He was, I have no doubt,
a pretty good-tempered man; he was certainly warm-hearted; his apparent
harshness to his balloon-venders was probably nothing more than
necessary parental severity, and he was always ready to recognize their
successes. But I have never seen a more wicked and desperate expression
than an allusion to Alsace called up in his face and in his whole
bearing. Sometimes he would laugh, when I mentioned the severed
province; but it was with a hard, metallic, cruel laugh.' He felt the
loss as he would have felt the loss of a limb. The first time I brought
up the topic, I saw the whole bitter story of the dismembering of
France.

There was another subject which called out that same bitter revengeful
look, and that cruel nasal laugh,--the royalist factions and the
Bonapartists. When we spoke of them, and I watched his face and heard
his soulless laughter, I saw the French Revolution.

But he could always be brought back to open childish delight and warmth
by a reference to the United States. Our government, in his eyes,
embodied all that was good. France was now a "_republique_," to be sure,
and he rejoiced in the fact; but he plainly felt the power and settled
stability of our republic, and he seemed to have a filial devotion
toward it closely akin to his love for Auguste.

How fortunate we were! Here were no _Legitimistes_, no _Orleanistes_, no
_Bonapartistes_, for a perpetual menace! Here all citizens, however
else their views might differ, believed, at least, in the republic,
and desired to stay her hands. There were no factions here continually
plotting in the darkness. Here the machinery of government was all in
view, and open to discussion and improvement Ah, what a proud, happy
country is this!"_Que c'est une republique!_"

I gathered enthusiasm myself from this stranger's ardor for the country
of his adoption. I think that I appreciated better, through him, the
free openness of our institutions. It is of great advantage to meet an
intense man, of associations different from your own, who, by his very
intensity and narrowness, instantly puts you at his standpoint. I viewed
the United States from the shores of a sister republic which has
to contend against strong and organized political forces not fully
recognized in the laws, working beneath the surface, which nevertheless
are facts.

One acquaintance leads to another. Through Sorel, whose house was the
final resort of Frenchmen in distress, a