Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

” AMEDEE ACHARD. first employment was in a commercial house in his native city. He was just twenty years old when he left Marseilles to go to Algeria, there to assist in the direction of an agricultural colony. Upon his return from Algeria in 1835 he entered the govern- mental service as private secretary to M. Floret, prefect of Haute- Garonne. His debut in the literary field took place at Marseilles, where he published several articles in the Semaphore, but noto- riety only came to him after having collaborated in the Vert- Vert, the Entracte and the Charavart. His ‘‘Parisian Letters’* were published in the Ap~ogue under the pen name of Grimm, and made him famous. Asa direct result of this fame he was sent to Madrid to assist in the quality of reporter at the /€/es occurring on the marriage of the Duc de Montpeusier (1846). Alexandre Dumas, Auguste Maquet, and several of the former’s friends were traveling in Spain at the same time. Achard saw a good deal of them up to the time that Dumas sailed for Africa, when Achard returned to Paris. Dumas mentions Achard quite frequently in his ‘‘Zmpressions de Voyage,’’ and they were un- questionably good friends. Shortly after his return to Paris, Achard published his letters from Spain in a volume entitled ‘‘A Month in Spain’’ (1847). In the same year he gave to the world his first notable romance ‘“‘Belle-Rose.’’ He had published two short stories before, but they had excited no attention. Not so with ‘‘Belle-Rose,’’ which achieved a splendid success. The year 1848 is remembered as the year of revolutions, and in that year Paris had her usual periodical uprising. When the revolution burst out Achard was a contributor to the /amp/hlet, an illustrated satiric journal published by M. Auguste Vitu. He threw aside the pen to take up the sword, and fought in the ranks of the National Guard during the days of June. His brother was mortally wounded at his side, and he himself was taken prisoner by the insurgents. The reader will find a description of this experience in Achard’s ‘‘Souvenirs Personnels d’Emeutes et des Revolutions.’’ In 1850 a violent literary quarrel occurred between M. P. A. Fiorentino and the Societé des Gens de Lettres. This quarrel terminated in a duel in which Achard, simply designated by the alphabetical order, had to represent the society. The duel was fought and Achard received a wound in the breast from which he suffered all the rest of his life. This duel was quite famous. In 1850 Achard received a commission from the Journal des Debais to act as war correspondent for it during the episode of the French invasion of Italy. On his return he published a series of letters which he had addressed to that journal, They were issued under the title, ‘‘Lettres d’Italie: Montibello, Magenta, Eomichbooks (E(0)