'
The Princess, always too sweet and gentle for envy, kissed and
congratulated Madame d'Aubepine, and left her on retiring to Milly.
Nor did Cecile quit the Court till she actually was the bearer of an
order for the release of her husband.
CHAPTER XXIV
FAMILY HONOUR
I have gone on with the d'Aubepine side of the story, but while these
two devoted wives were making exertions at Bordeaux so foreign to
their whole nature, which seemed changed for their husband's sake, I
was far away at the time, even from my son.
It was in March that we received a letter from my brother, Lord
Walwyn, bidding us adieu, being, when we received it, already on the
high seas with the Marquis of Montrose, to strike another blow for
the King. He said he could endure inaction no longer, and that his
health had improved so much that he should not be a drag on the
expedition. Moreover, it was highly necessary that the Marquis
should be accompanied by gentlemen of rank, birth, and experience,
who could be entrusted with commands, and when so many hung back it
was the more needful for some to go. It was a great stroke to us,
for besides that Sir Andrew Macniven went on reiterating that it was
mere madness, and there was not a hope of success--the idea of
Eustace going to face the winds of spring in the islands of Scotland
was shocking enough.
'The hyperborean Orcades,' as the Abbe called them, made us think of
nothing but frost and ice and savages, and we could not believe Sir
Andrew when he told us that the Hebrides and all the west coast of
Scotland were warmer than Paris in the winter.
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