"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.
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