vil, and do his duty." The young
couple looked at the Prince with terror, for his brow was moody, and on
his lips--across which irony, gayety, and sarcasm so often played--there
were now the marks of anger, menace, and indignation.

The old man spoke thus: "After leaving Mettan, whither I had followed
the Princess, I went to Naples in 1792. Like almost all the _emigres_ of
that day, I had no money. One of the first Frenchmen I met with in that
city was Count Max de Nangis, with whom I had previously become
acquainted in the strangest manner. We had been educated by the
Benedictines, but our scholastic success was most unequal; for the Count
saw me regularly surpass him, and carry away every college prize. He
naturally disliked me. When we had entered society, our whimsical hate
continued,--so that I seemed born to be the evil genius of the Count. If
our horses were entered for the same stake, mine won the purse;
sometimes by a length or a head only--but they won. If the Count fell in
love, he did so with a woman that loved me, and the Count was soon sent
adrift. My marriage soon capped the climax. Count Max had a charming
cousin, Mlle. de Devonne, whom he loved passionately. Their marriage had
been quietly agreed on between the families, and was to be solemnized on
the majority of M. de Nangis. I was introduced to the Duke de Devonne,
and saw his daughter, the most beautiful woman of the Court. After a
short time I became passionately in love with her. I soon saw that my
love was returned, and as the marriage to which I have referred had only
been a matter of family-talk, known to a few friends, but not to the
public, my father induced the Dauphin to ask the Duke de Nangis for his
daughter's hand for me. Unwilling to offend the Prince, led astray by
the manifest interest of his daughter, and anxious to gratify her, the
Duke consented. The Count de Nangis was enraged, and challenged me;--I
wounded him in the arm. We fought again;--I wounded him in the thigh. He
challenged me again; and I run him through the body; he was forced to be
satisfied. All these duels took place in the county of _Saluces_, in
Savoy,--then belonging to my family, and whither I had gone to attend to
business-matters. I married Mlle. de Devonne, who was your noble and
excellent mother,"--this was said to Henri, "I have told you this to
explain the hatred which had existed so long a time in the heart of M.
de Nangis, when we met at Naples, in 1792. Th