Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/247

Rh me, coming from one of the departments annexed to France, and containing an official intimation that the name of my friend, the Chevalier de la Colombe, had been struck off the list of proscribed emigrants. I turned the letter over and over, and said to myself, "Why, this is a permission to bearer. My friend La Colombe cannot fail sooner or later to hear in the United States, through the newspapers, of the removal of his name. I will ask the French authorities at Altona for a passport in his name for Paris, and it is sure not to be re- fused."

I presented myself before M. Dietrick, the Resident of the Republic, "one and indivisible." At the moment I arrived a Gascon soldier of the body-guard was applying for a passport, and was passing himself off for a Swiss. The worthy fellow had nothing against him but his accent.

"Yes, monsou le Resident," said the applicant from the South, "I require a passport for France."

"And so you are a Swiss?" said the Resident.