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Updated: June 22, 2025
I had ever believed Count Saxe's star led him not to statecraft, but to war. He named me first to go with him, Gaston Cheverny and Beauvais, and, of course, Mademoiselle Capello. He told me to represent to Francezka it would be better for her to assume her boy's dress on our retreat. I went to the other end of the terrace, to Francezka's tower, and knocked softly on the window.
I reckoned Francezka to be easily the star of the ladies present, and there were some of the most beautiful women in France in that saloon of Chambord, their jewels blazing under the waxlights. Nor was Gaston Cheverny inconspicuous among the gentlemen. He had the grand air as much as Francezka, and his adventures made him an object of respectful curiosity.
Our horses were stabled some little distance away toward the river side. I sent four men after them, with orders to bring them as quietly as possible. "And Gaston Cheverny, sir?" I asked of Count Saxe. There was that in his present circumstances which would have quenched mirth in most men, but Count Saxe was one of those men who could laugh in the face of fate.
I was in command of the battalion of Uhlans, and we made a gallant show, in our scarlet dolmans, our lances, with their scarlet pennons, catching the sun like points of fire. Gaston Cheverny rode with Count Saxe as aide-de-camp. He looked pale, but sat his horse firmly.
You are a gallant young man, and I shall have pleasure in exchanging you for Captain Cheverny, waiving the difference of rank. So, both of you will get credit out of this night's performance, although you did not get Count Saxe, for I am Count Saxe!" I never saw such a change of countenance as came over that poor little sub-lieutenant.
I was much more puzzled to find a friend and a lantern than I was at the prospect of crossing swords with young Cheverny. The only human being I could think of at hand was Jacques Haret and I loathed the thought of having him in that capacity. Just then, Jacques Haret came out of the door and passed through the courtyard.
The elder Monsieur Gaston Cheverny could not take better care of him if he were a sister instead of a brother. Monsieur Gaston never leaves him by day, and by night watches him. It would have been as easy, as far as Monsieur Gaston was concerned, to have got twenty thousand crowns as ten thousand." We trudged for five hours, and the sun sank, and there was no moon. I walked on like a blind man.
I returned to camp by nightfall and reported to Count Saxe. Next day he went with me to pay his respects to Francezka and to concert with her any plan she might desire for the prosecution of the search. Francezka received us with her old grace and dignity, and blushed with pleasure at Count Saxe's tribute to Gaston Cheverny.
Gaston Cheverny received the news early in the morning of a very important day. It was the day on which the king announced to his officers of high rank that any interference on the part of Austria with the election of a king in Poland would mean war. And Austria, it was well known, would interfere.
She gave a sidelong glance out of her eloquent eyes at Gaston Cheverny, that I would not have had her give me for the best horse in the king's stables. The young man did not relish it, and straightway undertook to make me responsible for his chagrin.
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