he undisguised
aspect of the blessing conveyed by that jagged fragment of a Prussian
shell, which, killing his horse and ripping open his thigh, saved him
from an active conflict with his conscience. After the last fourteen
years spent sword in hand in the saddle, and with the sense of his duty
done to the very end, General D'Hubert found resignation an easy virtue.
His sister was delighted with his reasonableness. "I leave myself
altogether in your hands, my dear Leonie," he had said to her.

He was still laid up when, the credit of his brother-in-law's family
being exerted on his behalf, he received from the royal government not
only the confirmation of his rank, but the assurance of being retained
on the active list. To this was added an unlimited convalescent leave.
The unfavourable opinion entertained of him in Bonapartist circles,
though it rested on nothing more solid than the unsupported
pronouncement of General Feraud, was directly responsible for General
D'Hubert's retention on the active list. As to General Feraud, his rank
was confirmed, too. It was more than he dared to expect; but Marshal
Soult, then Minister of War to the restored king, was partial to
officers who had served in Spain. Only not even the marshal's protection
could secure for him active employment. He remained irreconcilable,
idle, and sinister. He sought in obscure restaurants the company of
other half-pay officers who cherished dingy but glorious old tricolour
cockades in their breast-pockets, and buttoned with the forbidden eagle
buttons their shabby uniforms, declaring themselves too poor to afford
the expense of the prescribed change.

The triumphant return from Elba, an historical fact as marvellous and
incredible as the exploits of some mythological demi-god, found General
D'Hubert still quite unable to sit a horse. Neither could he walk very
well. These disabilities, which Madame Leonie accounted most lucky,
helped to keep her brother out of all possible mischief. His frame
of mind at that time, she noted with dismay, became very far from
reasonable. This general officer, still menaced by the loss of a limb,
was discovered one night in the stables of the chateau by a groom,
who, seeing a light, raised an alarm of thieves. His crutch was lying
half-buried in the straw of the litter, and the general was hopping on
one leg in a loose box around a snorting horse he was trying to saddle.
Such were the effects of imperial magic upon a cal