not owe him some money. Selves asserted the fact to be so, and the friendly judge contrived to represent the accusation as a trick of the denouncer to avoid payment of a just debt. The attempt succeeded-yet, that the auto da fé of liberty might not be cheated of a victim, the court substituted the plaintiff for the defendant-and Selves at once obtained his own freedom and ample satisfaction on his prosecutor. But the boy who attended his father on the walls well remembered the scene of domestic anguish-while the mother, believing herself a widow, sat weeping among her children, and would not be comforted, till the well-known knock at the door roused her in an ecstasy of astonishment, and she fell into the arms of the husband so miraculously rescued. And her dark hair, blanched by those few hours of mental agony, remained as one of the many tokens of that impartial tempest which spared neither the most elevated nor the least obtrusive classes of society.

Thus early initiated in the severest realities of life, the boy grew up, and soon desired to take his share in the mighty battle which France was then waging with the world. The profession of the navy was open to everyone who passed the requisite examination, and young Selves was ad

mitted as aspirant de marine. In this capacity he showed great intelligence and undaunted courage, and was engaged in that conflict which Napoleon announced to his council as the loss of some vessels by the severity of the weather, after a combat imprudently engaged in,' but which we English remember as the Battle of Trafalgar. He was on board the vessel from which the shot was fired that mingled a nation's sorrow with a nation's triumph, and years afterwards he recounted the circumstances of the death of Nelson to those who escorted him, an honoured guest, over the battered hulk of the 'Victory.'

A short time afterwards the midshipman Selves fought a superior officer in a duel, at Toulon, about a lady, and had the misfortune to give a fatal wound to his adversary. Fearing the consequences, he determined not to return to his ship, but to try and seek employment in the Army of Italy, then flushed with triumph, but glad to receive young and vigorous recruits. He passed several regiments till he came to one of light cavalry which he thought would suit him, saw the commander, and frankly told him the story of his desertion; his former captain, when applied to, verified his statement, and what is more, interested himself to get

him formally transferred from the one service to the other, which was effected without much difficulty. Soon after his enrolment in the regiment it became necessary to instruct the cavalry soldiers in infantry practice, and young Selves' knowledge of the exercise was of the greatest use and brought him into general notice.

The incidents of a life which is all adventure are rarely recorded, and though the old soldier would gladly relate how his commission and his cross were won, and though he has a tale of every field and an illustration for every page of that wild and varied volume of the world's work, it is from his own lips they should come, narrated with epic simplicity, and full of the hero-worship, the selfsacrifice, and the unconsciousness of that great pagan episode of modern history.

During the Russian campaign he acted as aidede-camp to Marshal Ney, and saved his own life in the retreat by judiciously buying a fur pelisse from a soldier at an enormous price.

After the occupation of Paris, in 1814, he submitted unwillingly to remain in the army, but was one of the first to join the standard of Napoleon the following year. You should hear him tell the story himself. He was quartered at Lyons, his

native town; the regiment was ordered out for inspection; the commanding officer announced to them the escape of the late Emperor from Elba, depicted the evils that would ensue, and energetically called on them to preserve their fidelity to the Bourbons, and protect their country from the desolating ambition which had brought it to the brink of ruin. Nothing was said, but glances were exchanged, and soon after Colonel Selves and other officers found themselves on the road towards Grenoble. There was a cloud of dust, and out of it rode the well-known form, and the magic voice uttered, 'Ah, Selves! je vous reconnais; est-ce qu'on m'attend?' 'Partout, Sire, partout!' and Selves followed him to Waterloo. During that fatal day he was on the staff of Grouchy, and urgently represented to that general the propriety of joining the main body of the army as soon as the Prussians, whom he had sent to intercept, were out of sight. Had this juncture been effected, it would, indisputably, have greatly influenced, and a Frenchman may believe might have altered, the event of the day.

On the second restoration of the Bourbons so zealous an Imperialist was naturally set aside; and finding himself, in company with a large body of

fellow-officers, in an equivocal and disagreeable position, he proposed to the Government to give them a ship, and allow them to form a colony in some of the islands of Oceania; the charms of Taiti having even then captivated the French imagination. The proposal was rejected, and then Selves set out alone, determined to find fame and fortune in some less ordered and civilised community than that which now hardly owned him as a citizen. The name of Mehemet Ali had already become known to Europe as that of a successful proconsul who had not only by a combination of subtlety and courage destroyed one of the most regular and powerful military organisations that ever tyrannised over a subject country, but was attempting, by the introduction of European discipline and policy, to give a new value and character to the land and people of Egypt. The dynasties of Napoleon and Kleber had left behind them that tradition of strength so grateful to orientals, and, as a distinguished officer of the Great

* Taiti has long been an Eldorado in France. Poor Camille Desmoulins, writing to his wife the night before his execution, reproaches himself for having mixed in these tumultuous scenes, being far more fitted by nature to form a Taiti of peace and happiness with those he loved.