reach the limits of my endurance?

I stood there in my heavy coat and my poor battered shako, my chin upon
my chest, and my eyelids over my eyes. I had done my best, and I could
do no more. It was the sound of horses' hoofs which made me at last
raise my head, and there was the grey-moustached Governor of Dartmoor
Prison not ten paces in front of me, with six mounted warders behind
him!

'So, Colonel,' said he, with a bitter smile, 'we have found you once
more.'

When a brave man has done his utmost, and has failed, he shows his
breeding by the manner in which he accepts his defeat. For me, I took
the letter which I had in my pocket, and stepping forward, I handed it
with such grace of manner as I could summon to the Governor.

'It has been my misfortune, sir, to detain one of your letters,' said I.

He looked at me in amazement, and beckoned to the warders to arrest me.
Then he broke the seal of the letter. I saw a curious expression come
over his face as he read it.

'This must be the letter which Sir Charles Meredith lost,' said he.

'It was in the pocket of his coat.'

'You have carried it for two days?'

'Since the night before last.'

'And never looked at the contents?'

I showed him by my manner that he had committed an indiscretion in
asking a question which one gentleman should not have put to another.

To my surprise he burst out into a roar of laughter.

'Colonel,' said he, wiping the tears from his eyes, 'you have really
given both yourself and us a great deal of unnecessary trouble. Allow me
to read the letter which you carried with you in your flight.'

And this was what I heard:--

'On receipt of this you are directed to release Colonel Etienne Gerard,
of the 3rd Hussars, who has been exchanged against Colonel Mason, of the
Horse Artillery, now in Verdun.'

And as he read it, he laughed again, and the warders laughed, and the
two men from the cottage laughed, and then, as I heard this universal
merriment, and thought of all my hopes and fears, and my struggles and
dangers, what could a debonair soldier do but lean against the porch
once more, and laugh as heartily as any of them? And of them all was it
not I who had the best reason to laugh, since in front of me I could see
my dear France, and my mother, and the Emperor, and my horsemen; while
behind lay the gloomy prison, and the heavy hand of the English King?

5. HOW THE BRIGADIER TOOK THE FIELD AGAINST THE MARSHAL MILLEFLEUR