He had never felt so
confident of success as Henri and others had done, and had carried on
the war more from a sense of duty than from a hope of restoring the
power of the crown. He now gave way to that despondency which so often
accompanies bodily suffering. He felt certain that his own dissolution
was near, and on that subject his only anxiety was that he might see his
wife before he died. He had, since the power of speech had been restored
to him, more than once asserted that the cause of the royalists was
desperate, and had, by doing so, greatly added to the difficulties by
which Henri was now surrounded. He did not, however, despair; nothing
could make him despondent, or rob him of that elastic courage which, in
spite of all the sufferings he had endured, gave him a strange feeling
of delight in the war which he was waging.
An immense concourse of people gathered round the waggon, as de Lescure
was lifted from it and carried up to the bedroom, which had been
prepared for him; and they showed their grief at his sufferings, and
their admiration of his character as a soldier, by tears and prayers for
his recovery.
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