"Now for the sixth!" The ball flew from the muzzle of Rüdner's piece, and lit as accurately as if the head schoolmaster of the town had designated its place.

"Long live Rüdner!" shouted the crowd; "the foremost marksman in all the world! "

Thousands of people who, a few moments before, eagerly desired the poacher's death, now offered up ardent vows for his safety! Such is human nature. The arquebusiers trembled with apprehension, lest the remaining balls should not be so accurately placed: the young woman who had been the involuntary cause of the situation of jeopardy in which he was placed, pressed her infant closer to her breast, and her heart beat almost audibly, to think that one single ball, diverging in the smallest degree from the right line, might be the signal for his instant execution.

The three remaining balls were fired, and ranged themselves in the order which was necessary to complete the figure of 9 with as much accuracy as if they had been placed there with the hand.

"Hürraa!" cried the young wo

man.

"Hürraa!" echoed the arquebusiers."

"Hürraa!" repeated the people.

Rüdner was instantly released from his hempen cravat, and carried in triumph before the senators.

"What dost thou mean to do," was the first question asked, “with the life which we are about to render to thee?"

"I will employ it in earning the character of an honest citizen."

"Lawless man, why didst thou not begin sooner?"

"My companions prevented me. They are dead-may they rest in peace! If this young woman consents, I shall become her husband to-morrow; and Frankfort shall possess no better citizen."

Hans Rüdner kept his word. He became "an honest citizen, a good father, and an exemplary husband," in the familiar words of the epitaph engraven on I know not how many thousand head-stones. He was unanimously appointed chief of the arquebusiers of the city. Go to Frankfort on the Maine: above the gate which is called the Thor Ernscheinmer, you will see a small Gothic dungeon, surmounted by a weathercock. Look closely, and you may read the figure of 9 traced upon it by the nine balls of Rüdner LincksAuge. B.

R.

In the summer of 1783, the Duke of Orleans, afterwards notorious as PHILIPPE EGALITE, arrived at the magnificent château of the Comte de Brienne, accompanied by Madame de Montesson, with whom he had contracted a Morganatic alliance, with the consent of the king, accorded, however, upon the condition that Madame should not change her name, should aspire to none of the prerogatives of a princess of the blood royal, and should never appear at court. For more than a month the count's château was a little Versailles. The temporary sojourn of the august tourists was celebrated by the most brilliant fêtes; and an almost royal magnificence made them forget for a moment the palace which they had left, and the splendour of which it was the abode.

On the 25th of August, St. Louis's day, the Duke and Madame de Montesson presided at the distribution of prizes in the royal school at Brienne. The youthful Napoleon Buonaparte (as he then spelled the name) shared with young De Bourrienne, (afterwards his secretary and biographer,) the prize for mathematics, a department to which Napoleon had almost completely confined his studies, and in which he is known to have greatly excelled.

A few days after receiving this prize, Napoleon wrote a letter to his father, teeming with the warmest expressions of filial tenderness, and eagerly soliciting to have his brother Joseph placed at the school of Brienne instead of Metz, which would afford (as he described it) "a great consolation to Joseph, to himself, and to his other brother, Lucien," who had been recently removed from Autun to Brienne. This letter is remarkable for the request that his "cher papa" would forward to him a number of works relating to Corsica, upon the history of which Napolean appears to have been engaged

at that early period; and concludes by requesting to have his respects presented to "Mamma Saveria, zia Gertruda, zio Nicolino, Mamma Francesca, Santo, Juana, and Ignazion." "Zia," and "zio," are the Corsican words for aunt and uncle; and the names commemorated at the end are those of the domestics, and a very satisfactory proof of kindness of disposition.

Another interesting trait in Napoleon's character is, that upon his elevation to the dignity of First Consul, he was far from forgetting Madame de Montesson, who superintended the distribution of prizes, to which we have already made reference. This highly accomplished lady, whose elegance and refinement of manners were unsurpassed, and who survived her royal and subsequently republican consort upwards of twenty years, was sent for early in Napoleon's consulate, with a request that she would visit him at the Tuileries. At this period she had been for some time a widow, the Duke of Orleans having died in 1785.

Upon Madame de Montesson's arrival-as we are informed by Baron de Coston's recently published Biographie des Premières Années de Napoleon, to which we are chiefly indebted for these details-Napoleon received her with the utmost kindness, and entreated her to ask him for any favour she pleased.

"I have no right, General," was the reply, "to the kind offer which you are good enough to make me."

"You forget, then, Madame," said Napoleon, "that it was from you I received my first crown. You came

to Brienne with the Duke of Orleans, to distribute the prizes amongst the élèves; and in placing upon my head that laurel wreath, which was the precursor of some others, your words were Puisse-t-il vous porter bonheur!' They say that I am a fatal

ist, Madame, and thus you may easily perceive how I should not have forgotten that, which you no longer remember. I shall be delighted to be of use to you in any way. Besides, the tone of good society has been almost lost in France, I pray you to restore it. Your assistance will be of the greatest value to Josephine. And, whenever a stranger of note arrives in the capital, you will preside with her over the fétes, to convince him that no where can there be found more of graceful ami, ability."

Madame de Montesson was perfectly enchanted by these kind words, as may well be conceived; and her happiness was complete when, shortly after, the first consul caused the sum of 60,000 francs per annum to be restored to her, which had been left to her as a legacy by the Duke of Orleans, but confiscated by the Directory.

The scholars at Brienne were invited alternately to the principal's table. Buonaparte's turn having arrived, some of the professors, who were acquainted with his admiration of Paoli's character, affected to speak ill of that single-hearted patriot.

