m temperament and
a pondered mind. Beset in the light of stable lanterns, by the tears,
entreaties, indignation, remonstrances and reproaches of his family, he
got out of the difficult situation by fainting away there and then in
the arms of his nearest relatives, and was carried off to bed. Before he
got out of it again, the second reign of Napoleon, the Hundred Days of
feverish agitation and supreme effort, passed away like a terrifying
dream. The tragic year 1815, begun in the trouble and unrest of
consciences, was ending in vengeful proscriptions.

How General Feraud escaped the clutches of the Special Commission and
the last offices of a firing squad he never knew himself. It was partly
due to the subordinate position he was assigned during the Hundred Days.
The Emperor had never given him active command, but had kept him busy
at the cavalry depot in Paris, mounting and despatching hastily drilled
troopers into the field. Considering this task as unworthy of his
abilities, he had discharged it with no offensively noticeable zeal; but
for the greater part he was saved from the excesses of Royalist reaction
by the interference of General D'Hubert.

This last, still on convalescent leave, but able now to travel, had been
despatched by his sister to Paris to present himself to his legitimate
sovereign. As no one in the capital could possibly know anything of the
episode in the stable he was received there with distinction. Military
to the very bottom of his soul, the prospect of rising in his profession
consoled him from finding himself the butt of Bonapartist malevolence,
which pursued him with a persistence he could not account for. All the
rancour of that embittered and persecuted party pointed to him as the
man who had never loved the Emperor--a sort of monster essentially worse
than a mere betrayer.

General D'Hubert shrugged his shoulders without anger at this ferocious
prejudice. Rejected by his old friends, and mistrusting profoundly the
advances of Royalist society, the young and handsome general (he was
barely forty) adopted a manner of cold, punctilious courtesy, which
at the merest shadow of an intended slight passed easily into harsh
haughtiness. Thus prepared, General D'Hubert went about his affairs in
Paris feeling inwardly very happy with the peculiar uplifting happiness
of a man very much in love. The charming girl looked out by his sister
had come upon the scene, and had conquered him in the thoroug