Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/35

Rh and my aunt made it her constant care to spitefully exaggerate all my faults and depict them as crimes to my uncle, and through him to my father, who was a hundred leagues away from the capital.

It was made to appear that all the laws of nature and the divine order of things had been upset, because a blundering, stupid school-boy of sixteen had committed a few trifling excesses. Of course, I had had recourse to the money-lenders. They are ready enough to come to the aid of any extravagant young man, but I had saved them that trouble by going to them. The whole extent of my vice was, that I was acquainted with some young women of easy morals, and had made some debts, which, as I was allowed no pocket-money, and was not a coiner, was hardly a matter for surprise. What they said, or what they did, or what charges my aunt brought against me, I know not, but it is certain that my father was led to regard me as a monster of iniquity, and not only to give his consent, but even to order, that a family council should be called to delib-