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Updated: June 4, 2025
At this moment, as the military governor passed near them, on his way to the crossway of the Pyramid, Henri made a movement as if to rejoin him. "Do not disturb yourself, General de Prerolles," said the military governor. "The compliments which I have made you on the fine appearance of your troops are probably not so agreeable to you as those to which you are listening at present!"
In order to realize this sum, the committee of action proposes to organize at the Palais de l'Industrie a grand kermess, with the assistance of the principal artists from the theatres of Paris, including that of Mademoiselle Gontier, of the Comedie Francaise," added the secretary, with a sly smile on observing the expression of General de Prerolles. "Good!" Henri promptly rejoined.
He made a sign to his soldiers to retire, then, turning to Henri, he said: "You are the Marquis de Prerolles!" and he extended his hand cordially to the former companion of his pleasures. In a few words Henri explained to him the situation. "My fate is in your hands," he concluded. "Decide it!"
Henri de Prerolles could hardly believe his eyes! Was he the sport of a dream or of one of those mirages which rise before men who travel across the sandy African deserts? The latitude and the position of the sun forbade this interpretation. But whence came it, then? What fairy had turned a magic ring in order to work this miracle?
It was Henri whose memory was first revived. "Captain, you are my prisoner!" he said, gayly, seizing the stranger by the collar. "What! The Commandant de Prerolles!" cried the elderly man, in a reproachful tone, from which fifteen years had not removed the bitterness. "I know who he is!" said Lenaieff. "Monsieur is your former jailer of the frontier fortress!"
At the feet of the idol who is so appropriately enthroned among so many artistic objects!" replied the honey-tongued Prudhomme, adjusting his eyeglasses. "The bust of General de Prerolles, no doubt?" he added, inquiringly, scrutinizing a marble statuette placed on the high mantelpiece. "You are wrong, Monsieur Desvanneaux; it is that of Moliere!" "I beg your pardon! I am standing so far below it!
Promoted to a higher rank, and appointed commander of a regiment of foot, the Lieutenant-Colonel de Prerolles rejoined the army of Chanzy, which, having known him a long time, assigned to him the duties of a brigadier-general, and instructed him to cover his retreat from the Loire on the Sarthe.
"I have already had the pleasure of seeing Monsieur at my house," said Valentine, "also Madame Desvanneaux; and although I was unable to accede to their wishes, I retain, nevertheless, the pleasantest recollections of their visit." "Good hit!" whispered Madame de Nointel to her neighbor. "The Marquis de Prerolles, my brother," the Duchess continued.
"And now, Marquis de Prerolles, go forth to battle!" cried the old actress to him over the banisters, with the air of an artist who knows her proper cue. Notwithstanding the desire expressed by his mistress, Henri firmly decided not to repeat that farewell scene. The matter that concerned him most was the wish not to depart without having freed himself wholly from his debt to Paul Landry.
Walking slowly, step by step, beside her whose power had so quickly and so wholly subjugated him, watching over her removal with more than paternal solicitude, Henri de Prerolles, sustained by a ray of hope, drew a memorandum-book from his pocket, wrote upon a slip of paper a name and an address, and, giving it to the groom, ordered him to go ahead of the litter and telephone to the most celebrated surgeon in Paris, requesting him to go as quickly as possible to the domicile of Mademoiselle de Vermont, and, meantime, to send with the greatest despatch one of the eight-spring carriages from the stables.
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