What would be the final consequences of my
misapplication of this powerful missive I knew
not, and I recked yet less. But I did know that I
had passed the most disaffected districts, and that
here it would meet implicit obedience. Nor was
I mistaken. Had I been the sovereign himself, I

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could not have been greeted with more prompt
and affectionate loyalty. But for this I cared not.
I had learned from the porter, that for many
leagues there was not another bridge across the
turbulent Marne. I was assured by the chirurgeon
that Isabel, though feeble and exhausted, was
in perfect safety; and had a thousand hardships
borne me down—a thousand perils threatened—I
should have been—as I then was—supremely
happy.

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