CHAPTER XII.

We left Graham Vane slowly recovering from the attack of fever which had
arrested his journey to Berlin in quest of the Count von Rudesheimn. He
was, however, saved the prosecution of that journey, and his direction
turned back to France by a German newspaper which informed him that the
King of Prussia was at Rheims, and that the Count von Rudesheim was among
the eminent personages gathered there around their sovereign. In
conversing the same day with the kindly doctor who attended him, Graham
ascertained that this German noble held a high command in the German
armies, and bore a no less distinguished reputation as a wise political
counsellor than he had earned as a military chief. As soon as he was
able to travel, and indeed before the good doctor sanctioned his
departure, Graham took his way to Rheims, uncertain, however, whether the
Count would still be found there. I spare the details of his journey,
interesting as they were. On reaching the famous and, in the eyes of
Legitimists, the sacred city, the Englishman had no difficulty in
ascertaining the house, not far from the cathedral, in which the Count
von Rudesheim had taken his temporary abode. Walking towards it from the
small hotel in which he had been lucky enough to find a room disengaged--
slowly, for he was still feeble--he was struck by the quiet conduct of
the German soldiery, and, save in their appearance, the peaceful aspect
of the streets. Indeed, there was an air of festive gaiety about the
place, as in an English town in which some popular regiment is quartered.
The German soldiers thronged the shops, buying largely; lounged into the
cafes; here and there attempted flirtations with the _grisettes_, who
laughed at their French and blushed at their compliments; and in their
good-humoured, somewhat bashful cheeriness, there was no trace of the
insolence of conquest.