That was my gain--the fortune of war, the turn of the dice.

But if I lay hid, and took time for my ally, and being here while he still stood, though tottering, waited until he fell, what of my honour then?
What of the grand words I had said to Mademoiselle at Agen?
I should be like the recreant in the old romance, who, lying in the ditch while the battle raged, came out afterwards and boasted of his courage.
And yet the flesh was weak.

A day, twenty-four hours, two days, might make the difference between life and death, love and death; and I wavered.

But at last I settled what I would do.

At noon the next day, the time at which I should have presented myself if I had not heard this news, at that time I would still present myself.