Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/200

176 to be Still awaiting the news that his portfolio had been restored to him. That was his daily and hourly thought,—a hobby as innocent as that of Uncle Toby,—and after he had expressed his pleasure at seeing me again, his conversation was of nothing but the ingratitude of the French nation, and the admirable projects for the improvement of the army that he had intended to carry out.

"Ah," he said, "how sorry I was to hear you had emigrated. What a fine chance of promotion you would have had if you had remained with us. You had been through the war in America, and, when I was Minister, I would have given you whatever you asked for."

That would have been easy enough for him, it is true, but, all other considerations apart, his present condition was not calculated to make me regret the step I had taken, for all that remained to his Excellency of all his former grandeur,—which had lasted but six months,—was a little farm in the New World, a couple of leagues from the primaeval forests, and within