Page:Scribner's Monthly, Volume 12 (May–October 1876).djvu/182

176 PHILIP NOLAN'S FRIENDS; OR, SHOW YOUR PASSPORTS! BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE. THE INTERVIEW WITH CROOKED FEATHER. CHAPTER XV. COURTS AND CAMPS. WELL loved that splendid monarch aye The banquet and the song, The merry dance, traced fast and light, The maskers quaint, the pageant bright, The revel loud and long. Here to the harp did minstrels sing; There others touched a softer string; While some, in close recess apart, Courted the ladies of their heart, Nor courted them in vain. —MARMION. OUR little history draws again upon these yellow files of ancient letters. SILAS PERRY TO EUNICE PERRY. Passy, near Paris, Nov. 16, 1800. MY DEAR SISTER, —We have had a wonderful run. Look at the date, and wonder, when you know that I have been here a week. I have good news for you in every way. First, that our dear boy is well, –strong, manly, gentlemanly, –and not unwilling to come home. He thought I should not know him in his cadet uniform, as he stood waiting for me in the court-yard where the post-chaise brought me. But, Lord! I should have known him in a million. Yet he is stronger—–stouter—–has the air militaire wonderfully; and they do not wear their hair as our officers do. This is my first great news. The second you would read in the gazettes, if you were not sure to read this first. It is, that France and America are firm friends again: —no more captures at sea, no more mock war. This First Consul knows what he is about, —he told his brother Joseph what to do, and he did it. On the 3Oth of September the treaty was signed, —the right of search is all settled, —and commerce is to be free on both sides. Had I known this on the 3Oth of September, I might not have come. For all that, I am glad I am here.

3rd bit of news. And this is "secret of secrets," as our dear mother would have said. You may tell Inez, —but swear her to secrecy. I have only told Turner and Pollock. We are no longer Spanish subjects! We are French citizens; citizens and citizenesses of the indivisible French Republic! Perhaps I do not translate citoyennes right. But that is what you and Inez are. Is not that news?

I only knew this last night. There are not ten men in Paris who know it. But by a secret article in a treaty made in Spain last month, this imbecile King of Spain has given all Louisiana back to France. There! does not that make your hair stand on end?

Of course, dear Eunice, if there should be any breath of war between the two countries, your visit