ches
by an emissary of the Vendeens, enclosed a note to me by which I learned
that Jacques was ill. Monsieur de Mortsauf, in despair at his son's
ill-health, and also at the news of a second emigration, added a few
words which enabled me to guess the situation of my dear one. Worried by
him, no doubt, when she passed all her time at Jacques' bedside, allowed
no rest either day or night, superior to annoyance, yet unable always to
control herself when her whole soul was given to the care of her child,
Henriette needed the support of a friendship which might lighten the
burden of her life, were it only by diverting her husband's mind. Though
I was now most impatient to rival the career of my brother, who had
lately been sent to the Congress of Vienna, and was anxious at any risk
to justify Henriette's appeal and become a man myself, freed from all
vassalage, nevertheless my ambition, my desire for independence, the
great interest I had in not leaving the king, all were of no account
before the vision of Madame de Mortsauf's sad face. I resolved to leave
the court at Ghent and serve my true sovereign. God rewarded me. The
emissary sent by the Vendeens was unable to return. The king wanted a
messenger who would faithfully carry back his instructions. The Duc de
Lenoncourt knew that the king would never forget the man who undertook
so perilous an enterprise; he asked for the mission without consulting
me, and I gladly accepted it, happy indeed to be able to return to
Clochegourde employed in the good cause.

After an audience with the king I returned to France, where, both in
Paris and in Vendee, I was fortunate enough to carry out his Majesty's
instructions. Towards the end of May, being tracked by the Bonapartist
authorities to whom I was denounced, I was obliged to fly from place to
place in the character of a man endeavoring to get back to his estate.
I went on foot from park to park, from wood to wood, across the whole
of upper Vendee, the Bocage and Poitou, changing my direction as danger
threatened.

I reached Saumur, from Saumur I went to Chinon, and from Chinon I
reached, in a single night, the woods of Nueil, where I met the count on
horseback; he took me up behind him and we reached Clochegourde without
passing any one who recognized me.

"Jacques is better," were the first words he said to me.

I explained to him my position of diplomatic postman, hunted like a wild
beast, and the brave gentleman in his quali