‘You will get on,’ he said, ‘you will recover. You will be strong by the time we get to Toulon.’
‘Toulon?’ I said, speaking faintly.
‘Yes, madame, Toulon. We are going to Toulon. This brick is now proceeding to that port.’
‘Toulon?’ I exclaimed.
‘Madame knows without doubt where Toulon is?’
I gazed at him in silence.
‘Does it fatigue you to speak?’ said the young man whom I will hereafter call Alphonse, for by no other name did I ever know him.
‘No,’ said I in a whisper.
‘Then tell me, madame, how it happened that you were in the miserable condition from which we rescued you?’
I tried to think, but I could not think. I forced my gaze inwards, but beheld nothing but blackness. I strained the vision of my mind, but it was like straining the balls of the sight at a dark wall in a midnight of blackness.