"I never knew what a woman was till now," said he; "and how much better
is it that I should die this moment, with your image before me, than
return to a world, such as mine has been, where all henceforward would
be distasteful to me."
"Should you live, Cathelineau, you would live to be honoured and valued.
If it be God's pleasure that you should die, your memory will be
honoured--and loved," said Agatha.
He did not answer her for a while, but lay still, with his eyes fixed
upon her, as she sat with her elbow leaning on the window. Oh! what an
unspeakable joy it was to him to hear such heavenly words spoken by her,
whom he had almost worshipped; and yet her presence and her words turned
his thoughts back from heaven to the earth which he had all but left.
Could she really have loved him had it been his lot to survive these
wars? Could she really have descended from her high pinnacle of state
and fortune to bless so lowly a creature as him with her beauty and her
excellence? As these thoughts passed through his brain, he began for the
first time to long for life, to think that the promised blessings of
heaven hardly compensated for those which he was forced to leave on
earth; but his mind was under too strong control to be allowed to wander
long upon such reflections.
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