After a little while she conquered her emotion, and listened to him, and answered him with attention.

He first spoke of their daughter, who was now in safety, with relatives who had fled to England, and then of herself, and the probable result of the Vendean war.

He told her that he would not say a word to discourage Henri: that had his life been spared, he should have considered it his own most paramount and sacred duty to further the war with every energy which he possessed; but that he did not expect that it would ever terminate favourably to their hopes.

"The King will reign again," he said, "in France; I do not doubt it for a moment; but years upon years of bloodshed will have to be borne; the blood of France will be drained from every province, aye, from every parish, before the guilt which she has committed can be atoned for--before she can have expiated the murder of her King." He desired her to continue with Henri till an opportunity should occur for her to cross over into England, but to let no such opportunity pass.

He said that if Henri could maintain his ground for a while in Brittany--if the people would support him, and if English succour should arrive--it was still probable that they might be able to come to such terms with the republicans as would enable them to live after their own fashion, in their own country; to keep their own priests among them, and to maintain their exemption from service in the republican armies.