He would bleed to
death before he could be carried home, so M. Darpent has had him
carried into his sister's house.'
My heart was sick for poor Cecile. 'My brother-in-law!' I said.
'Oh, Mademoiselle, I entreat of you to let me go to his aid.'
'Your amiable brother-in-law, who wanted to have you enlevee! No,
no, my dear, you cannot be uneasy about him. The Generalissime of
Paris cannot spare her Gildippe.'
So I was carried on, consoling myself with the thought that Madame
Verdon, who was as kind as her mother, would take care of him. When
we came near the gate Mademoiselle sent orders by M. de Rohan to the
captain of the gate to let her people in and out, and, at the same
time, sent a message to the Prince, while she went into the nearest
house, that of M. de Croix, close to the Bastille.
Scarcely were we in its salon when in came the Prince. He was in a
terrible state, and dropped into a chair out of breath before he
could speak. His face was all over dust, his hair tangled, his
collar and shirt bloody, his cuirass dinted all over with blows, and
he held his bloody sword in his hand, having lost the scabbard.
'You see a man in despair,' he gasped out. 'I have lost all my
friends. Nemours, de la Rochefoucauld, Clinchamp, d'Aubepine, are
mortally wounded;' and, throwing down his sword, he began tearing his
hair with his hands, and moving his feet up and down in an agony of
grief.
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