SOLDIERS OF THE EMPIRE. 43 



standing on the same spot with his arms folded 

 a rEmpereur, lost in reveries of the past. 



Since I have made these notes there has 

 appeared in the Boston Herald an interesting 

 sketch of the career of Francois Radoux, born 

 in Brittany in 1790. He too was a soldier of 

 the empire, and was living in Portland, Me. 

 Very likely others still survive in France, but it 

 is scarcely possible that there are any more of 

 them to be found in the United States. I 

 wished that these two '' venerable men who 

 have come down to us from a former genera- 

 tion " might be brought together to embrace 

 each other and to fight over those old battles 

 side by side. Their stories would be worthy 

 of a place in the well-worn war columns of the 

 Century magazine. 



But time marches rapidly on the downhill 

 grade. I have now to make another note. 

 Radoux died a few months ago and the vieux 

 soldat whom I met upon the road stands guard 

 alone on the threshold of the tomb. 



I drew up for the night at the hotel in 

 North Ashford. It was the old stage house of 

 former days. Evidently no change had come 

 over it but the change of decay. It stood 

 close upon the road, with a capacious stable 



