oom, the
lilacs, the honeysuckles, whose fragrance filled the air, and whose
verdure glistened in the sun. In the antechamber was the gardener and
all his family, who, sad and silent, seemed also to say to me, 'Don't
go, young master, don't go.' Hortense, my eldest sister, pressed me in
her arms, and Amelie, my little sister, who was in a corner of the
drawing room looking at the pictures in a volume of La Fontaine, came up
to me, holding out the book:

'Read, read, brother,' said she, weeping....

She pointed to the fable of the Two Pigeons!... I suddenly got up, and
repelled them all. 'I am now twenty, I am of noble blood, I want glory
and honor.... Let me go.' And I ran toward the courtyard. I was about
getting into the postchaise, when a woman appeared on the staircase.
It was Henrietta! She did not weep ... she did not say a word ... but,
pale and trembling, it was with the utmost difficulty that she kept from
falling. She waved the white handkerchief she held in her hand, as a
last good-by, and she fell senseless on the floor. I ran and took her
up, I pressed her in my arms, I pledged my love to her for life; and as
she recovered consciousness, leaving her in the hands of my mother and
sister, I ran to my postchaise without stopping, and without turning my
head.

If I had looked at Henrietta, I should not have gone.

In a few moments afterward the postchaise was rattling along the
highway. For a long time my mind was completely absorbed by thoughts of
my sisters, of Henrietta, of my mother, and of all the happiness I left
behind me; but these ideas gradually quitted me as I lost sight of the
turrets of La Roche Bernard, and dreams of ambition and of glory took
the entire possession of my mind. What schemes! What castles in the air!
What noble actions I performed in my postchaise!! I denied myself
nothing: wealth, honors, dignities, success of every kind, I merited and
I awarded myself all; at the last, raising myself from grade to grade as
I advanced on my journey, by the time I reached my inn at night, I was
duke and peer, governor of a province, and marshal of France. The voice
of my servant, who called me modestly Monsieur le Chevalier, alone
forced me to remember who I was, and to abdicate all my dignities. The
next day, and the following days, I indulged in the same dreams, and
enjoyed the same intoxication, for my journey was long. I was going to a
chateau near Sedan the chateau of the Duke de C----, an