Anxious to be rid of him, I had consented, and he withdrew to float his mimic argosie in the mountain lake that rippled against the rampart below us.
'Hark you, M. le Duc,' said I, just as he lifted his little ship and was running away, 'take care of yourself.'
'Why, monsieur?'
'For many reasons; you love your Duchess, do you not?'
'Oh! yes, monsieur; are not her eyes so soft and gentle?'
'Alas, yes!'
'Why alas?' said the child with surprise, 'I assure you, M. le Gouverneur, she gives me twice as many sugarplums as ever my old nurse at Toul did, especially when she begs me not to tell any one that she has been weeping, for she weeps very often.'
'And this is your husband, Marie Louise?' said I, as the boy left us.
'Alas! poor child. He is very loveable, and reminds me much of what my foster-brother, René, and Vaudemont, were at his age; for this I love him.'
'Unhappy girl!'