I do not know. Never again in this
life did I see Captain Fourneau to tell him the result of my mission.
For my own part I gave myself up to the English, my boatman and I
pretending that we were the only survivors of a lost vessel--though,
indeed, there was no pretence in the matter. At the hands of their
officers I received that generous hospitality which I have always
encountered, but it was many a long month before I could get a passage
back to the dear land outside of which there can be no happiness for so
true a Frenchman as myself.

And so I tell you in one evening how I bade good-bye to my master, and
I take my leave also of you, my kind friends, who have listened so
patiently to the long-winded stories of an old broken soldier. Russia,
Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and England, you have gone with me to
all these countries, and you have seen through my dim eyes something of
the sparkle and splendour of those great days, and I have brought back
to you some shadow of those men whose tread shook the earth. Treasure it
in your minds and pass it on to your children, for the memory of a great
age is the most precious treasure that a nation can possess. As the tree
is nurtured by its own cast leaves so it is these dead men and vanished
days which may bring out another blossoming of heroes, of rulers, and of
sages. I go to Gascony, but my words stay here in your memory, and long
after Etienne Gerard is forgotten a heart may be warmed or a spirit
braced by some faint echo of the words that he has spoken. Gentlemen, an
old soldier salutes you and bids you farewell.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Adventures of Gerard, by Arthur Conan Doyle

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