Saumur, about one hundred and seventy miles southwest of Paris, is a cheerful place, gleaming from afar with its white buildings, and one of the most picturesque towns, in its quaint structures, towers, pinnacles, and spires, on the Loire. It stands on the left bank of that river, and prior to the "Revocation of the Edict of Nantes," 24th October, 1685, was one of the strongholds of the Huguenots, or Protestants of France, who were driven forth from their native country, or worse, by that iniquitous decree. Two centuries ago it was the capital of a district in the province of Anjou-known as the "Saumurois." The confines of this petty government presented exactly the outline of one of those delicious pears for which France is so celebrated, and Saumur was situated at the apex or root of the stem. Its capture by the Vendeans, 10th June, 1793, was one of the grandest exploits of that marvellous effort of loyalty and honor.

The Royal Cavalry School, transferred to this city from Angers towards the close of the preceding century, is located to the southwest of Saumur, and covers quite a large space with its buildings, riding-schools, and grounds for exercise and drill. It is destined to receive officers, non-commissioned officers (from three hundred to four hundred of this grade), and even picked riders (cavaliers). They are instructed in every branch of information appropriate to their Arm, and, after a complete course, are distributed through all the cavalry regiments in the army, to diffuse a complete knowledge of the horse and horsemanship and the best method of imparting instruction according to a uniform system.

It is somewhat curious, just as our three young American officers were sent to complete their military education at the Royal School of Cavalry, at Saumur, so Pitt and Wellington took a course of lessons at its predecessor, the "Academy of Equitation," at Angers; the latter, in 1785-1787. Thus the bitterest and the most successful enemy of France laid the foundation in a French Military School of that knowledge of war which led the latter—“the Iron Duke" of after years-through Vimiera, Vittoria, and Waterloo, to Paris.

While at the Cavalry School at Saumur, Lieutenant KEARNY determined to give an entertainment which would not only do honor to himself but to his country. He was incited to doing this by the generous sentiment which he felt for the attentions he had received and in order to make some adequate return for the civilities shown

by the civil and military authorities of the place to the three American officers resident among them.

The story of this ball is as follows:

On "Twelfth Night," (1840)-an anniversary kept in Europe with almost as much exactitude as Christmas-General De Brack, in command at Saumur, gave a party at his residence.

Formerly "Twelfth Night," or the "Eve of the Festival of the' Three Kings," was one of those periodical seasons which have always been consecrated by European nations to amusement and festivity. Thus, we find BARENTZ and HEEMSKERCK imprisoned amid the Artic ice, on the coast of Nova Zembla, during that terrible winter of 1596-'7, expending their last little supply of wine in pigmy bumpers to the king of the festival, and with a courage and spirit without example, indulging in all the customary merriment of home, which they seemed destined, in all human probability, never to revisit, and when they were, to all appearances, within the jaws of destruction.

The Twelfth Night king was a potentate, with authority and functions somewhat similar to those exercised by the King of Misrule in Old English Christmas revels. Among the more elevated and refined classes of society, this festival assumed a stately character, and became susceptible of very great display. The selection of King and Queen was generally left to chance and determined by a bean, which was placed in a cake, cut and distributed in pieces before the supper. The drawer of the slice containing the bean became King or Queen, and was privileged to select a partner to share his or her temporary regal honors. All drank to his or her majesty, who reigned and received homage from every one during the evening. In this custom originated the French title of the festival, The Feast of Kings ("La Fete de Rois), for which the revolutionary government of 1793 substituted, "The Merrymaking of those without breeches, i. e. Radical Democrats" ("La Fete des Sans Culottes"), through their hatred of anything savoring of royalty. Before the disastrous close of the reign of Louis XVI., the French monarch and his nobles waited on the Twelfth Night king. This proves the importance given to the occasion in former days.

KEARNY was "prevented by indisposition from attending the party at the house of General DE BRACK On Twelfth Night,” wrote the first of "the Three," who kept a sort of journal of what trans

pired, "When the cake was cut, some of the ladies sent him a piece with the bean in it, and from that the ball originated. He first intended to give a party at the assembly rooms, but the idea gradually expanded, and when he was offered the grand rooms of the school, he put the whole thing in the hands of some French officers, with carte blanche' as to expense. The result was a ball which eclipsed even the grand ball given by the city, some years before, to the Duchesse DE BERRI, and which seemed to be the only notable event on record when we arrived there. The rooms were beautifully decorated under the superintendence of General DE BRACK, who was an artist. The supper was sent from Paris by one of the most celebrated restaurateurs; flowers in profusion came from Angers and other places," "each lady on entering received a bouquet of the choicest flowers in an elegant silver holder," "and with the music of the fine brass band of the school, and an excellent string-band from the city, nothing was wanting to make the whole affair a perfect success. Applications were constantly received for invitations, many from a great distance, and if it had been delayed much longer, the rooms would not have held the crowd. KEARNY employed an artist who was present to make a picture of the ball, a copy of which he presented to General DE BRACK."

