Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1854-11-02
in country where the husband had worked in
chains as a forcat.
They proceeded to Scissors, to look after the
wrecks which the Revolution might have spared
af THAR nnr..J~nI c,~t.~o TLn- co,,~J kbnu,

NJ PAooooueo w ooiSSons, W lOok Hisof eu~
wrecks which the Revolution might have spared
OF their ancestral fortune. They found them
selves alone in the field. No other Points ap-
peared upon the scene all had perished in exile
and owing to the register of the town having
been burnt in the confusion of the Revolution,
the heir Of the illustrious house was unable oven
to prove his birth Thus unluckily situated,
Points called upon an old lady of his own name,
who was waiting in agony of impatience to see
hor family re-establishe in their ancient Donors
by the blessed Restoration. She recognized the
handsome young soldier as a Points at the first
glance; she knew him by the hereditary nose J!
she could not be mistaken in the calm, firm, half
smiling lip, which gave the world assurance of
a Points. But who was this young wife whom
ho presented to hers Had the unhappy man
tarnished his blood withssa mesalliance, Had he
brought some obscure foreigner to mock the state
of the Countess de Saint Helene! No. The
noble heir Of the Points assured his aged rela-
tion that, even in exile, he had been too pround
OF their common name to share it with one
meaner than himself. This lady, though their
marriage was unsanctined by her family till his
claims should be established, was of the highest
blood of Spain--she was daughter of the vice.
roy of Malaga This was enough, almost too
much. The old lady wept with pride and delight,
and she ended by making the whole town weep
with her. An act of notority, as it is called in
French law, was readily obtained, recognizing
the birth of the returned emigrant; and this
being transferred to the existing register of
Soissons, Pierre, Coigned, escaped felon, found
himself transformed, as if by magic, into Points,
Count do Sainte- Helene.
We have not ascertained that the pecuniary
resources of the adventurer were much improved
by this recognition of his nobility; indeed, it
would seem from the context that this was not
the case 1t is far more difficult to obtain an
estate than title; and perhaps tho count may
have thought it imprudent to refer his claims to
the searching arbitrament of the courts of law.
But his grateful prince would not suffer the scion
of the noble house to languish in proverty and
obscurity and, indeed, the talents Of the count
offered the fairest opportunities for his advance
mon, or rather made his advancement duty on
the part the court He received successfully tho
knightly decorations of the Legion of Honor
and Saint Louis, became member of the order
of Alcantara, and rose to be lieutenant colonel
in the legion of the Seine. On his part he re-
paid the royal favor with unbounded devotion,
his loyalty was without reproach, and he was
esteemed one of the most rising and respectable
characters in the French court.
The expensive manner in which the court lived
might have offered, but for one circumstance,
some suspicion that he enjoyed still weightier
favors of government than crosses and decora-
tions. The pay of lieutenant-colonel, with
any fragments he might have recovered of his
hereditary possessions, was not enough to account
for liberality as unbounded as it was unosten-
tatious. The inexhaustible fund on which he
drew was neither squandered nor spared he had
money for all legitimat purposes; and when
other men had recourse, on extraordinary emel
gencies, to loans and mortgages, the Count Dc
Saint-Helene had nothing to do but to write a
cheque. His marriage accounted for this. Hi
noble wife was the mine, on the produce of which
he lived; and her Spanish gold was daily trans
muted in any quantities into French silver.
1t was supposed at the time, however, tina
other men had recourse to more disrcputabl
means Of supply; for the wholesale rob5crie
that wore committed on all hands had become a
alarming as they were inexplicable. No precau
tions were sufficient for the safeguard of valuabl
property. In the recesses of places, thefts wer
as common as in the shops Of the citizens; an
it was obvious that thcro had been established
sy stem of briSandage, whose organization com
pretended much higher class than usual
Even nobleman was not safe from suspicion
whose habits exhibited anything of the myste
rious but as for our count and countess, the
lived so much in public, they belonged so com
pletely to the court and society, that tho sue
picion must have been wild indeed which coul
attach itself to them. ..,
One day the count was at the head of hi
regiment in the place du Carrousal, assisting a
a splendid military parade. On one side of th
square was the garden and pslaces of the Tuilt
ries on the opposite side the Avenue de Neuilly
extending as straight as an arrow along the sid
of tho Camps Elysees, to the verge of the hor
zon, now terminated by IA triumphal arch o
the third, the Place Vendome, with its mob
column; and on the fourth, The Sieuo spanne
by bridge loaded with statutes. The magnit
cent scene was crowded with spectators even I
the trees of the Camps El7sees and as I'll
Count de Sainte-Heene felt himself to be one
the great actors in the pageant, wild thrc
must have heaved the breast of the escaped fo
cat. But the word he hardly now considort
to apply to him; for his fourteen years sonton
was expired if not fulfilled Some days ago,
had celebrated in his own mind the fou
teenth anniversary Of his condemnation al
declared himself to be free man 1t is
wonder that on this occasion he should reve
exultingly to his escape from the bagne, as
event which had turned the current of his lii
, and given him 20 his fortune but as his though
: lost themselves in the recollection, he leap
: suddenly in the saddle, rs if transfxed with
: spear.
: At first he hardly knew what it was that b
q affected him, or, knowing it, he set it down
c deinsion growing out Of his waking dreal
d An eye had rested upon his for moment,
VI his face was turned towards tho crowd-a pha
d tom eyo doubtless, such as sometimes glal
d upon us from the abysses Of memory, for
70 never could meet with it again. Yet the eou