portrait.

"Let us make a mine!" he then exclaimed, and the conversation was
suddenly interrupted, as if they had found some fresh and
powerful subject of interest. The mine was his invention, his
method of destruction, and his favorite amusement.

When he left the chateau, the lawful owner, Count Fernand d'Amoys
d'Urville, had not had time to carry away or to hide anything,
except the plate, which had been stowed away in a hole made in
one of the walls, so that, as he was very rich and had good
taste, the large drawing-room, which opened into the dining-room,
had looked like the gallery in a museum, before his precipitate
flight.

Expensive oil-paintings, water-colors, and drawings hung upon the
walls, while on the tables, on the hanging shelves, and in
elegant glass cupboards, there were a thousand knickknacks: small
vases, statuettes, groups in Dresden china, grotesque Chinese
figures, old ivory, and Venetian glass, which filled the large
room with their precious and fantastical array.

Scarcely anything was left now; not that the things had been
stolen, for the major would not have allowed that, but
Mademoiselle Fifi WOULD HAVE A MINE, and on that occasion all the
officers thoroughly enjoyed themselves for five minutes. The
little marquis went into the drawing-room to get what he wanted,
and he brought back a small, delicate china teapot, which he
filled with gunpowder, and carefully introduced a piece of German
tinder into it, through the spout. Then he lighted it, and took