the last to the older the clock of time seemed to have stopped in the year and they remained for ever with the loves and the of that era upon their souls they had been burned into them by the fiery furnace through which they had passed but we who had grown up upon a strange soil understood that the world had moved and that new issues had arisen we were inclined to forget these of the last generation france to us was no longer the land of the and the basket it was rather the glorious queen of war attacked by all and con the coast of france all but still so hard pressed that her scattered sons could hear her call to arms for ever sounding in their ears it was that call more than my uncle s letter which was taking me over the waters of the channel for long my heart had been with my country in her struggle and yet while my father lived i had never dared to say so for to him who had served under and fought at it would have seemed the treason but after his death there was no reason why i should not return to the land of my birth and my desire was the stronger because � the same who has been thirty years my wife � was of the same way of thinking as myself her parents were a branch of the de and their prejudices were even stronger than those of my little did they think what was passing in the minds of their children many a time when they were mourning a french victory in the parlour we were both joy in the garden there was a little window all choked round with laurel bushes in the comer of the bare brick house and there we used to meet at night the dearer to each other from our difference all who surrounded us i would tell her my she would strengthen them by her enthusiasm and so all was ready when the time came but there was another reason besides the death of my father and the receipt of this letter from my uncle was becoming too hot to hold me uncle i will say this for the english that they were very generous hosts to the french there was not one of us who did not carry away a kindly remembrance of the land and its people but in every country there are folk and even in quiet sleepy we were by them there was one young squire was his name who had earned a reputation in the town as a bully and a r he could not meet one of us without uttering not merely against the present french government which might have been in an english but against france itself and all often we were forced to be deaf in his presence but at last his conduct became so intolerable that i determined to teach him a lesson there were several of us in the coffee room at the green man one evening and he full of wine and malice was upon the french his eyes creeping round to me every moment to see how i was taking it now de he cried putting his rude hand upon my shoulder here is a toast for you to drink this is to the arm of which strikes down the french he stood at me to see if i would drink it well sir said i i will drink your toast if you will drink mine in return come on then said he so we drank now let us have your toast said he fill your glass then said i it is full now well then here s to the cannon ball which carried off that arm i in the coast of france an instant i had a glass of port wine down my face and within an hour a meeting had been arranged i shot him through the shoulder and that night when i came to the little window plucked off some of the laurel leaves and stuck them in my hair there were no legal proceedings about the but it made my position a little difficult in the town and it will explain with other things why i had no hesitation in accepting my unknown uncle s invitation in spite of the singular addition which i found upon the cover if he had indeed sufficient influence with the emperor to remove the which was attached to our name then the only barrier which shut me off from my country would be you must picture me au this time as sitting upon the side of the and turning my prospects and my position over in my head my reverie was interrupted by the heavy hand of the english dropping abruptly upon my arm now then master said he it s time you were stepping into the i do not inherit the politics of the but i have never lost their sense of personal dignity i gently pushed away his hand and i remarked that we were still a long way from the shore well you can do as you please said he roughly i m going no nearer so you can take your choice of getting into the or of swimming for it uncle it was in vain that i pleaded that he had been paid his price i did not add that that price meant that the watch which had belonged to three generations of de was now lying in the shop of a little enough too he cried harshly down sail jim and bring her to now master you can step over the side or you can come back to but i don t take the a cable s length nearer to i this gale coming up fix m the sou west in that case i shall go said i you 