The taking of Thouars, and Fontenay, of Montreuil, and Saumur, had inspirited even him, and almost taught him to believe that La Vendee would be ultimately successful in re-establishing the throne.
De Lescure was delighted to see what he thought was a growing attachment between his sister and his friend.

Had he had the power of choosing a husband for Marie out of all France, he would have chosen Henri Larochejaquelin: he loved him already as he could only love a brother, and he knew that he had all those qualities which would most tend to make a woman happy.
"Oh, if these wars were but over," said he to his wife, "how I would rejoice to give her to him, he is such a brave and gallant fellow--but as tender-hearted and kind as he is brave!" "These weary, weary wars!" said Madame de Lescure, with a sigh, "would they were over: would, with all my heart, they had never been begun.

How well does the devil do his work on earth, when he is able to drive the purest, the most high-minded, the best of God's creatures to war and bloodshed as the only means of securing to themselves the liberty of worshipping their Saviour and honouring their King!" Henri himself, however, had not considered the propriety of waiting until the wars were over before he took a wife for himself, or at any rate before he asked the consent of the lady's friends: for the day before he left Clisson, he determined to speak to Charles on the subject; though he had long known Marie so well, and had now been staying a week in the house, he had never yet told her that he loved her.

It was the custom of the age and the country for a lover first to consult the friends of the young lady, and though the peculiar circumstances of his position might have emboldened Henri to dispense with such a practice, he was the last man in the world to take advantage of his situation.
"Charles," said he, the evening before his departure, as he stood close to the garden seat, on which his cousin was sitting, and amused himself with pitching stones into the river, which ran beneath the lawn at Clisson.

"Charles, I shall be off tomorrow; I almost envy you the broken arm which keeps you here." "It won't keep me long now, Henri," said he; "I shall be at Chatillon in a week's time, unless you and d'Elbee have moved to Parthenay before that.