The Quest of Glory

“Tout est très abject dans les hommes, la vertu, la gloire, la vie; mais les choses les plus petites ont des proportions reconnues. Le chêne est un grand arbre près du cerisier;...

The Austrian guns had ceased with the early sunset, and the desolate city of Prague was silent, encompassed by the enemy and the hard, continuous cold of a Bohemian December: in...

The two young men left the palace and proceeded rapidly, by reason of the intense cold, through the ways, covered and uncovered, that led from the royal residence to the other b...

The lady waited until M. d’Espagnac had left the church, then turned directly to the gates of the Wenceslas Chapel, loosening, as she moved, the heavy folds of her great cloak.

His room was one of the royal apartments in the Hradcany, and was most splendidly furnished with his own luxurious belongings: the floor was covered with a silk carpet; the wall...

The French quitted Prague on the evening of the 16th of December, leaving only a small garrison in the Hradcany; by the 18th the vanguard had reached Pürgitz at the crossing of...

The snow fell without a break for three days; on the morning of the fourth it ceased a little, and by the time M. de Belleisle had reached Chiesch stopped.

The winter of the year 1742 had been the coldest, in every part of Europe, that had been known since 1709, and the following spring was also remarkable--for heat and sunshine an...

August had scorched the chestnut leaves and September withered them into golden scrolls, and still Luc de Clapiers remained idle, but with a burning heart, in the quiet home at...

The answer from M. de Biron contained flat discouragement. In his words seemed to lurk a smile at the simplicity of Luc: there were no places at Court or even in obscure corners...

The Marquis, roused by his servant, woke to see the man standing in misty moonlight by the square of window; with a languid distaste at being called from sleep Luc rose.

Luc felt instantly that his servant spoke the truth, and saw instantly how he had been deceived. There was no back door to the barn; the young man, discovering he was being chea...

Despite the different light, surroundings, and dress, the recognition was instantaneous on each side. For a breathless instant the two men gazed at each other. M. de Richelieu w...

He told his father that M. de Richelieu had not been able to do anything for him, and the old Marquis advised him to give up all thoughts of any further career and settle down i...

“Voyez ce que fait la gloire: le tombeau ne peut l’obscurcir, son nom règne encore sur la terre qu’elle a décorée; féconde jusque dans les ruines et la nudité de la mort, ses ex...

Below him curled the strong grey river that surged and swirled round the stout central pier of the bridge; barges and boats with drab and russet sails were passing up and down o...

“It is not surprising, perhaps, that a Minister so occupied should not find time to examine such letters; but, Monseigneur, permit me to tell you that it is this discouragement,...

Luc made little of the incident of the house opposite, but had enough curiosity to ask the doorkeeper of his own hotel who owned the mansion, for the extraordinary beauty and te...

The young Duke was amiable, if cynical, at Luc’s persistence in endeavouring to enter politics; he came to his rooms and attempted to enlighten him as to the state of the Court...

As Luc stood at the window of his modest bedroom the night of the fête, he was thinking of two definite themes, curiously woven and twisted into one strand of reflection.

Luc heard that the King and M. Amelot had returned to Paris early the same morning that he had been in converse with the young painter. There was now nothing to keep him in Vers...

He took the knocker in his hand and looked at it; it was, as the Countess had described, a woman’s head, smoothly cast in bronze, and the face had a reserved yet wild expression...

She unclasped her hands and raised her head; she took up her hat and flung it down again; she cast herself on the settee and pulled at the heavy lace on her bosom. All the while...

Luc dismissed Carola Koklinska from his thoughts as he would have brushed a dead leaf from his coat, but he could not so easily banish the sensation that something distasteful a...

Luc was no more moved from his way by M. de Voltaire’s impetuous entry into his life than he had been by the unveiling of Carola or by the glimpse he had of the frivolous, cynic...

A gorgeous young man, with beautiful dark blue eyes and a face set in lines of gloom and discontent, lounged on a sofa piled with white satin cushions with silver tassels, eatin...

A honey-coloured haze of autumn glory hung over the trees and fields outside Aix, where a fête was being held, this perfect day in late October. Among the crowds who wandered in...

The last generous glow of October had passed into the first chill of November; the white haze of an early frost lay over the fields as Luc, but a few days after the fête, rode a...

Luc’s right arm was stiff about the heavy child and his left hand cold on the bridle; his very blood was chill. It seemed to him that the creeping bitterness of the night was mo...

He felt utterly weary; the exaltation and the ecstatic visions of the morning had faded. In the next room the dead child lay waiting for her coffin; a sound of sawing wood came...

“Quand je parle de vertu, je ne parle point de ces qualités imaginaires qui n’appartiennent pas à la nature humaine: je parle de cette force et de cette grandeur de l’âme, qui,...

They were walking up and down the hard gravel paths of the garden of Luc’s home in Aix; a faint film of frost lay over the water in the fountain basin, but the air was clear and...

Luc de Clapiers lay on the humble bed in the back room of the gardener’s cottage; in the outer chamber his servant was packing and gossiping with the convent porter.

The sight of her filled him with an almost intolerable yearning and longing for that happiness he must never enjoy. She was standing by the fire-place. A lamp was on a low table...

The elder Marquis de Vauvenargues put down the _Gazette_ in which he had been reading of the opening of the spring campaign and the progress of the Chevalier de St. George throu...

Luc sat in a corner of the Paris post-chaise which was driving through the dark away from Aix. It was over now. He was free of everything; his own master; on his own road to his...

The chamber was high up in a tall, straight-fronted house that had once been of some pretensions to splendour, and a man with good vision could have seen a strange array of twis...

It was midsummer of the year ’46, and unusually hot. Most of the women wore roses--red, white, and pink. There were many boats on the river, and an air of gay carelessness over...

On a pale, bitter day in the following spring, Luc de Clapiers made his way with a steady, purposeful slowness to a certain house in the Isle where there was a garden. It was th...