Passion he
had for her was now no secret to any of them.
He was very much surprized that the baron de Palfoy had not wrote,
because as he had in a manner promised to correspond with him by
desiring him to write, he had a right to expect that favour when they
came to Alranstadt; for till then it was scarce possible, by reason of
the army's continual and uncertain motions; but he was much more so,
that the baron de la Valiere had not been so good as to give him some
information of an affair, of which he could not be insensible his peace
so much depended: that he did not do it, he therefore presently
concluded, was owing to the having nothing pleasing to acquaint
him with.
As love is always apprehensive of the worst that can possibly befal, he
thought now of nothing but her being obliged to give her hand to some
rival approved by her father: - what avails it, cried he, that fortune
has raised me to an equality with her, if, by other means, I am
deprived of her!
He was beginning to give way to a despair little befitting a soldier,
when another courier arriving from Versailles with dispatches to the
king, he also received a packet, in which were three letters.
