been anything like a friend, had defended his cause with the most loyal energy, while favorites and satellites had forsaken him and fled. We can only quote a part of Macdonald's description of his well-known parting with the fallen conqueror; the marshal, it will be seen, seems to have been not aware that Napoleon had taken poison a few hours before:

we fell into each other's arms and cordially embraced."

With a characteristic sense of honor, Macdonald refused to declare for the Bourbons, until the treaty of abdication had been ratified. He stood alone with Caulaincourt in taking this part: M. de Talleyrand came forward and said, 'Now that all is finished, we ask you gentlemen, to express your adhesion to the new order of things.' Marshal Ney hastened to say he had done so. 'I do not address myself to you, but to the Dukes of Tarentum and Vicenza.' I simply replied that I refused, and Caulaincourt said the same.'

He was

"The emperor, shaking off his sad thoughts, sat up with a less preoccupied look; but his complexion had not changed, his countenance was dark with melancholy. 'I feel a little better,' he said, and then added: Duke of Tarentumn, I am deeply moved and most The same fearless and chivalrous spirit grateful for your conduct and devoted- distinguished the later parts of MacdonESS. I did not know you well; I had ald's career. He had kept aloof from been put on my guard against you; I the Bourbons, as became his position, have done much for and enriched many but he remained true to them through others, but they have abandoned and all the changes of fortune. deserted me, and you, who owed me made a peer of France by Louis XVIII., nothing, have remained faithful! I ap- and received one of the great provincial preciate your loyalty when it is too late; governments, bestowed on the marshals and I sincerely regret that my present as props of the throne. But he persituation does not permit me to recog-ceived and resented the faults of the nize it, and that I can only thank you Bourbons; and he has dwelt, in these by words. I know that your sense of pages, at some length on the follies of honor and disinterestedness have left the returned émigrés, on the violence of You without a fortune. I am aware, the extreme Royalist faction, and the 100, that you nobly refused in 1809 to infatuated policy which combined all accept a donation from the Estates of the interests of the Revolution against Gratz, in token of their gratitude for the the monarchy. Especially mischievous strict discipline and good order you were the progresses of the royal princes, maintained among my troops, and for made in the hope of winning popular Four perfect equity in doing justice to all. favor, but only arousing anger and bad Ihave been rich and powerful, I am now blood, owing to a series of extravagant poor. I flatter myself,' I answered, errors; and he boldly expressed his views that your Majesty esteems me suffi- on the subject. "The princes were surantly to believe that I would not ac- rounded by their partisans alone; they pt a recompense from you in your only saw the men of the old régime; present position; my conduct and you they had nothing but words of feigned ane it too highly- was wholly disin- politeness for the authorities, which, for erested. This I know,' he said, clasp- want of proper appointments, had not my hand; but you may, without been changed. Their Royal Highnesses t to your delicacy of mind, accept saw and learned nothing, for they looked other kind of gift-I mean, the sabre through the eyes of men full of the Mourad Bey, worn by myself at the passions of the past. The result was Battle of Mount Thabor; keep it in re- mistrust and discontent more strongly mbrance of me and of my friend- excited." p. He had it sent for, and offered After the extraordinary return of Name; I thought I might take a pres-poleon from Elba, Macdonald was placed of the kind; I thanked him warmly; in command at Lyons, and did his best

to resist the imperial exile. He had person, and that he proposed a public resolved to lead in person a few daring or private interview, at my choice. I men, and to fire on the little band which at once replied, that I had been true to attended the emperor. He insists - we his cause and his person to the last mobelieve he was wholly mistaken - - that ment; that I had other engagements the enterprise might have succeeded: which I would fulfil with the same loy"It is a proof that my calculations werealty, and that Napoleon doubtless esnot irrational, that when I was at teemed me enough not to flatter himself Bourges, after the army had submitted, that he could lead me astray by allurethe Grenadiers of the island of Elba, ments of wealth to this, a high office. soldiers, officers, nay, the commandant I had formed a decided resolve which himself, were all, being asked one after nothing could shake, and that it was the other, unanimous in declaring that useless to persist any further." they were enchanted at returning to France, but that had they met the least resistance, the least obstacle, nay, had a shot been fired, they would have thrown down their arms and asked for mercy!"

Authority, however, slipped from the marshal's hands, and he was obliged to fly from Lyons in the universal revolt of the soldiery gathering around their unforgotten chief. On his return to Paris. he found the king still hopeful, owing to the pledges of Ney; and the unfortunate marshal, it appears certain, uttered the celebrated words which were laid to his charge: "I have great confidence in Marshal Ney," said the king; "he has promised to arrest him, and to bring him in an iron cage.

