"Very well. So I say. He is the only Frenchman who can rule France."

"You-you-monsieur-what do you with your constitu

tion ?"

"We abide by it. It answers all our purposes. It has not yet been violated in a letter, least of all in its spirit.”

"Do you expect to endure?"

"We do. Not a shadow of trouble on that score flits over the heart of a well-informed citizen; not a tremor of hesitation has yet chilled the pulse of our fighting people. This is only the first episode in our history, of which your annals are so full, in which a nation wakes up to look after itself."

"I know France has had some very severe revolutions." "How long did it take for France to bring the coronet of Burgundy to Paris? How long for England to subjugate Wales or Ireland? how long to bring Scotland to her throne? How long will it take to keep kingdoms together, if you preach and predict the untimely death of this republic?"

“Well, I think, if you can keep up now, you will do almost an impossibility."

"Well, sir, I think we can do it, with or without the sympathy of European Governments. If we have that sympathy, we shall be glad. If not, we will try and shift for ourselves." "What do you mean by the word shift?”

"I mean we will try to manage so that we shall take care of ourselves."

"Oui, monsieur! Now I understand. You think you can get on without any help from Europe?"

"I do, most emphatically; and, if we doubtful if you could give it to us. hands full at home."

could not, it is very You will have your

X.

A Hero Soldier neither in the Rank nor File.

WHEN the martial and patriotic fires began to blaze along the hill-tops of Western New York, and our young men were rushing by tens of thousands to join the national standard, one brave fellow who seized the torch with the wildest enthusiasm, and worked hardest in the cause, found it impossible to get his name enrolled with the company of his own town, -Bloomfield.

All his companions passed examination. When the surgeon came to B. F. Surby, he found that he had a stiff knee, caused by the kick of a horse while he was a boy; and he was rejected.

He could run as fast, mount a horse as quick, play as good a game of ball, and shoot as well as any one of his comrades, -better, it was acknowledged, than most. He was athletic, lithe, hard, spry, and made for action and daring. He was twenty-five years old, and all ready to fight. But, with all this, he could not go; he was, however, determined to go, and no surgeon or recruiting-officer could stop him.

When the company marched to Canandaigua, he went with them to join the regiment. He put in his pocket all the money he could scrape together, and paid his own way as long as it lasted; and, when it gave out, partly by the help of his companions and partly by eking out in mother-wit what he lacked in cash, he reached the head-quarters of General King, where, his name not appearing on the roll, he was asked to give an account of himself.

What follows is in his own words, as I took them down

while he lay wounded in the Douglas Hospital last December. The incidents are well known to many officers and soldiers in the corps in which he served. But the peculiarly naïve manner in which he told the story, the total lack of all ostentation or egotism, and, above all, his perfect self-control and even cheerfulness under the pain of a severe wound in the left leg, and a compound fracture in the arm, which he was waiting for the surgeon to amputate, made it one of the most interesting cases I have seen.

"Once beyond the Potomac, I'd be blazed if I wouldn't have a chance. So I tried the old Bloomfield game over; but it was no go: I could not put on the uniform of a soldier; I could not have a gun to kill rebels. But I was bound to fetch it, some way or other. I finally got my case before General King, and he got an officer of his staff to take me as his orderly so I had my way at last, and once in the army (if I did get in at the back door) I could go along, and ride a good horse into the bargain. That finished the stiff knee business, which had bothered the Bloomfield surgeon. So I thanked the stars for my good luck, and waited for the first battle.

"This was in a reconnoissance in force towards Orange Court-House, where we had some nice amusement,—just enough to stir up the blood of green Western New York boys.

"But nothing very serious happened till the battle of South Mountain, which began to look like war as I had read of it in the histories of great generals. Of course you know all about that battle.

"But then came some bad luck. I'd been thinking all the time it was too good to last. The officer I was serving got sick after the battle of Cedar Mountain, and had to come on to Washington. Of course I had to come too; and here I remained waiting on him several weeks. In the mean time I lost all chance to be in the battles of Gainesville and Bull Run.

"When my commander got better, but not well enough to take the field, he sent me over to look after his horses, and, knowing my anxiety to be with the brigade, he gave me permission to join it, and the use of his horse.

"I lost no time in doing that. I got in the staff again, and began to feel at home. General King had fallen sick, and was succeeded by General Hatch. We were in the splendid battle of South Mountain, where I had one of the great days, worth more than all my life before. Oh, how glorious the old flag looked every time the smoke rolled off and we saw her still streaming!

"In the heat of this bloody engagement, when our men were fighting just right, the general was wounded, and, being near him at the moment, I had the sad satisfaction of helping to carry him from the field."

"But," I inquired, "as you seem to have been where the shot flew thick, had you not met with any mishap so far?" "Nary a scratch,-nor the captain's horse."

"Well, what came next?"

"The grand and blood-red field of Antietam, all of which I saw; and I never expect to see a better one;-nor do I want to. That was no boys' play."

At this point Doctor Pineo, the accomplished surgeon of the hospital, came up to see how his "hero-patient" was getting along. After examining his leg, he pronounced it doing well enough. "That will give you no more trouble. But I am inclined to think I shall have to take this arm off."

"You are welcome to it, doctor. I think it has done me about all the good it ever will."

"Well, I will see you again during the day." And, at a hint from the doctor, I rose and walked with him down the ward, looking through his clear, experienced eyes at many interesting cases under his surgical treatment. Like all men of true science, and especially all masters of the healing art, he looked after his half a thousand suffering patients with the

tenderest solicitude. But he seemed to regard Surby with a peculiar interest.

"He is a real hero," he said. "I must take that arm off in the morning; and I wish you would come up. He will mind it no more than the sting of a mosquito. He is always cheerful, always happy."

"Well, now for Antietam," I said, as I once more took a chair by his side.

"General Doubleday took command of us there, in place of the wounded General Hatch. In forming his division the night before the battle, while the general and his staff were riding along through the lines, a rebel battery opened on us with shot and shell. A soldier was standing about two rods in front of me. A small shell took his head clean off, and struck my horse in the side, just behind my leg, cutting the girths, and exploding inside the horse. I only remember the fire flew pretty thick, and, after in some way getting up into the air higher than I was before, I next found myself on the ground among some of the pieces of the horse.

"The first thought was, 'There goes the captain's horse, and I'm left to foot it!' A somewhat sudden falling back took place, and I started. 'But, by Jove, I won't lose that saddle!' and back I put to get it. While I was working away as fast as I could, the general rode by, and, seeing what I was doing, sung out,— Quit that, fool, if you care any thing about your life!' and, as I found it rather difficult to untangle the saddle, I concluded to leave with what traps I had, and return after dark. I did; but it was too late.

666

"I felt bad. 'What will the captain say? I've lost his horse and saddle, and God knows what. Well, I'll see what I can do; I haven't lost my small arms, at any rate; and perhaps I can manage to get another horse before the battle in the morning.""

"Not hurt yourself?"

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