"
He kissed the hand of the prince, which was reached out for the
papers, and then hastened to summon the officer, who was waiting in
the adjoining room for the nephew of General Kleber, having no
suspicion what an important mission was intrusted to him.
But General Kleber knew the secret better, and although not a word
and not an action disclosed it, yet the gentle friendliness, the
mild look, the subdued smile with which the general received his
young nephew in Mayence, testified that he was familiar with the
secret, and knew how to guard it.
In Mayence, under the care of General Kleber, his nephew, Louis, as
he called him, remained during the subsequent time, and very soon
gained the heart of his uncle, and was his inseparable friend by day
and by night. They slept in one room, they ate at one table. The
nephew accompanied his uncle at all parades and military exercises;
and, in order to make his favorite a skilful soldier, the general
undertook the duties of teacher, gave him instruction in the art of
war, and taught him the more familiar duties of a soldier's life.
The nephew comprehended readily, and pursued zealously the studies
which his uncle assigned him. The pains and sorrows of the past were
forgotten, and only the recollections of his happy child-hood rested
silently at the bottom of his heart like pearls at the bottom of the
sea.
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