Macdonald evidently was indignant with Ney, whose conduct had shocked Napoleon himself: "Our carriages were facing each other, when a voice from his desired it to stop. Go to Paris,' he said; you will be well received; the emperor will give you a friendly welcome.' I shall dispense with his politeness,' was my answer; 'I will not see him, and I will not join his party.'

6

The marshal took no part in the Royalist movement which agitated Paris after Waterloo. The highest honors were properly bestowed on him at the second restoration of Louis XVIII.; he was made chancellor of the Legion of Honor; had the refusal of the ministry of war; and was given the command of the still powerful army which had reMacdonald entreated the king not to treated behind the Loire. This was a go to La Vendée, when the triumph of delicate and most difficult trust; the Napoleon had become certain; and urged | soldiery were exasperated at their late Louis XVIII. to remain in France. He defeat, and at what they rightly deemed bade the monarch farewell on the frontier, for he did not choose to bear the odious name of émigré; his language was characteristic: "I have loyally done all that in me lay to support the authority of your Majesty, and to keep your Majesty in your dominions; you choose to leave them; I will conduct you in safety to the frontier, but I will not go further."

the vile treason of Fouché; and the higher ranks swarmed with partisans of Napoleon, fearing for their lives, and detesting the Bourbons. Macdonald admirably fulfilled his mission, won the hearts of the troops, and restored discipline, and saved many officers from proscription and death. He tells us how he baffled the emissaries who had been sent by the Junta in Paris, to arrest and immolate some of the bravest men in France: 'At the close of the day Body Guards in disguise presented themselves to me. They had been furnished by the commandants of the gendarmerie with directions to obey the orders of these gentlemen, and to arrest the persons named in the ordinances. . . . I did not know how to find out those who hac

The marshal remained quiescent dur- | ing the Hundred Days, and turned a deaf ear to Napoleon's overtures conveyed in flattering terms by Davoust: "He said that he had been sent, on the part of the emperor, to repeat the ex pression of his gratitude on account of my conduct in the last agony of the Empire; that he wished to thank me in

...

been threatened in order to give them | result, even if Napoleon had not made warning. The Prince of Eckmühl had his appearance." just left me. . . . I called on him at once, and told him of what was on foot. 'At once,' I said, 'give notice to every individual contained in these lists; send messengers to the cantonments; they will have eight or nine hours to escape.' I do not know how it was accomplished, but they all got off well, even General Laborde, who had the gout."

These "Reminiscences" close at this point, and we shall not dwell on Macdonald's later years. The marshal died, full of honors, in 1840, a few weeks before the remains of Napoleon were brought from St. Helena and restored to France. He was a most striking figure among the warriors of an extraordinary time, and it may be truly said of him Unfortunate Ney might, it seems, that, in the land of Bayard, the son of a have escaped; jealousy had been one of Jacobite-Scottish gentleman was one of his motives for abandoning the king; the very few soldiers who deserved the and jealousy, perhaps, led to his cruel proud title sans peur et sans reproche fate. In truth, he had not been himself in his revolutionary and troubled day. since he had betrayed the Bourbons; this had been evident at Quatre Bras and Waterloo:

"Unhappy Marshal Ney might have had this advantage, had he at once made use of the passports obtained by his wife from the leaders of the allied armies. She begged him on her knees not to lose a moment and to set off. He dryly replied, Madame, you are thinking of getting rid of me!' The unfortunate widow told me herself this characteristic tale."

WILLIAM O'CONOR MORIS.

From Temple Bar.

THE BLACK BUTTERFLY.

CHAPTER I.

THE year was 1795, a year of bloodshed, reprisals émeutes, terror, though Robespierre was dead.

Between the rivers Isle and Dronne, the gilded vanes and conical tourelles of two grand châteaux still peered up through the woods untouched by the Revolution.

The Marquis de Roseambeau was 2 lad of eighteen, who had been for the last two years with his governor at Heidelberg, for whose sake, the aunt who had brought him up prayed for peace more devoutly than ever, for she was expecting him home. His sister, one year younger, had only been the charge of Madame de Palcire from the time when the young widow De Roseambeau fled with other court poltroons, and flung the girl on the truly maternal heart that had made an idol of the brother.

