box on the second or third tier, all alone, looking as though he wished to sulk."
The fact, of course, is that Napoleon was consumed by all that volcanic activity which was to burst forth very soon in such lava tide; and neither then nor at any other time has he the power of idling gracefully. Either he is in fierce activity or he mopes and despairs.
VI.
A FIRST CHANCE.
And then all these periods of gloomy and despondent expectation are put an end to, after the anarchic and unaccountable manner of human affairs, by a slight chance acquaintance. M. de Pontecoulant, when he was appointed a member of the War Committee of the Committee of Public Safety, found things in dreadful disorder, and did not know where to turn, and a chance conversation with M. Boissy d'Anglas elicited this remark:
"I met yesterday a general on half-pay. He has come back from the Campaign of Italy, and seemed to know all about it. He might give you some good advice."
"Send him to me," said M. Pontecoulant; and the next day there came to the Minister on the sixth floor where he had his office―"the leanest and most miserable-looking creature he had ever seen in his life"―a young man, with a wan and
