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room door.
‘Is it her mother you’re going to take her to?’ she said; ‘or
do you want to go to Mamma yourself, Mr. Sedley? Good
marning—a pleasant journey to ye, sir. Bon voyage, as they
say, and take my counsel, and shave off them mustachios, or
they’ll bring you into mischief.’
‘D—n!’ yelled out Jos, wild with fear, rage, and mortifi-
cation; and Isidor came in at this juncture, swearing in his
turn. ‘Pas de chevaux, sacre bleu!’ hissed out the furious do-
mestic. All the horses were gone. Jos was not the only man
in Brussels seized with panic that day.
But Jos’s fears, great and cruel as they were already, were
destined to increase to an almost frantic pitch before the
night was over. It has been mentioned how Pauline, the
bonne, had son homme a elle also in the ranks of the army
that had gone out to meet the Emperor Napoleon. This lover
was a native of Brussels, and a Belgian hussar. The troops
of his nation signalised themselves in this war for anything
but courage, and young Van Cutsum, Pauline’s admirer,
was too good a soldier to disobey his Colonel’s orders to run
away. Whilst in garrison at Brussels young Regulus (he had
been born in the revolutionary times) found his great com-
fort, and passed almost all his leisure moments, in Pauline’s
kitchen; and it was with pockets and holsters crammed full
of good things from her larder, that he had take leave of his
weeping sweetheart, to proceed upon the campaign a few
days before.
As far as his regiment was concerned, this campaign was
over now. They had formed a part of the division under the

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