n him kindness in the stormy revolutionary
times, and was delighted to be able to be of service to me. Everything
in his chateau which could conduce to my comfort or amusement was
freely at my disposal, and he would not, on any pretence, allow me to
leave him until all risk, whether from my wound or the insecurity of
the routes, should be over. All that he regretted was the impossibility
of communicating with my friends for the moment, so as to let them know
where I was.

"The Chevalier was a widower, and his sons were not with him, so that
there were no other occupants of the chateau but himself, the surgeon,
and a great retinue of servants. It would only weary you were I to tell
you at length how I grew better and better under the care of the
exceedingly able surgeon, and how the Chevalier did everything he
possibly could to make my hermit's life agreeable to me. His
conversation was more intellectual, and his views less shallow, than is
usually the case with his countrymen. He talked on arts and sciences,
but avoided the more novel and recent developments of them as much as
possible. I need not tell you that my sole thought was Angelica, that
it burned my soul to know that she was plunged in sorrow for my death.
I constantly urged the Chevalier to get letters conveyed to our
headquarters. He always declined to do so, on account of the
uncertainty of the attempt, as it seemed as good as certain that
fighting was going on again; but he consoled me by promising that as
soon as I was quite convalescent he would have me sent home safe and
sound, happen what might. From what he said I was led to suppose that
the campaign was going on again, and to the advantage of the allies,
and that he was avoiding telling me so in words from a wish to spare my
feelings. But I need only mention one or two little incidents to
justify the strange conjectures which Dagobert has formed in his mind.
I was nearly free from fever, when one night I suddenly fell into an
incomprehensible condition of dreaminess, the recollection of which
makes me shudder, though that recollection is of the dimmest and most
shadowy kind. I saw Angelica, but her form seemed to be dissolving away
indistinctly in a trembling radiance, and I strove in vain to hold it
fast before me. Another being pressed in between us, laid herself on my
breast, and grasped my heart within me, in the depths of my entity; and
while I was perishing in the most glowing torment, I was at