"
I could not restrain the tears at sight of him.
"Your words are more than just," I said; and, being anxious that he
should know at once that my fault had not been so great as it looked,
continued hurriedly: "The king sent me to France upon an hour's
notice, the day after your arrest. I know only too well I should not
have gone without seeing you out of this, but you had enjoined silence
upon me, and--and I trusted to the promises of another."
"I thought as much. You are in no way to blame, my friend; all I ask
is that you never mention the subject again."
"My friend!" Ah! the words were dear to me as words of love from a
sweetheart's lips.
I hardly recognized him, he was so frightfully covered with filth and
dirt and creeping things. His hair and beard were unkempt and matted,
and his eyes and cheeks were lusterless and sunken; but I will
describe him no further. Suffering had well-nigh done its work, and
nothing but the hardihood gathered in his years of camp life and war
could have saved him from death.
Pages:
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233