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M. de la Mothe, as he was commonly called, was endowed with the energetic will, and with more than the usual talents, of his family. He was specially known as Procureur-général to Catherine de Médicis; but, as he himself said, he wore “a soldier’s coat as well as a lawyer’s robe.” He was a Huguenot, and nearly perished in the Bartholomew massacre.
I was a soldier’s son, and as the means of my father were by no means sufficient to support two establishments, his family invariably attended him wherever he went, so that from my infancy I was accustomed to travelling and wandering, and looked upon a monthly change of scene and residence as a matter of course.
He had almost a mind to tell the captain to let them enter the fortress quietly, as common people might have done, without all this head-splitting racket. But no; this would not do. "Let them fire," said he, waving his hand. "Christina is a soldier’s daughter, and must learn to bear the noise of cannon."
Governors of provinces were kept several years in office, which policy was justified by the apologue he was accustomed to use, founded on the same principle as that which is recognized in all corrupt times by great administrators, whether of States, or factories, or railroads. “A number of flies had settled on a soldier’s wound, and a compassionate passer-by was about to scare them away.
The soldier, who is compelled to turn to the right by word of command, when the correct indication is unanswered, in despair throws his hand to the right. The consequence is, that no horse is a good soldier’s horse, till he has been trained to turn on the wrong rein.
At the burial-place every mound and stone was occupied. Flowers were trampled under foot, shrubs broken or uprooted, and the grass all stamped into the mould. The whole crowd listened to the impressive tone—only a few could hear the words—of the funeral harangue, and to the solemn hymn which followed. The service closed with the military honour of musketry fired over the soldier’s grave.
His name was Soplica; all the Soplicas, as is well known, are large, strong, powerful men, apt at the soldier’s trade, but less diligent over their books. Thaddeus had not degenerated from his forebears; he rode well on horseback and walked well; he was not dull, but he had made little progress in his studies, though his uncle had spared nothing on his education.
A soldier, desperately wounded, lay in a trench. The shells were bursting around him; the bullets and shrapnel were whistling through the air; the roar of the guns shook the ground. He was going down into the valley of the shadow of death. Knowing that he must pass over to the other side, he reached into his pocket with his little remaining strength and pulled therefrom a soldier’s Testament.
Finally a culinary mystery: an uncut fish, fried at the head, baked in the middle, and with its tail in a ragout with sauce. The guests did not ask the names of the dishes, nor were they halted by that curious mystery; they ate everything rapidly with a soldier’s appetite, filling their glasses with the generous Hungarian wine.
It was two months since Lee had surrendered yet he had not come. That he had been untrue she would not admit; if such a thought came to her, she dismissed it as unworthy. No! Like his general, he was lying in a soldier’s grave; or he might be sick, wounded, unable to come. This June evening, as she stood looking down the road, her thoughts were in the past.
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