ter long enough for the novelty to have abated. He told Count Saxe
afterward that Francezka, without being the most beautiful woman he
had ever seen, was the most interesting.

In all this time no word had come from Regnard Cheverny. Francezka
commented bitterly on this, and it much amazed me, as I had never seen
any lack of affection on either side between the brothers.

At last, toward the middle of August, all things being arranged, I set
out with Francezka on our travels in search of her lost love.

CHAPTER XXIII

A LOVING QUEST

Francezka had a natural desire to see the spot from which Gaston had
disappeared, and to satisfy herself as to the search in those parts.
We traveled to Hueningen, therefore, crossed the Rhine at the point
below where the boat had crossed and came to the place, a low-lying
Austrian outpost, at which Gaston had been last seen alive. From
thence we hunted the Rhine country on both sides of the river before
proceeding to Prince Eugene's headquarters, which had been moved
farther back in the interior, toward the Taunus hills.

We traveled rapidly. A journey is fast or slow, according as there is
money forthcoming. Old Peter, in spite of his years, acted admirably
as an avant-courier. He always rode ahead two stages to secure
post-horses; and if there was any dispute about it, I could always
bring the postmaster to the right way of thinking. But what was quite
as effective was Francezka's soft and insinuating address, which never
failed to get horses or anything else she wanted. It is a part of
human nature to delight in exercising a power with which one is
gifted. Francezka had the power of persuasion in a high degree, and it
pleased her self-love to see a postmaster or an innkeeper succumb to
it, as quickly as a Maurice of Saxe.

We had fine weather from the day we left Philipsburg. The Duke of
Berwick used to say that travel was the best means ever devised to
wean the human mind from the continual contemplation of sorrow. So it
proved in this instance. There is something in the motion of a horse
under one, which is a subtile distraction. The horse itself becomes a
component part of being, and exacts a share of attention. Francezka,
who was fond of horse exercise, left the chaise almost entirely to
Madame Chambellan and rode on horseback with me.

There could be no doubt of her high and even feverish hope. She was
never more to have that serene expectation of happiness which I