could pour
out the grief and anxiety which had been caused by this letter from
Bressac. I arrive at Toulouse; they tell me that he left the evening
before, taking arms with him, a prey to the most violent despair. It was
impossible at first to tell whither he had gone; after two days, some
indications, collected with great trouble, put me upon his track. At
last, after a thousand adventures, I found him in a miserable village.
Never--no, never, have I seen despair like this. No violence, but a
dreadful dejection, a savage silence. At first, he almost repulsed me;
then, this horrible agony having reached its height, he softened by
degrees, and, in about a quarter of an hour, threw himself into my arms,
bathed in tears. Beside him were his loaded pistols: one day later, and
all would have been over. I cannot tell you the reason of his despair; I
am not at liberty to do so; but it did not greatly astonish me. Now there
is a complete cure to effect. We must calm, and soothe, and heal this
poor soul, which has been cruelly wounded. The hand of friendship is
alone equal to this delicate task, and I have good hope of success. I
have therefore persuaded him to travel for some time; movement and change
of scene will be favorable to him. I shall take him first to Nice; we set
out tomorrow. If he wishes to prolong this excursion. I shall do so too,
for my affairs do not imperiously demand my presence in Paris before the
end of March. As for the service I have to ask of you, it is conditional.
These are the facts. According to some family papers that belonged to my
mother, it seems I have a certain interest to present myself at No. 3,
Rue Saint-Francois, in Paris, on the 13th of February. I had inquired
about it, and could learn nothing, except that this house of very antique
appearance, has been shut up for the last hundred and fifty years,
through a whim of one of my maternal ancestors, and that it is to be
opened on the 13th of this month, in presence of the co-heirs who, if I
have any, are quite unknown to me. Not being able to attend myself, I
have written to my foreman, the father of General Simon, in whom I have
the greatest confidence, and whom I had left behind in the department of
the Creuse, to set out for Paris, and to be present at the opening of
this house, not as an agent (which would be useless), but as a spectator,
and inform me at Nice what has been the result of this romantic notion of
my ancestor's. As it is poss