KEARNY'S ball "was gotten up in a style of magnificence that was wholly unprecedented in that part of the country"-these are the words of another eye-witness, the second of "the Three." It was "given 11th February, 1840, and presided over by the Commandant of the School, General DE BRACK," whose wife KEARNY selected as the Queen of this substitute Twelfth Night merry-making celebration, and it was attended by all the prominent people of that particular section, and by many from Paris and elsewhere. It was in every respect a brilliant affair, and procured for General KEARNY, from the inhabitants, the most enthusiastic acknowledgments, for the liberality he had displayed in thus contributing to their enjoyment. An artist was engaged to make a picture of the scene on canvas. In this he was very successful in giving admirable likenesses of several prominent individuals."

The only discrepancy, in the recollections of those who participated in the festivities, is as to whether the town or the giver of the fete employed the artist who executed the picture which commemorated this graceful evidence of KEARNY's patriotism and grateful appreciation of the courtesies of the French government and officials, but

more particularly the attention of the officer in command. At all events, by whomsoever commanded, the original picture, or a copy of it, was a prominent object, at the time of the General's death among the paintings which adorned his spacious and elegant mansion, at Belle Grove, on an elevation opposite Newark. This building stands on the site of a country residence which, prior to the Revolution, belonged to his grand-aunt, whose husband built and dwelt in No. 1 Broadway, a very fine building for its date and the young city of New York, and originally owned the adjoining No. 3, in which KEARNY was born.

This painting is on too small a scale to do full justice to the occasion, but it affords some idea of its splendor, attributable in a great measure to the variety, grace, and elegance of the numerous uniforms of the Turkish, Polish, American, and French officers belonging to the different arms and services, which filled the room—uniforms, of whose richness and contrast, our people, accustomed to the universal sameness of our present blue, tame and simple, can have no idea whatever. At that time the Turkish and Polish military costumes were still, if not the most serviceable, the most striking in Europe. They were susceptible of any amount of decoration, almost as much so as the Hungarian, with its plumes, embroidery, jewels, lace, buttons, jacket and dolman. All that is most attractive in the dress of the Chasseurs d'Afrique-to which KEARNY was afterwards attached-was borrowed from the Polish; everything which looked well and yet was serviceable, just as the Zouaves, was modeled on the Turkish military costume. All that was rejected was those details which were in reality unmilitary and unfitted for active service. All that was good and good-looking was retained. And, yet, KEARNY told the writer that his own uniform, that of the American Light Dragoons of thirty years ago, was as effective and imposing as any in the room. Doubtless he made it so, although it was very jaunty in itself. The coatee, blue, doublebreasted, was not a frock, but cut in a much more graceful fashion; the collar, cuff and turn-backs, bordered with lace and ornamented and trimmed with gold, pantaloons, blue-gray mixture, known as light army-blue, with two stripes of orange cloth up each outward seam; the cap, such as the French term "shako," with drooping, white horse-hair pompon, or rather plume, silver and gold ornaments, and gold foraging cords and tassels. The latter could be detached and worn over the coat and around the neck, producing the effect of an

aiguilette. The sash was silk net, of a deep orange color, which, if made in France, as the writer has seen them made, shone in the glancing lights like a waving zone of gold. Thus KEARNY described it, and thus our officers did not make a bad show among the dazzling dresses whirling in the waltz, or polka, or promenading about.

When KEARNY resigned, in 1851, the same striking and elegant uniform was still worn by our Dragoons; and the writer will never forget his expression and manner, when he came back in 1861, and saw some of his own regiment again, in Washington, after the lapse of ten years. "I left them," said he, "a set of elegant gentlemen, and now I come back and find them a set of dirty blackguards." The Dragoons at the National Capital certainly did not present an attractive appearance in May, 1861: especially in the horrid felt hat of an "Italian bandit,"-as some one styled itwhich JEFFERSON DAVIS, while Secretary of War, had clapped on their heads.

That this ball must have been something extraordinary, there can be no doubt, from the glowing accounts given of it by those who were present, and KEARNY'S lavish expenditure, doubtless, did make a strong impression on a people so susceptible to display as the French, particularly at that period, when extravagance had not attained the vast proportions it has reached under LOUIS NAPOLEON. That it must have cost a very large sum, is certain, from the horrorstricken expression of KEARNY's agent, when called upon to remit the necessary moneys. He threw up his hands, as if the young representative of American munificence had lost his senses.