On Her Arrival At St. Germains, Where There Was An Extreme Full Court To
Congratulate The Princess Louisa, On The Great Victories Lately Gained
By Charles XII.
The brave king of Sweeden, to whom she had been some
time contracted, she passed directly to her highness's apartment; and
the Chevalier St. George being then with her, those of his Gentlemen who
had attended him thither, were waiting in the antichamber:
Among them
was Horatio: the alteration of his countenance on sight of her, after
this absence, was too visible not to have been remarked, had not all
present been too busy in paying their compliments to her, to take any
notice of it. He was one of the last that approached, being willing to
recover the confusion he felt himself in, lest it should have an effect
on his voice in speaking to her. She, more prepared, received his salute
with the same gay civility she did the others, but at the same instant
slipped the letter she had brought with her into his hand.
Any one who is in the least acquainted with the power of love, may guess
the transports of Horatio at this condescension; but, impatient to know
the dear contents, he went out of the room as soon as he found he could
do it without being observed, and having perused this obliging billet,
found in it a sufficient cordial to revive that long languishment his
spirit had been in.
At his return he found her engaged in conversation with several
gentlemen and ladies: he mingled in the company, but could expect no
other satisfaction from it than being near his dear Charlotta, and
hearing her speak. The Chevalier St. George soon after came out, and he
was obliged with the rest of his train to quit the place, which at
present contained the object of his wishes. She went in immediately
after to the princess, so he saw her no more that day at St. Germains.
All that now employed his thoughts was a pretence to visit her at her
father's house; for tho' she had told him in her letter that he might
come as an ordinary acquaintance, yet knowing that the continuance of
their conversation depended wholly on the secrecy of it, he was willing
to avoid giving even the most distant occasions of suspicion.
Fortune, hitherto favourable to his desires, now presented him with one
more ample than any thing his own invention could have supplied him
with: happening to be at Paris in the company of some friends, with whom
he stayed later than ordinary, he was hurrying thro' the streets in
order to go to the inn where his servant and horses waited for him, when
he heard the clashing of swords at some distance from him: guided by his
generosity, he flew to the place where the noise directed him, and saw
by the lights, which hang out very thick in that city, one person
defending himself against three who pressed very hard upon him, and had
got him down just as Horatio arrived to his relief: he ran among the
assaillants; and either the greatness of his courage, or the belief that
others would come to his assistance, threw them into such a
consternation, that they all sought their safety in their flight, while
the person they had attacked got up again and thanked his deliverer,
without whose timely aid, he said, he could have expected nothing but
death: those who set upon him being robbers, and, as he perceived by
their behaviour, desperate wretches, who were for securing themselves by
taking the lives, as well as money, of those who were too weak to resist
them: he pointed to a dead body on the ground, who he told Horatio was
his servant, and had been killed in his defence.
But how transported was our young lover when, he found that the person
to whom he had done so signal a piece of service, was the father of his
mistress. As he perceived he had some wounds, tho' they proved but
slight, he compleated the obligation he had began to confer, by
supporting him under the arm till he got home, where the baron made him
enter with him, and would have prevailed with him to stay all night; but
Horatio told him he could not well dispense with being absent from his
post; that it was highly proper he should return to St. Germains that
night late as it was, but would do himself the honour of waiting on him
the next day to enquire after the state of the wounds he had received.
Mademoiselle Charlotta was gone to bed; but being rouzed by the
accident, no sooner was informed by the surgeons, who were immediately
sent for, that there was nothing dangerous in the hurts her father had
received, than she blessed heaven for making Horatio the instrument of
his preservation. The sense the baron seemed to have of this obligation,
and the praises he bestowed on the gallant manner in which the young
gentleman came to his relief, made her almost ready to flatter herself
that fate interested itself in behalf of their love; and indeed monsieur
the baron, notwithstanding the haughtiness of his nature, had the most
just notions of gratitude; and to testify it to Horatio, would have
refused him scarce any thing except his daughter. But however that
should happen, she still found more and more excuses for indulging the
inclinations she had for him; and tho' she yet had never given him any
such assurances, yet she resolved in her own mind, to live only for him.
The baron being obliged to keep his bed for several days, Horatio had a
pretence for repeating his visits to him during this time of his
confinement, and afterwards went often by invitation; the other, besides
the obligation he had to him, finding something extremely pleasing in
his conversation, to which (not to take from Horatio's merits) the
obsequiousness he found no difficulty in himself to behave with towards
a Man of his age, his quality, and above all, the father of Charlotta,
not a little contributed.
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