I asked after my old friend Bold. Him, she said, she had left behind, not being minded to take the chances of traveling with him.
“And if Gaston should reach Capello while I am away he will have at least one faithful heart to greet him,” she said.
Madame Riano remained at the château, and Francezka spoke with gratitude of her courage and sympathy, which were never wanting in a good cause. I returned to camp by nightfall and reported to Count Saxe. Next day he went with me to pay his respects to Francezka and to concert with her any plan she might desire for the prosecution of the search. Francezka received us with her old grace and dignity, and blushed with pleasure at Count Saxe’s tribute to Gaston Cheverny.
“And apart from my affection for Monsieur Cheverny,” he said, “I feel myself peculiarly obliged to use every means to find him. We can not afford to lose such a man as your husband, Madame Cheverny.”
Francezka thanked Count Saxe, and then sitting down at a table, we discussed pros and cons. The extent of the search which had already been made for Gaston seemed to frighten Francezka a little, but she bravely rallied. She said to Count Saxe that her whole fortune should be spent, if necessary, in this quest for her husband. Then Francezka told him of a new plan she had—to search all the Austrian prisons. It was by no means improbable that Gaston Cheverny, wandering about in his French uniform, and dazed with his wound, might have fallen in with Austrians, who would 293 send him away with other chance prisoners. This was so plausible a theory that Count Saxe was much struck with it, and said to Francezka:
“Madame, you would be a much better general than I, if once you would put your keen wit to the business.”
Francezka smiled with pleasure. No sorrow nor anxiety that ate into her soul could keep her from relishing a compliment from so great a man as Count Saxe. My master, however, gently put before her the discomforts and dangers that might lie before her. Francezka only looked at him calmly and replied:
“Discomfort and danger are nothing to a woman in comparison with her best beloved.”
Count Saxe said not one word further to discourage her, but, on the contrary, set himself seriously to work to help her. He offered to get letters from many royal and noble persons and officers of rank in both armies. Francezka, in thanking him, said, with tears in her eyes:
“I realize at this moment that I am, for the present, strangely alone in the world. I know not whom to advise with, except you, Count Saxe, and my good Babache. I know, however, one thing which is necessary to me, and that is, Babache. When you are not actually fighting, will you not lend me Babache, to help me search until I find my husband?”