The Abbe and Lamont
both entreated that she would take some refreshment before returning
home, but she shuddered, and said she could taste nothing there, and
holding tight by my arm, she moved away, though we paused while
Madame Darpent was kneeling down and asking the Archbishop to bless
her. He did so, and her spirit seemed to have touched his lighter
and gayer one, and to have made him feel what he was, for he gave the
benediction with real solemnity and unaffected reverence for the old
lady.
He himself handed her into the carriage, and he must greatly have
respected her, for though he whispered something to her son about the
grand deliverance of the victim through St. Margaret and the Dragon
(an irresistible pun on the dragoon), yet excellent story as could
have been made of the free-thinking Abbe on his knees to the old
Frondeur's widow, he never did make it public property. I believe
that it is quite true, as my sister's clever friend Madame de Sevigne
declares, that there was always more good in Cardinal de Retz, as he
now is called, than was supposed.
Poor Meg had kept up gallantly through all her terrible struggle of
many hours, but when we had her safely in the carriage in the dark,
she sank back like one exhausted, and only held my hand and Madame
Darpent's to her lips by turns. I wanted to ask whether she felt ill
or hurt in any way, but after she had gently answered, 'Oh, no, only
so thankful, so worn out,' Madame Darpent advised me not to agitate
her by talking to her, but to let her rest.
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