Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 6.djvu/43

REIGN OF CHARLES IX 9 The captain, favourably impressed already by the distinguished mien and elegant dress of the stranger, answered that he was much hon- oured. And forthwith Mademoiselle Mila, the gipsy girl of whom we have spoken, made room for the stranger on the bench beside her; and being of a very obliging disposition, gave him her own glass, which the captain promptly fiUed.

"My name is Dietrich Hornstein," said he as he clinked glasses with the young man. " You have doubtless heard of Captain Dietrich Horn- stein. 'Twas I led the forlorn hope at the battle of Dreux, and at Arnay-le-Duc afterwards."

The stranger understood this indirect way of asking him his own name, and answered, " I am sorry, captain, that I can not give you a name as famous as your own — as famous, that is to say, on my own account, for my father's has made noise enough in our civil wars. Men call me Bernard de Mergy."

"You tell the name to the right ears," cried the captain, filling his glass to the brim. "I knew your father, M. Bernard de Mergy. I have known him since the first civil war as one knows an intimate friend. His health, Master Bernard."

The captain held out his glass and said a few words in German to the troopers, who at