The general had just time to divest himself of his travelling pelisse as he entered, and was immediately surrounded by the others, who welcomed him with the greatest enthusiasm.
“Madame la Marquise de Langeac,” said he, approaching the old lady, as she sat in the recess of the window, and lifted her hand to his lips, “I am overjoyed to see you in such health. I passed three days with your amiable cousin, Arnold de Rambuteau; who, like yourself, enjoys the happiest temperament and the most gifted mind.”
“If you flatter thus, General,” said Madame de Langeac, “my young friend here will scarcely recognize in you a countryman,—a kinsman, perhaps. Let me present Mr. Burke.”
The general's face flushed, and his eyes sparkled, as taking my hand in both of his own, he said,—
“Are you indeed from Ireland? Is your name Burke? Alas! that I cannot speak one word of English to you. I left my country thirty-eight years since, and have never revisited it.”
The general overwhelmed me with questions: first about my family, of which I could tell him little; and then of my own adventures, at which, to my astonishment, he never evinced those symptoms of displeasure I so confidently expected from an old follower of the Bourbons. This he continued to do, as he ate a hurried meal which was laid out for him in the salon; all the rest standing in a circle around, and pressing him with questions for this friend or that at every pause he made.
“You see, gentlemen,” cried he, as I replied to some inquiry about my campaign, “this is an instance of what I have so often spoken to you. Here is a youth who leaves his country solely for fighting sake; he does not care much for the epaulette, he cares less for the cause. Come, come, don't interrupt me; I know you better than you know yourself. You longed for the conflict and the struggle and the victory; and, parbleu! we may say as we will, but you could have scarcely made a better selection than with his Majesty, Emperor and King, as they style him.”
This speech met with a sorry reception from the bystanders, and in the dissatisfied expression of their faces, a less confident speaker might have read his condemnation; but the general felt not this, or, if he did, he effectually concealed it.
“You have not inquired for Gustave de Me is in,” said he, looking round at the circle.
“You have not seen him, surely?” cried several together; “we heard he was at Vienna.”