having given birth to the long desired son and heir, he treated the
news with supreme carelessness. We should never have known whether
she lived or died, had not the courier, by whom M. de Bellaise wrote
to her as well as to his uncle, brought back one of her formal little
letters, ill-spelt and unmeaning, thanking Monsieur son frere and
Madame sa femme for their goodness, and saying she was nearly
recovered.

'It cuts me to the heart to receive such letters,' said my husband,
'and to feel how little I can be to her. Some day I hope I may know
her better, and make her feel what a brother means.'

All this happened while we were in garrison for the winter at Nancy.
Again we offered M. d'Aubepine a room in our house; but though he
was, in his way, fond of my husband, and was polite to me, he thought
a residence with us would interfere with his liberty, and, alas! his
liberty consisted in plunging deeper and deeper into dissipation,
gambling, and all those other sports which those about him made him
think the privileges of manhood. We could do nothing; he laughed at
M. de Bellaise, and so indeed did these chosen friends of his. I
believe plenty of wit was expended on us and our happy domestic life;
but what was that to us? The courage of M. de Bellaise was well
known, and he had so much good-temper and kindness that no one durst
insult him.

He was doubly tender to me that winter and spring because the
accounts from England were so sad. My dear brother Berenger had been
killed at the battle of Alresford, and affairs looked very ill for
the royal cause. I wept for my brother; but, ah! those tears were as
nothing compared with what I was soon to shed.