"Ay! but I don't see why they should carry our colonel off.His epaulets was all the thieves could do any good with.Stop! yet Ido, Private Dard; I have a horrible suspicion.No, I have not; it is a certainty.What! don't you see, ye ninny? Thunder and thousands of devils, here's a disgrace.Dogs of Prussians! they have got our colonel, they have taken him prisoner.""O God bless them!" cried Josephine; "O God bless the mouth that tells me so! O sir, I am his wife, his poor heart-broken wife.You would not be so cruel as to mock my despair.Say again that he may be alive, pray, say it again!""His wife! Private Dard, why didn't you tell me? You tell me nothing.Yes, my pretty lady, I'll say it again, and I'll prove it.
Here is an enemy in full retreat, would they encumber themselves with the colonel? If he was dead, they'd have whipped off his epaulets, and left him there.Alive? why not? Look at me: I am alive, and I was worse wounded than he was.They took me for dead, you see.Courage, madame! you will see him again, take an old soldier's word for it.Dard, attention! this is the colonel's wife."She gazed on the speaker like one in a trance.
Every eye and every soul had been so bent on Sergeant La Croix that it was only now Raynal was observed to be missing.The next minute he came riding out of the stable-yard, and went full gallop down the road.
"Ah!" cried Rose, with a burst of hope; "he thinks so too; he has hopes.He is gone somewhere for information.Perhaps to Paris."Josephine's excitement and alternations of hope and fear were now alarming.Rose held her hand, and implored her to try and be calm till they could see Raynal.
Just before dark he came riding fiercely home.Josephine flew down the stairs.Raynal at sight of her forgot all his caution.He waved his cocked hat in the air.She fell on her knees and thanked God.He gasped out,--"Prisoner--exchanged for two Prussian lieutenants--sent home--they say he is in France!"The tears of joy gushed in streams from her.
Some days passed in hope and joy inexpressible; but the good doctor was uneasy for Josephine.She was always listening with supernatural keenness and starting from her chair, and every fibre of her lovely person seemed to be on the quiver.
Nor was Rose without a serious misgiving.Would husband and wife ever meet? He evidently looked on her as Madame Raynal, and made it a point of honor to keep away from Beaurepaire.
They had recourse to that ever-soothing influence--her child.
Madame Jouvenel was settled in the village, and Josephine visited her every day, and came back often with red eyes, but always soothed.
One day Rose and she went to Madame Jouvenel, and, entering the house without ceremony, found the nurse out, and no one watching the child.
"How careless!" said Rose.
Josephine stopped eagerly to kiss him.But instead of kissing him, she uttered a loud cry.There was a locket hanging round his neck.
It was a locket containing some of Josephine's hair and Camille's.
She had given it him in the happy days that followed their marriage.
She stood gasping in the middle of the room.Madame Jouvenel came running in soon after.Josephine, by a wonderful effort over herself, asked her calmly and cunningly,--"Where is the gentleman who put this locket round my child's neck?
I want to speak with him."
Madame Jouvenel stammered and looked confused.
"A soldier--an officer?--come, tell me!"
"Woman," cried Rose, "why do you hesitate?""What am I to do?" said Madame Jouvenel."He made me swear never to mention his coming here.He goes away, or hides whenever you come.
And since Madame does not love the poor wounded gentleman, what can he do better?""Not love him!" cried Rose: "why, she is his wife, his lawful wedded wife; he is a fool or a monster to run away for her.She loves him as no woman ever loved before.She pines for him.She dies for him."The door of a little back room opened at these words of Rose, and there stood Camille, with his arm in a sling, pale and astounded, but great joy and wonder working in his face.
Josephine gave a cry of love that made the other two women weep, and in a moment they were sobbing for joy upon each other's neck.
Away went sorrow, doubt, despair, and all they had suffered.That one moment paid for all.And in that moment of joy and surprise, so great as to be almost terrible, perhaps it was well for Josephine that Camille, weakened by his wound, was quite overcome, and nearly fainted.She was herself just going into hysterics; but, seeing him quite overcome, she conquered them directly, and nursed, and soothed, and pitied, and encouraged him instead.
Then they sat hand in hand.Their happiness stopped their very breath.They could not speak.So Rose told him all.He never owned why he had slipped away when he saw them coming.He forgot it.He forgot all his hard thoughts of her.They took him home in the carriage.His wife would not let him out of her sight.For years and years after this she could hardly bear to let him be an hour out of her sight.
The world is wide; there may be a man in it who can paint the sudden bliss that fell on these two much suffering hearts; but I am not that man; this is beyond me; it was not only heaven, but heaven after hell.
Leave we the indescribable and the unspeakable for a moment, and go to a lighter theme.
The day Rose's character was so unexpectedly cleared, Edouard had no opportunity of speaking to her, or a reconciliation would have taken place.As it was, he went home intensely happy.But he did not resume his visits to the chateau.When he came to think calmly over it, his vanity was cruelly mortified.She was innocent of the greater offence; but how insolently she had sacrificed him, his love, and his respect, to another's interest.
More generous thoughts prevailed by degrees.And one day that her pale face, her tears, and her remorse got the better of his offended pride, he determined to give her a good lecture that should drown her in penitent tears; and then end by forgiving her.For one thing he could not be happy till he had forgiven her.
