- It is

was a chevalier de St. Louis selling pâtés impossible, La Fleur! said I.- La Fleur could no more account for the phenomenon than myself, but persisted in his story: he had seen the croix set in gold, with its red riband, he said, tied to his button-hole-and had looked into the basket and seen the pâtés which the chevalier was sell– ing; so could not be mistaken in that.

Such a reverse in a man's life awakens a better principle than curiosity : I could not help looking for some time at him, as I sat in the remise the more I looked at him, his croix and his basket, the stronger they wove themselves into my brain -I got out of the remise and went towards him.

He was begirt with a clean linen apron which fell below his knees, and with a sort of a bib that went half-way up his breast: upon the top of this, but a little below the hem, hung his croix. His basket of little pâtés was covered over with a white damask napkin, another of the same kind was spread at the bottom; and there was a look of propreté and neatness throughout, that one might have bought his pátés of him, as much from appetite as sentiment.

He made an offer of them to neither; but stood still with them at the corner of a hotel, for those to buy who chose it, without solicitation.

He was about forty-eight of a sedate look, something approaching to gravity. I did not wonder.I went up rather to the basket than him,

and having lifted up the napkin, and taken one of his pâtés into my hand-I begged he would explain the appearance which affected me.

He told me in a few words, that the best part of his life had passed in the service, in which, after spending a small patrimony, he had obtained a company and the croix with it; but that at the conclusion of the last peace, his regiment being reformed, and the whole corps, with those of some other regiments, left without any provision, he found himself in a wide world, without friends, without a livre - and indeed, said he, without any thing but this-(pointing, as he said it, to his croix) — The poor chevalier won my pily, and he finished the scene with winning my es

teem too.

The king, he said, was the most generous of princes, but his generosity could neither relieve or reward every one, and it was only his misfortune to be amongst the number. He had a little wife, said he, whom he loved, who did the pâtisserie; and added, he felt no dishonour in defending her and himself from want in this way- unless Providence had offered him a better.

It would be wicked to with-hold a pleasure from the good, in passing over what happened to this poor chevalier of St. Louis about nine months after.

It seems he usually took his stand near the iron gates which lead up to the palace; and as his croix

had caught the eyes of numbers, numbers had made the same inquiry which I had done-He had told them the same story, and always with so much modesty and good sense, that it had reached at last the king's ear-who hearing the chevalier had been a gallant officer, and respected by the whole regiment as a man of honour and integrity ―he broke up his little trade by a pension of fifteen hundred livres a year.

As I have told this to please the reader, I beg he will allow me to relate another, out of its order, to please myself—the two stories reflect light upon each other, and it is a pity they should be parted.

XLV.

THE SWORD.

RENNES.

WHEN states and empires have their periods of

declension, and feel in their turns what distress and poverty is I stop not to tell the causes which gradually brought the house d'E- in Britany into decay. The marquis d'E― had fought up against his condition with great firmness; wishing to preserve and still shew to the world some little fragments of what his ancestors had beenindiscretions had put it out of his power. There was enough left for the little exigencies of obscu- . rity But he had two boys who looked up to him for light he thought they deserved it. He had tried his sword it could not open the way

their

- the mounting was too expensive—and simple œconomy was not a match for it-there was no resource but commerce.

In any other province in France, save Britany, this was smiting the root for ever of the little tree his pride and affection wished to see reblossom-But in Britany, there being a provision for this, he availed himself of it; and taking an occasion when the states were assembled at Rennes, the marquis, attended with his two boys, entered the court; and having pleaded the right of an ancient law of the duchy, which, though seldom claimed, he said, was no less in force, he took his sword from his side- Here, said he, take it, and be trusty guardians of it, till better times put me in condition to reclaim it.

The president accepted the marquis's sword -he staid a few minutes to see it deposited in the archives of the house and departed.

The marquis and his whole family embarked the next day for Martinico, and in about nineteen or twenty years of successful application to business, with some unlooked for bequests from distant branches of his house, returned home to reclaim his nobility and to support it.

It was an incident of good fortune which will never happen to any traveller, but a sentimental one, that I should be at Rennes at the very time of this solemn requisition : I call it solemn it was so to me.

The marquis entered the court with his whole family; he supported his lady his eldest son supported his sister, and his youngest was at the other extreme of the line next his mother-he put his handkerchief to his face twice

-There was a dead silence. When the marquis had approached within six paces of the tribunal, he gave the marchioness to his youngest son, and advancing three steps before his family he reclaimed his sword-His sword was given him; and the moment he got it into his hand, he drew it almost out of the scabbard it was the shining face of a friend he had once given up he looked attentively along it, beginning at the hilt, as if to see whether it was the same —when observing a little rust, which it had contracted near the point, he brought it near his eye, and bending his head down over it I think I saw a tear fall upon the place: I could not be deceived by what followed.

<< I shall find, said he, some other way to get it off. »

When the marquis had said this, he returned his sword into its scabbard, made a bow to the guardians of it - and, with his wife and daughter, and his two sons following him, walked

out.

O how I envied him his feelings!