Macdonald used all his influence, unfortunately in vain, to disabuse the government of the false notion, that a conspiracy had been formed to bring Napoleon from Elba, and strove to moderate the frenzy of the vindictive Royalists. He freely declared his mind to the king: "The conversation turned upon the existing position of affairs and on the causes which had produced it; reckless charges were made, that all parties, specially the army, had entered into a rast plot to overthrow the royal governent and to restore Napoleon. I inisted, on the contrary, that the errors the ministers I could speak boldly of these, for they had been openly conssed in the proclamation from Cam- Monsieur de Palcire was not a deay-the prodigalities, the iniquities, ceased saint, but a living sinner, who, e abuses, the powers that had been finding domestic ties galling, and ongly conferred, the violation of the scarcely comme il faut, bade his wife arter, the arrogance, the scorn shown adieu, and went to enjoy himself in those in high places-that all this, a word, had exasperated the army ad a part of the nation, and that a rious agitation would have been the

Naples and Florence. Unfortunately Monique had loved him, and so had gone through the fevered anguish of a wound dealt by a beloved hand, which

is most merciful when it is a death- movements pleasant to watch, a crisp blow.

The second château, that of Surcigny, was the property of an unmarried, middle-aged noble who had lived abroad until he had come unexpcetedly into the title and estates. There was no particular interest left him in life, but to complete his collection of precious stones, and to be Madame de Palcire's neighbor.

That platonic affection had risen from the ashes of the grand passion of his life, entertained for her when she was on the eve of her unhappy marriage, and he a superfluous cadet of a ducal family. Now he was a duke, and M. de Palcire persisted in his iniquitous existence.

nimbus of fair hair like a child's with
out a touch of meretricious yellow,
face with a child's exquisite modelling
and the tint of a white orchid. But the
eyes-lustrous, dark splendors were
not the eyes of a child.
The pretty
follies of Madame de Roseambeau's cir
cle had been a hotbed for precocious-
development, and Vivienne was only toda
quick a learner. She came to her aunt's
side and sighed.

Madame de Palcire looked up and
asked what the sigh meant. Then ther
girl went down on her knees, folded her
hands together, those dimpled models
and looked all sorrowful innocence. "
have come to confess a sin," she said.
"One sin, indeed! the hundred and
first! ""

The balmy darkness of an early April "The hundred go for nothing. Mon night had closed in over the undulating sieur le duc knows that I am a scrib. woods and brown corn-fields. Patches bler. Well, it came into my head to write a brochure on the follies, rivalries and crimes of those dogs of the Convention."

of yellow brilliance here and there alone broke the mass of the Château Roseambeau.

A card-table lit by an enormous silver candelabra stood at one end of a long saloon, at which sat a lady and gentleman playing piquet with the courteous gaiety that was once the heritage of France.

They were a handsome couple of the finest aristocratic type; both wore their hair in powder; both were in rich velvets and silks touched here and there with the sparkle of a diamond and the softness of a lace ruffle. In face, even, they were somewhat alike, though Madame de Palcire's eyes were blue, and the duke's dark hazel. The blue eyes were singularly sad and sweet with the bistre tint that suffering had left round them. Furthermore these friends were both pitiful and courteous to peasants, patient with stupidity, dependable in trouble, sane and generous in judgment, waiting with trust in the Divine guidance of the world for the resurrection of France.

The door opened, and Vivienne de Roseambeau sauntered up the room looking like a priceless Dresden figure, all in white. She was slight, small, and perfectly formed, with airy, graceful

"Mon Dieu! burn it my child!"

“But I sent it to René, and he sent it to an old school-friend, and he got it printed.”

"Le diable!" murmured the duke.

66 They call these political satires Black Butterflies,' in Paris," said Vivienne; "and mine was not very stupid, for what happened? all Paris bought and laughed."

"Mon Dieu!" murmured Madame de Palcire again, turning pale.

"Well, just now I received an ex press from René's friend, for René, ir fact, saying in cypher, Fly! your name has transpired.'

66

De Surcigny swept away the cards and stood up. Monique pushed back her chair. "My poor little fool, thi: means ruin!" she said, with a broker voice.

"But René is safe?"

"Ah thank God for that! In a fev days he might have been here, and then

"Our Sappho might almost hav wished she had been born an idiot," fin ished the duke, with tender severity.

And while they were talking some

side the dark château, up the Queen's a long adieu." Ride, through which poor Marie Antoi

netie had come to her favorite's wed- meanwhile permit me to stay and see ding twenty years ago; tramp, tramp, along the terrace, until the short, sharp Word of command, and the grounding of arms told their tale came the nation's messengers of fate.

"Of what is mademoiselle accused ?" the colonel of De Surcigny. The latter

"This is foolery," broke in the sourfaced lieutenant, who had made the capture, see for yourself, colonel, this "How long do you allow us for prep- enemy of France, and friend of foreign vation, sir ?" invaders, is as like the woman,

Till six to-morrow morning, ma- aunt, as two haricot beans." dame."