fiercely pounding the ground.

"Tut! tut!" said he. "A lie! a pretty lie! I knew all the Napoleons--
Joseph, Lucien, Louis, Jerome, Caroline, Eliza, Pauline--all! I have
seen them every one. And their children--pah! Who can deceive me? I
will go to Pontiac, I will see to this tomfoolery. I'll bring the rascal
to the drumhead. Does he think there is no one? Pish! I will spit
him at the first stroke. Here, here, Manette," he cried to his grand-
daughter; "fetch out my uniform, give it an airing, and see to the
buttons. I will show this brag how one of the Old Guard looked at
Saint Jean. Quick, Manette, my sabre polish; I'll clean my musket,
and to-morrow I will go to Pontiac. I'll put the scamp through his
facings--but yes! I am eighty, but I have an arm of thirty." True to
his word, the next morning at daybreak he started to walk to Pontiac,
accompanied for a mile or so by Manette and a few of the villagers.

"See you, my child," he said, "I will stay with my niece, Desire Malboir,
and her daughter Elise, there in Pontiac. You shall hear how I fetch
that vagabond to his potage!"

Valmond had purchased a tolerable white horse through Medallion. After a
day's grooming the beast showed off very well; and he was now seen riding
about the parish, dressed after the manner of the First Napoleon, with a
cocked hat and a short sword at his side. He rode well, and the silver
and pennies he scattered were most fruitful of effect from the martial
elevation. He happened to be riding into the village at one end as
Sergeant Lagroin entered it at the other, each going towards the Louis
Quinze. Valmond knew nothing of Sergeant Lagroin, so that what followed
was of the inspiration of the moment. It sprang from his wit, and from
his knowledge of Napoleon and the Napoleonic history, a knowledge which