WHEN THE COSSACKS PASSED For the first time in years the great hall of the Chateau d'Aumenier was brightly lighted.

The ancient house stood in the midst of a wooded park adjacent to the village, overlooking one of the little lakes whose outlets flowed into the Morin.

In former days it had been the scene of much hospitality, and, even after the revolution in the period of the consulate and the early empire, representatives of the ancient house had resided there, albeit quietly and in greatly diminished style.

The old Marquis Henri, as uncompromising a royalist soldier as ever lived, had fled to England and had remained there.

His younger brother, Robert, compromising his dignity and his principles alike, had finally made his submission to Napoleon and received back the estates, or what had not been sequestrated.