The president accepted the Marquis's sword: he staid a few minutes
to see it deposited in the archives of his house--and departed.
The Marquis and his whole family embarked the next clay for
Martinico, and in about nineteen or twenty years of successful
application to business, with some unlook'd for bequests from
distant branches of his house, return home to reclaim his nobility,
and to support it.
It was an incident of good fortune which will never happen to any
traveller but a Sentimental one, that I should be at Rennes at the
very time of this solemn requisition: I call it solemn;--it was so
to me.
The Marquis entered the court with his whole family: he supported
his lady,--his eldest son supported his sister, and his youngest
was at the other extreme of the line next his mother;--he put his
handkerchief to his face twice. -
- There was a dead silence. When the Marquis had approached within
six paces of the tribunal, he gave the Marchioness to his youngest
son, and advancing three steps before his family,--he reclaim'd his
sword. His sword was given him, and the moment he got it into his
hand he drew it almost out of the scabbard: --'twas the shining
face of a friend he had once given up--he look'd attentively along
it, beginning at the hilt, as if to see whether it was the same,--
when, observing a little rust which it had contracted near the
point, he brought it near his eye, and bending his head down over
it,--I think--I saw a tear fall upon the place.
Pages:
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113