I wanted to tell him all the thoughts tossing in my mind; but silence is sometimes better than open speech. Facing adventure, I remembered that I had never known the want of food for any length of time during my conscious life. And I had a suspicion the soft life at De Chaumont's had unstrung me for what was before me. But it lasted scarce a year, and I was built for hardship.
He turned to his table to write the ship-master's letter. Behold, there lay a book I knew so well that I exclaimed——
"Where did you get my missal?"
"Your missal, Lazarre? This is mine."
I turned the leaves, and looked at the back. It was a continuation of the prayers of the church. There were blank leaves for the inscribing of prayers, and one was written out in a good bold hand.
"His Majesty Louis XVI composed and wrote that prayer himself," said Louis Philippe. "The comfort-loving priests had a fashion of dividing the missal into three or four parts, that a volume might not be so heavy to carry about in their pockets. This is the second volume. It was picked up in the Tuileries after that palace was sacked."
I told him mine must be the preceding volume, because I did not know there was any continuation. The prayers of the church had not been my study.
"Where did you get yours, Lazarre?"
"Madame de Ferrier gave it to me. When I saw it I remembered, as if my head were split open to show the picture, that my mother had read from that very book to me. I cannot explain it, but so it was."
"I am not surprised she believes, against Bellenger's evidence, that you are Louis of France."