He had lifted me into the boat to find that my heart still beat and that the blood flowed from my wounds.

These he had there and then bound up in the only rude fashion he was master of, and forthwith, thinking of Andrea and the Chevalier de Canaples, who were my friends, and of Mademoiselle, who was my debtor, also seeing that the chateau was the nearest place, he had rowed straight across to Canaples, and there I had lain during the four weeks that had elapsed, nursed by Mademoiselle, Andrea, and himself, and thus won back to life.
Ah, Dieu! How good it was to know that someone there was still who cared for worthless Gaston de Luynes a little--enough to watch beside him and withhold his soul from the grim claws of Death.
"What of M.de St.Auban ?" I inquired presently.
"He has not been seen since that night.

Probably he feared that did he come to Blois, the Chevalier would find means of punishing him for the attempted abduction of Mademoiselle." "Ah, then Andrea is safe ?" As if in answer to my question, the lad entered at that moment, and upon seeing me sitting up, talking to Michelot, he uttered an exclamation of joy, and hurried forward to my bedside.
"Gaston, dear friend!" he cried, as he took my hand--and a thin, withered hand it was.
We talked long together,--we three,--and anon we were joined by the Chevalier de Canaples, who offered me also, in his hesitating manner, his felicitations.

And with me they lingered until Yvonne came to drive them with protestations from my bedside.
Such, in brief, was the manner of my resurrection.

For a week or so I still kept my chamber; then one day towards the middle of April, the weather being warm and the sun bright, Michelot assisted me to don my clothes, which hung strangely empty upon my gaunt, emaciated frame, and, leaning heavily upon my faithful henchman, I made my way below.
In the salon I found the Chevalier de Canaples with Mesdemoiselles and Andrea awaiting me, and the kindness wherewith they overwhelmed me, as I sat propped up with pillows, was such that I asked myself again and again if, indeed, I was that same Gaston de Luynes who but a little while ago had held himself as destitute of friends as he was of fortune.
I was the pampered hero of the hour, and even little Genevieve had a sunny smile and a kind word for me.
Thereafter my recovery progressed with great strides, and gradually, day by day, I felt more like my old vigorous self.