University of Virginia Library

6. VI.

The death of Robespierre, by the guillotine, July
28, 1794, was the signal for the return of the French
exiles. The Baron Championet, settling upon Emilie
a noble income, took passage for France, promising,
so soon as he should arrange his effects, to send for
her. Absence is like the waters of Lethe, to most
men. The stirring times he encountered on his return
to France, left him little time for love and dalliance.
He recovered his confiscated estates, entered the army,
rose rapidly to distinction, and in twelve months
Emilie was forgotten. He became suitor for the hand
of the only daughter of a neighboring noble, whose
broad lands seemed only wanting to make his own
patrimony a princely domain, and, as in New-Orleans
he had loved for love's sake, so in France he married
for mammon's sake. A son was the fruit of the politic
union. The baron, now General Championet, followed
Bonaparte in most of his wars, and his thoughts
never wandered to the lovely quadroon, save when

some dark eyed Italian in his southern campaigns,
forcibly recalled her to his mind.