He pulled at the hawthorn boughs as he passed, and thought of Anne of Saxony.
"I certainly am not fortunate," he remarked, with a sudden smile.
"There is the future," said Louis hopefully.
"Ah yes," answered the Prince. "The future and the past—in both there is encouragement, though the present be sad. Our task is clear before us and we are young."
"And if we die young, God will be pitiful," said Henry gravely, "and forgive us our sins because we were not wise."
Louis thought of Adolphus and of the inscription on the blood-sprinkled banner that had wrapped him, "Nunc aut nunquam, recuperare aut mori."
William too had recalled his dead brother when Henry spoke. He believed that the coming years held the same fate for all of them, that neither they nor any who followed them would escape the end which befell those who defied Philip—the end which had already overtaken so many besides the young Nassau.
But though the Prince of Orange was one who loved life, he was neither regretful nor afraid.
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