He reached it worn with fatigue and fevered by his wound, but his spirit as indomitable as ever.He went to the War Office with the governor's letter.It seemed to create some little sensation; one functionary came and said a polite word to him, then another.At last to his infinite surprise the minister himself sent down word he wished to see him; the minister put several questions to him, and seemed interested in him and touched by his relation.
"I think, captain, I shall have to send to you: where do you stay in Paris?""Nowhere, monsieur; I leave Paris as soon as I can find an easy-going horse."
"But General Bretaux tells me you are wounded.""Not dangerously."
"Pardon me, captain, but is this prudent? is it just to yourself and your friends?""Yes, I owe it to those who perhaps think me dead.""You can write to them."
"I grudge so great, so sacred a joy to a letter.No! after all Ihave suffered I claim to be the one to tell her I have kept my word:
I promised to live, and I live."
"HER? then I say no more, only tell me what road you take.""The road to Brittany."
As the young officer was walking his horse by the roadside about a league and a half from Paris, he heard a clatter behind him, and up galloped an aide-de-camp and drew up alongside, bringing his horse nearly on his haunches.
He handed him a large packet sealed with the arms of France.The other tore it open; and there was his brevet as colonel.His cheek flushed and his eye glittered with joy.The aide-de-camp next gave him a parcel: "Your epaulets, colonel! We hear you are going into the wilds where epaulets don't grow.You are to join the army of the Rhine as soon as your wound is well.""Wherever my country calls me."
"Your address, then, colonel, that we may know where to put our finger on a tried soldier when we want one.""I am going to Beaurepaire."
"Beaurepaire? I never heard of it."
"You never heard of Beaurepaire? it is in Brittany, forty-five leagues from Paris, forty-three leagues and a half from here.""Good! Health and honor to you, colonel.""The same to you, lieutenant; or a soldier's death."The new colonel read the precious document across his horse's mane, and then he was going to put one of the epaulets on his right shoulder, bare at present: but he reflected.
"No; she should make him a colonel with her own dear hand.He put them in his pocket.He would not even look at them till she had seen them.Oh, how happy he was not only to come back to her alive, but to come back to her honored."His wound smarted, his limbs ached, but no pain past or present could lay hold of his mind.In his great joy he remembered past suffering and felt present pain--yet smiled.Only every now and then he pined for wings to shorten the weary road.
He was walking his horse quietly, drooping a little over his saddle, when another officer well mounted came after him and passed him at a hand gallop with one hasty glance at his uniform, and went tearing on like one riding for his life.
"Don't I know that face?" said Dujardin.
He cudgelled his memory, and at last he remembered it was the face of an old comrade.At least it strongly reminded him of one Jean Raynal who had saved his life in the Arno, when they were lieutenants together.
Yes, it was certainly Raynal, only bronzed by service in some hot country.
"Ah!" thought Camille; "I suppose I am more changed than he is; for he certainly did not recognize me at all.Now I wonder what that fellow has been doing all this time.What a hurry he was in! a moment more and I should have hailed him.Perhaps I may fall in with him at the next town."He touched his horse with the spur, and cantered gently on, for trotting shook him more than he could bear.Even when he cantered he had to press his hand against his bosom, and often with the motion a bitterer pang than usual came and forced the water from his eyes; and then he smiled.His great love and his high courage made this reply to the body's anguish.And still his eyes looked straight forward as at some object in the distant horizon, while he came gently on, his hand pressed to his bosom, his head drooping now and then, smiling patiently, upon the road to Beaurepaire.
Oh! if anybody had told him that in five days his Josephine was to be married; and that the bronzed comrade, who had just galloped past him, was to marry her!
At Beaurepaire they were making and altering wedding-dresses.Rose was excited, and even Josephine took a calm interest.Dress never goes for nothing with her sex.The chairs and tables were covered, and the floor was littered.The baroness was presiding over the rites of vanity, and telling them what she wore at her wedding, under Louis XV., with strict accuracy, and what we men should consider a wonderful effort of memory, when the Commandant Raynal came in like a cannon-ball, without any warning, and stood among them in a stiff, military attitude.Exclamations from all the party, and then a kind greeting, especially from the baroness.
"We have been so dull without you, Jean.""And I have missed you once or twice, mother-in-law, I can tell you.
Well, I have got bad news; but you must consider we live in a busy time.To-morrow I start for Egypt."Loud ejaculations from the baroness and Rose.Josephine put down her work quietly.