"Paoli," observed his youthful countryman, was a great man and a hero. He was a true lover of his country, and never shall I pardon my father, who was his adjutant, for having consented to the reunion of Corsica with France. He should have followed the fortunes of Paoli, and fallen with him in the field." This anecdote, attested by M. Blanqui, is highly characteristic.

In the month of September, 1783, the Chevalier de Keralio, lieutenantgeneral, and sub-inspector of the military schools of France, arrived at Brienne. Keralio was an old man of very amiable disposition, fond of children, and in the habit of amusing himself by conversation with those who had pleased him most, after having ascertained by examination the progress which they had made in their studies. Keralio had conceived a strong liking for Napoleon, whose character he had divined with great perspicacity. He recorded his name to be transferred to the superior school at Paris. Napoleon was then

distinguished only for his proficiency in mathematics; and the priests who had charge of the school represented that it would be better to defer his removal to Paris until the following year, in order that he might have time to complete his knowledge of Latin. Keralio would not listen to this proposal, and used these remarkable words:-“ I know what I am about: if I here depart from the strict letter of a rule, it is not through family favour; for I am not acquainted with this young gentleman's family. It is on his own account that I have come to this decision; for I perceive a spark in that boy which cannot be too diligently fostered."

Shortly afterwards Keralio made the following note :

"M. de Buonaparte (Napoleon), born the 15th of August, 1769; height, four feet ten inches; of good constitution ; in excellent health; of a submissive character; of a grateful and honourable disposition; his conduct has been very regular; distinguished for his application to mathematics; has a passable knowledge of history and geography; is weak in the belles lettres; he will make an excellent sailor; and merits to pass to the school at Paris.

The two passages marked in italics will provoke a smile. This excellent man died a short time after. the following year, Napoleon was transferred to Paris.

In

Such of the boys at Brienne as sought an occasion for annoying Napoleon, pretended not to understand the signification of the word " assesseur," the office which his father held, and pretended that he was a simple huissier," or bailiff. In point of fact, the situation held by the father of Napoleon was that of returning officer, and nearly analogous to our situation of high bailiff. Madame de Stael's malignity designated him, in bad faith, (for she perfectly well knew that the allegation was false,) "the base-born son of a Corsican bailiff." But, as facts are "stubborn chiels," let us refer to the entry made in the books at the Royal Military School of Paris, in the month of October, 1784, when Na

poleon became an élève of that institution. It was as follows:

"On the 7th October, 1784, left the Royal Military School of Brienne, M. Napoleon de Buonaparte, écuyer, (esquire); born in Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica, on the 15th August, 1769, son of THE NOBLE Charles Marie Buonaparte, representative (député) of the Corsican NOBILITY, &c." We think we have thus very satisfactorily disposed of the sneers at Napoleon's origin.

To return to the school-squabbles at Brienne; in the month of October, 1783, one of the scholars, named Pougin des Ilets, with whom he had a dispute, was impertinent enough to say, "Your father is only a miserable bailiff," (sergent.) Napoleon, thunderstruck, retired for a few minutes, and presently returned with a cartel (challenge), which, instead of being carried by the comrade to whom he entrusted it, to the individual from whom he had received the insult, fell into the hands of the Prefect. Both Napoleon and Pougin were placed under arrest.

While the arrest still continued, Napoleon wrote to the Comte de Marbeuf, then at Sens, a letter, of which the following is the interesting conclusion:

"Now, Monsieur le Comte, if I am really guilty-if I have been justly deprived of my liberty, have the goodness to add to all the kindness with which you have already honoured me, the favour of withdrawing me from Brienne, and withholding from me your future protection. To seek its continuance would be to rob some one else, more deserving. If I was wrong, Monsieur, I shall never more be worthy of your countenance; for I cannot subdue an impetuosity which is so much the more dangerous, as I believe the motive to have been sacred which led to it. However my interests might have dictated silence, I could not submit to see a man of honourto see my father-my respectable father-dragged through the dirt, (trainer dans la boue.) This is a subject, Monsieur le Comte, upon which I must always feel too acutely to limit myself to the carrying of a

complaint to my masters. I feel too deeply persuaded that a good son should never transfer to another the duty of avenging so gross an outrage. As for the favours which you have showered down upon me, (que vous fites pleuvoir sur moi,) they shall ever continue to be present to my mind. I shall say to myself, I had secured an honourable protector; but to profit by that protection, I stood in need of virtues which heaven has denied me!'

"Deign, generous protector, to consider me only as one who prefers to the blandishments of fortune the satisfaction of being assured that he will not hereafter be the cause of any distress to his worthy benefactor.

"NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE." This romantic, but well-worded letter, presented now, for the first time, to the public, rests upon the eminent and undoubted authority of the Baron de Coston.

When one of the Comte de Marbeuf's servants placed this letter in his hands, the Comte was in the midst of a brilliant circle, assembled in the salon of Madame d'Espinil. He had not read the letter through, when he exclaimed, that it was a case of injustice. The letter was handed round, and the unanimous decision was, that the young scholar had only obeyed the first dictates of nature, and honour, and filial piety. The ladies and gentlemen assembled, (more especially the former,) entreated M. de Marbeuf, who was the Commandant-General of Corsica, to repair, as soon as possible, to Brienne, and obtain an instant cessation of the persecution of his youthful protégé.

On the 9th of October the Commandant reached the school; and within an hour after his arrival, Napoleon was set at liberty, upon the representation of his protector, who addressed him thus:

"However legitimate your resentment may have been, I forbid you the display of it for the future; for I am perfectly certain that the outrage will never be repeated. Hereafter you must be less ready to fly in a passion; for he who commences by losing his temper, even with the