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her word by her fille de chambre that I would assuredly wait upon
her;--but I am governed by circumstances;--I cannot govern them:
so seeing a man standing with a basket on the other side of the
street, as if he had something to sell, I bid La Fleur go up to
him, and enquire for the Count's hotel.

La Fleur returned a little pale; and told me it was a Chevalier de
St. Louis selling pates.--It is impossible, La Fleur, said I.--La
Fleur could no more account for the phenomenon than myself; but
persisted in his story: he had seen the croix set in gold, with
its red riband, he said, tied to his buttonhole--and had looked
into the basket and seen the pates which the Chevalier was selling;
so could not be mistaken in that.

Such a reverse in man's life awakens a better principle than
curiosity: I could not help looking for some time at him as I sat
in the remise: --the more I look'd at him, his croix, and his
basket, the stronger they wove themselves into my brain.--I got out
of the remise, and went towards him.

He was begirt with a clean linen apron which fell below his knees,
and with a sort of a bib that went half way up his breast; upon the
top of this, but a little below the hem, hung his croix. His
basket of little pates was covered over with a white damask napkin;
another of the same kind was spread at the bottom; and there was a
look of proprete and neatness throughout, that one might have
bought his pates of him, as much from appetite as sentiment.

He made an offer of them to neither; but stood still with them at
the corner of an hotel, for those to buy who chose it without
solicitation.

He was about forty-eight;--of a sedate look, something approaching
to gravity. I did not wonder.--I went up rather to the basket than
him, and having lifted up the napkin, and taking one of his pates
into my hand,--I begg'd he would explain the appearance which
affected me.

He told me in a few words, that the best part of his life had
passed in the service, in which, after spending a small patrimony,
he had obtained a company and the croix with it; but that, at the
conclusion of the last peace, his regiment being reformed, and the
whole corps, with those of some other regiments, left without any
provision, he found himself in a wide world without friends,
without a livre,--and indeed, said he, without anything but this,--
(pointing, as he said it, to his croix).--The poor Chevalier won my
pity, and he finished the scene with winning my esteem too.

The king, he said, was the most generous of princes, but his
generosity could neither relieve nor reward everyone, and it was
only his misfortune to be amongst the number. He had a little
wife, he said, whom he loved, who did the patisserie; and added, he
felt no dishonour in defending her and himself from want in this
way--unless Providence had offer'd him a better.

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