Page:The Czar, A Tale of the Time of the First Napleon.djvu/237

Rh pauvre enfant," he said with tenderness, bending down once more and touching Henri's forehead gently with his hand.

Henri seized the hand in his and pressed it to his lips. "Speak to me so again," he cried, "and I verily believe I shall not die, but live!"

His prayer was granted. He was spoken to, or rather spoken with, until St. Priest drew near, and with an anxious air entreated, not commanded, his companion to hasten onwards.

Then Henri covered his face with his thin hands and wept quietly—almost the first tears he had shed since leaving Moscow. The gentle shower softened the hard soil of his heart, the flood-gates were thrown open, the fountains of the great deep were unloosed, and the shower became a storm. "Mother, mother!" he sobbed piteously, "O mother!" Wild and passionate was the longing that swept him to see her face again, hers and his sister's. He thought of the old days—of his happy childhood, of the love and tenderness that used to surround him; and every thought unlocked afresh the source of tears. He wept until he could weep no more.

Meanwhile, Pontet followed the visitors as far as he could, and then spoke to the guard at the door. He came back with a beaming countenance and a manner full of suppressed excitement. "Wonderful news, my comrades!" he began eagerly. "Guess, if you can, who it is that has been among us—that we took for the aide-de-camp of M. de St. Priest?"

"It was an angel from heaven," murmured one poor sufferer, lifting up a face flushed with fever. "There was light—rest while he was here. Oh, if he could but have stayed! The darkness is coming back now."

"He has left the light with me," said the Spaniard. "God must have sent him here, his messenger, to fulfil my last wish."

"But his name, his name?" cried the eager Pontet,—"no one has guessed that yet. Will you try, or shall I tell you? But if I do, you will not believe me."