Page:A French Volunteer of the War of Independence.djvu/249

Rh troducing it into French territory,—but how that was to be done I had not calculated, and trusted to luck to help me at the critical moment; audentes fortuna juvat.

I arrived at the gates of Antwerp. I had with me in my carriage, perhaps I should say in our carriage, for it belonged to him as much as to me,— or rather it belonged to neither of us, for it was a hired conveyance,—I had with me as my travelling companion, an émigré whose name had also been removed from the list of proscriptions. He also was returning to France, but his papers were all in order. M. de P—— was a good, careful, prudent man, much esteemed by all who knew him, and by all who knew his daughter, for he was the father of the good and beautiful Madame de M——, who has the secret of preserving her beauty, for on my word as a man of honour, and a good judge, though she was beautiful at twenty, she was yet more beautiful twenty years later. I acted as escort and protector to my companion, and would not have suffered a hair on his