The Trinity times., 1855-03-10

and the idea retained hold of the imaginato on
Of Rosa, even after she learned that he had
as little to do with the nobility, either of
mind or birth, as herself An epoch by-and-
by came when such an idea was likely to
present itself in a more entcng form than
now, when counts were at discount. The
| French were compelled to evacuate the Pen
nsula. Louis lie Desire returned to the
throne of his ancestors; and our Points and
| his wife found themselves once more in a
country where the husband had worked in
chains as iorcat.
They proceeded to Scissors to look after
the wrecks which the revolution might have
spared of their ancestral fortune. They
found themselves alone in the field. No
other Points appeared upon the scene; all
had pershed in the exile; and owing to the
register of the town having been burned in
the confusion of the revolution, the heir of
the illustrious house was unable even TO
prove his birth. Thus unluckily situated,
Points called upon an old lady of his own
name, who was waiting in an agony of impa-
tience to see her family re-established in
their ancestral honors by the blessed Resto-
ration. She recognized the handsome young
soldier as a Points at the first glance; she
not be mistaken in the calm, firm, half
smiling lip, which gave the world assurance
of Points.
But who was this young wife whom he
presented to herr Had the unhappy man
furnished his blood with q nis-alliance! Had
he brought some obscure foreigner to mock
the state of thelCountess de Sainte>I Helene
No The noble her of the Points assured
his aged relation that, even in e1ile, he had
been too proud Of their common name to
share it with one meaner than himself. This
lady, though their marriage was unsactioned
by her family, Jill his claims could be estab-
lished. was Of the highest blood of Spain
she was d daughter Of the vceroy of Malaga!
This was enough, almost too much. The
old lady wept with pride and delight, and
she ended with making the whole town weep
with her. An act of notoriety; as it is called
in French law, was readily obtained, recog-
nizing the birth Of the returned emigrant;
and this being transferred to the existing
REGISTERS of S)issons, Pierre Coignard, the
escaped convict, found himself transformed
as i f by magic, into Points; Count de Sante-
Helene
We have not ascertained that the pecu-
mary resources Of the adventurcr 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
tc obtain an estate than a title; and perhaps
the count may have thought it imprudent TO
refer his eli ms to the searching arbltrament
of the courts of law. But his grateful prince
would not suffer the scion of the noble house
to langush in poverty and obscurty and
indeed, the talents Of the count offered the
ret opportunities for his advancement, or
rather, made his advancement duty on the
part of the court. He received successively
the knightly derora on Of the Legion of
Honor, and Saint Louis; became a member
of the order of AL antara. and rose to be a
lieutenant colonel q the legion of the Seine
On his TT, he repaid the royal favor with
unbounded devotion, his loyalty was without
reproach, and he was esteemed one of the
most rising and pectable characters in the
French court.
expen We manner in which the court
Tyed might have afforded, but for one cir
cumstance, some suspicion at he enioyed
still weightier favors Of government than
crosses and decorations. The pay of lieu
tenant-colonel, with any fragments he might
have recovered Of his hereditary poss ions,
was not enough to account for liberality as
unbounded as it was unostentatious.
The inexhaustibe fund on which lie drew
was neither sq ndcred nor spared he had
money far all Legitimate purpos and when
other men had recourse, on extraordinary
emergencies, to loans and mortg es, the
Count de Sainte>IIelcn had nothing to do
but to write cheque. His marriage ac-
counted for this.-Ilis noble wife was the
m ne, on the product of which he lived and
her Spanish gold was daily Transmitted, in
any quantities, into French silver.
1t was supposed at the time, however, that
other men had recourse to more disreputabe
means Of supply; for the wholesale robberies
that were committed on all hands had become
as alarming as they were ineXplicable.
Even n Iobleman was not safe from sus-
pcion whose habits exhibited anything of the
mysterious but as for our count and coun-
tess, they lived so much in public, they be-
longed so completely to the court and to soci
etv, that the suspicion must have been wild
indeed which could attach itself to them.
One day the count was at the head Of his
regiment in the Place du CarrousaI, assisting
at splendid military parade. On one side
of the square was the garden and palace Of
the Tueries on the opposite side the Ave
nue. de Ncuilly, extending as straight as an
arrow along the side of the Champs Elysees
to the verge Of the horizon, now terminated
bv a trumphal arch on the third, the Place
Vendome, with its noble column and on the
fourth the Seine, spanned by bridge, load>
ed with statues.
The magnificent scene was crowded with
spectators, even to the trees Of the Champs
Elvsees and as the Count de Sainte-l lIelcne
felt himself to be one Of the great actors in
the pageant, wild throb must have heaved
the breast of the escaped lorcat But the
void he hardly now considered TO apply to
him. for his fourteen years sentence was now
expired. if not fulfilled. Some days ago, he
had celebrated in his own mind the fourte enth
anniversary of his condemnation, and de-
cared himself to be free man. 1t is no
wonder that on this occasion he should revert
exultingly TO his escape from the bagne, as an
event which had turned the current of his
life. and given to him his fortune but q bis
thoughts lost themselves in the recollection,
he eaped suddenly in the saddle, as if trans
fixed with spear.