"Brought you to Paris," resumed the Colonel, smiling; "where, by the
soins of my friends Broussais, Esquirol, and Baron Larrey, you have been
restored to health, thank heaven!"

"And that lovely angel who quitted the apartment?" I cried.

"That lovely angel is the Lady Blanche Sarsfield, my ward, a descendant
of the gallant Lucan, and who may be, when she chooses, Madame la
Marechale de Cambaceres, Duchess of Illyria."

"Why did you deliver the ruffian when he was in my grasp?" I cried.

"Why did Lanty deliver you when in mine?" the Colonel replied. "C'est
la fortune de la guerre, mon garcon; but calm yourself, and take this
potion which Blanche has prepared for you."

I drank the tisane eagerly when I heard whose fair hands had compounded
it, and its effects were speedily beneficial to me, for I sank into a
cool and refreshing slumber.

From that day I began to mend rapidly, with all the elasticity of
youth's happy time. Blanche--the enchanting Blanche--ministered
henceforth to me, for I would take no medicine but from her lily hand.
And what were the effects? 'Faith, ere a month was past, the patient was
over head and ears in love with the doctor; and as for Baron Larrey, and
Broussais, and Esquirol, they were sent to the right-about. In a short
time I was in a situation to do justice to the gigot aux navets, the
boeuf aux cornichons, and the other delicious entremets of the Marquis's
board, with an appetite that astonished some of the Frenchmen who