Page:Narrative of a captivity and adventures in France and Flanders between the years 1803 and 1809.djvu/213

 mother, to encourage her husband to lay up in store for his children, and that to decline so favourable an opportunity as the present, was to do them an injury. To every thing I said, she listened with apparent interest, and, promising to do all she could for me, retired. Soon after, Moitier came up, with "bien fâché, vraiment chagriné, même au desespoir." Until this moment I never doubted his intention to further our views, and had flattered myself, that, although he might not choose to take an open, and active part, still he would prove the moving power, and that reaching his house in safety, would prove the way to final success; nevertheless, I persevered, as if I doubted not, attributing our detention in this neighbourhood to the hopes his promises had excited. He assigned very cogent reasons for declining his aid, though he frankly admitted the proffered remuneration to be most liberal; but the dread of banishment from the district, as cutting off his professional resources, he being "Notaire publique," seemed to outweigh the temptation. He,