he always remained, it was the court at the Tuileries that filled his
imagination. The Bourbons, whom he served, hoped some day for a court;
at the Tuileries there was a court, glittering before his physical eyes.
The Bourbons were pleasant old gentlemen, who later willingly supported
him, and for whom always he was equally willing to fight, either with
his sword or his pen. But to the last, in his mind, he carried pictures
of the Second Empire as he, as a boy, had known it.

Can you not imagine the future James the First, barelegged, in a
black-belted smock, halting with his nurse, or his priest, to gaze up in
awestruck delight at the great, red-breeched Zouaves lounging on guard
at the Tuileries?

"When I grow up," said little James to himself, not knowing that he
never would grow up, "I shall have Zouaves for _my_ palace guard."

And twenty years later, when he laid down the laws for his little
kingdom, you find that the officers of his court must wear the mustache,
"_a la_ Louis Napoleon," and that the Zouave uniform will be worn by the
Palace Guards.

In 1883, while he still was at the War College, his father died, and
when he graduated, which he did with honors, he found himself his own
master. His assets were a small income, a perfect knowledge of the
French language, and the reputation of being one of the most expert
swordsman in Paris. He chose not to enter the army, and instead became
a journalist, novelist, duellist, an _habitue_ of the Latin Quarter and
the boulevards.

As a novelist the titles of his books suggest their quality. Among
them are: "Un Amour Vendeen," "Lettres d'un Yankee," "Un Amour dans
le Monde," "Memoires d'un Gommeux," "Merveilleuses Aventures de
Nabuchodonosor, Nosebreaker."

Of the Catholic Church he wrote seriously, apparently with deep
conviction, with high enthusiasm. In her service as a defender of the
faith he issued essays, pamphlets, "broadsides." The opponents of the
Church in Paris he attacked relentlessly.

As a reward for his championship he received the title of baron.

In 1878, while only twenty-four, he married the Countess de Saint-Pery,
by whom he had two children, a boy and a girl, and three years later
he started _Triboulet_. It was this paper that made him famous to "all
Paris."