He
was the play-fellow of my boyhood, and if I can help him to the more
noble path, my aid must not be wanting, either for his sake or that
of my sister.'
How wise and how noble these two years had made my dear husband; how
unlike the raw lad I had met at Whitehall! It was the training in
self-discipline that he had given himself for my sake--yes, and for
that of his country and his God.
CHAPTER VI.
VICTORY DEARLY BOUGHT
No difficulty was made about enrolling the Chevalier d'Aubepine as a
volunteer in the regiment of Conde, and as the lettre de cachet, as
my brother De Solivet said, the Cardinal understood his game too well
to send one to bring back a youth who had rushed to place himself
beneath the banners of his country in the hands of a prince of the
blood.
Indeed, we soon learned that there was no one to pursue him. His
grandfather had a stroke of apoplexy in his rage on hearing of the
arrest, and did not survive it a week, so that he had become Count of
Aubepine. The same courier brought to my husband a letter from his
sister, which I thought very stiff and formal, all except the
conclusion: 'Oh, my brother, I implore you on my knees to watch over
him and bring him back to me!'
Yet, as far as we knew and believed, the young man had never written
at all to his poor little wife. My husband had insisted on his
producing a letter to his grandfather; but as to his wife, he
shrugged his shoulders, said that she could see that he was safe, and
that was enough for her.
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