He embraced his wife, who was calm but very pale, and his children.

Ernest asked to be allowed to go with him, but the marquis said: "No, my son, my life is the king's; but yours at present is due to your mother and sisters." It was twenty-four hours before he returned.

His clothes were torn, his head was bound up, and one of his arms disabled.

The marquise gave a cry of delight as he entered.

No one had slept since he left, for every hour fresh rumours of fighting had arrived, and the sound of cannon and musketry had been heard in the early part of the day.
"It is all over, wife!" he said.