Spare me, in my
last moments, the spectacle of what I cannot cure even with the
sacrifice of my life."
"I am very selfish," answered Blanche. "I will be braver, Monsieur
de Beaulieu, for your sake. But think if I can do you no kindness
in the future - if you have no friends to whom I could carry your
adieux. Charge me as heavily as you can; every burden will
lighten, by so little, the invaluable gratitude I owe you. Put it
in my power to do something more for you than weep."
"My mother is married again, and has a young family to care for.
My brother Guichard will inherit my fiefs; and if I am not in
error, that will content him amply for my death. Life is a little
vapour that passeth away, as we are told by those in holy orders.
When a man is in a fair way and sees all life open in front of him,
he seems to himself to make a very important figure in the world.
His horse whinnies to him; the trumpets blow and the girls look out
of window as he rides into town before his company; he receives
many assurances of trust and regard - sometimes by express in a
letter - sometimes face to face, with persons of great consequence
falling on his neck. It is not wonderful if his head is turned for
a time. But once he is dead, were he as brave as Hercules or as
wise as Solomon, he is soon forgotten. It is not ten years since
my father fell, with many other knights around him, in a very
fierce encounter, and I do not think that any one of them, nor so
much as the name of the fight, is now remembered.
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