“Ah, pardieu,” cried he, as he showed his white teeth in a grin; “produce your papers, if you have any.”
“I have nothing save those letters,” said I, handing him those of De Meudon.
Scarce had his eye glanced over them, when I saw his color heighten and his cheek tremble.
“What!” cried he, “are you the same young Irishman who is mentioned here, the constant companion and friend of poor Charles? He was my schoolfellow; we were at Brienne together. What a mistake I was about to fall into! How did you come, and when?”
Before I could reply to any of his many questions, the naval officer I had met at the harbor entered, and delivered his report.
“Yes, yes; I know it all,” said Dorsenne, hurriedly throwing his eye over it. “It 's all right, perfectly right, Brevix. Let Capitaine Antoine be examined at the quartier-général. I 'll take care of monsieur here. And, to begin; come and join us at supper.”
Passing his arm familiarly over my shoulder, he led me into the adjoining room, where two other officers were seated at a table covered with silver dishes and numerous flasks of wine. A few words sufficed for my introduction; and a few glasses of champagne placed me as thoroughly at my ease as though I had passed my life amongst them, and never heard any other conversation than the last movement of the French army, and their projects for future campaigns.
“And so,” said the colonel, after hearing from me a short account of the events which had induced me to turn my eyes to France,—“and so you'd be a soldier? Eh bien! see nothing better going myself. There 's Davernac will tell you the same, though he has lost his arm in the service.”
“Oui, pardieu,” said the officer on my right; “I am not the man to dissuade him from a career I 've ever loved.”
“À vous, mon ami,” said the young officer who first addressed me on my arrival, as he held out his glass and clinked it against mine. “I hope we shall have you one of these days as our guide through the dark streets of London. The time may not be so distant as you think; never shake your head at it.”