mother's absence. My father's agreement having been obtained, I left
and was installed there. "What!" you may say, "A boy amongst young
ladies?" Well yes, but do not forget that I was a quiet, peaceable,
obedient child, and I was only eight years old.

The boarders who stayed with Mlle. Mongalvi, where my mother had
once been one of them, were young persons of some sixteen to twenty
years of age; the youngest being at least fourteen, and were sensible
enough to let me mingle with them.

On my arrival, all this little feminine flock gathered about me
and received me with such cries of pleasure and warm caresses that,
from the first instant, I thought myself lucky to have made this
trip. I figured that it would not last long and I believe that,
secretly, I even regretted that I would have only a short time to
spend with these nice young ladies, who did everything to please me
and argued as to who was to hold my hand.

However, my mother left and went to stay with my uncle. Events
moved forward rapidly. The terror bathed France in blood. Civil war
broke, out in the Vendée and in Brittany. Travel there became
absolutely impossible, so that my mother, who had thought to spend
two or three months at Rennes, found herself stuck there for several
years.

My father continued on active service in the Pyrenees and in
Spain, where his ability and courage had raised him to the rank of
divisional general; while I, having gone as a boarder for a few
months, stayed for some four years, which were for me years of much
happiness, clouded only, from time to time, by the memory of my