The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-01

| hcer or the BeneraPS stair, ordered to | join the army which the lay upon the frontiers of France preparing for the | campaign which ended at Austelitz. The | First Consul had become the Emperor | Napoleon, and all the pomp of royal | court was once more seen at the Tuil- 1 leries.
 As Tom went with his general to l take his leave of the court before join l ing the army D'Auyergne conflded to | the young man that as years had now l stricken him this would, in all proba- | bility, be his last campaign. He had made his will and had left everything | to Marie de Meudon. He had been a friend of her father and now proposed | to adopt the girl as his daughter Adopt, General?" cried the Emperor when the old general told him of his | plan. "No, no! You must marry. Come, | 1t Is my command. The young lady has no objection to you. The Empress has | sounded her. Thus and thus only can 1 you give her your protection and your wealth." The Emperor had taken to
 marrying his officers off by the whole
 sale at that time. and before General
 d'Auvergne left the palace he was the : husband of Marie de Meudon. Jose phine had applied the same force to the
 bride as Napoleon had to the groom
 and, pale as ghost and with trem- i bling hand, Marie signed the marriage i contract.
 T have obeyed my Emperor" said | D'Auyergne, kissing the hand of Marie.
 "and now I will obey the dictates of my conscience and take an immediate | leave of you. It Is the only reparatlon ! can make.
 I Tom, who had been q witness of this strange scene, followed his chief to the army. sad at heart and wishing that i the first stray cannon ball might take | his head off. But the old general said | Cheer up, Burke. You nave the Blrl s heart and when I am dead, which will be soon, you shall have her hand. Such
 was my compact with the Emperor" In the campaign that followed Tom ] won great honors and regained the Elm
 peror's good will, which he had lost l through the Chouan business. The Sun l of Austcrlitz" shone brightly upon him. 1 He was one of the officers selected to | carry back to Paris the captured Aus | train standards.
 l One of his brother officers who accom- panied him to Paris with the captured I standards was the Chevalier Duchesne who attached himself especially to Tom | The cheyalier was of one of the old Roy | alist families, but now in the service of l the Emperor He betrayed Bourbonist I and Bonapartist secrets alike as the nancy
  The two young men frequented the ! salon of Mime. de Lacostellere, relative of Josephine, and there saw much of her |, beautiful daughter Pauline. bitter I thought came into the head of Tom. He | would pay his court to this wonderful creole beauty. Perhaps Marie would hear | of 1t and 1t might make her jealous 1 Perhaps then she would give some sign ] that she remembered his existence. | But Duchesne had resolved to marry 1 the creole and surprising Tom and Paul | line one night as they conversed together l alone in the picture gallery he inter
 rupted them with well-bred insolence, and as Tom took leave hummed the fragment 1 of popular song:
 1 Today for me, tomorrow for thee: | But will that tomorrow ever be? Tom expected challenge the next | morning, but instead he got orders to l leave Paris within two hours and rejoin 1, the army. Then came the great cam l paign which ended at Jena, and in this l Tom so distinguished himself that he was | gazetted for the Cross of the Legion If Honor. Napoleon was in Berlin The nations.