Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/184

154 TRANSACTIONS CHAP, highly skilled in the performance of gymnastic L_ feats ; he played the violin ; and, as though he were resolved in all things to be the Frenchman of the old time, there was once at least in his life a time of depression, when (to the astonishment of the good priest, who fell on his knees and thanked God as for a miracle wrought) he knelt down and confessed himself, seeking comfort and absolution from his Church. He went through more than one career in the army, first entering it in 1816 as a sub-lieutenant of the Eoyal Guard, but soon plunging into a course of life which was of such a kind as to cause him to cease from being an officer. He kept away from France for many years, and became acquainted with several languages. For a long time he was in England, and he spoke our language very well ; but in later years he was accustomed to be silent in regard to the time of his exile, and there is no need to lift the veil which he threw over this part of his life. When the Revolution of 1830 broke out, he returned to Fiance, and being then thirty-three years of age, he again entered the French army as a sub-lieutenant. He wrote some stanzas to iMeunier, and gained a step by it. ' Tell me, after ' that,' said he, ' that songs are good for nothing ! ' His next enterprise was in prose. It chanced that Bugeaud, then the General in command of the district, had printed a small military work on the camping of troops. St Arnauil or Le Ivoy (for the time of the change of name is not certain)