"I am going to give your highness a very delightful surprise."
"Yes, your highness. Several of your partisans, having learned by what happy occurrence the life of your highness has been preserved, have asked permission of the king to accompany me here."
"To accompany you?" cried the chevalier. "And where are they, then?"
"They are here, aboard the frigate which brought me, your highness."
"Aboard your frigate!" exclaimed Croustillac, with an expression of surprise that De Chemerant interpreted in a very favorable manner to affectionate memories of the chevalier.
"Yes, your highness. I understand your astonishment, your happiness, your joy in the prospect of shortly seeing your old companions-in-arms."
"You have not the slightest idea of the impatience with which I await the moment when I shall again see them, sir," said Croustillac.
"And their conduct justifies your eagerness, your highness; they will bring you the loyalty of all your English friends; and they will very soon put you in touch with the affairs of that country. Who can better inform you on these subjects than Dudley and Rothsay?"
"Ah! that dear Rothsay, has he also come?" said the Gascon with an easy manner.
"Yes, your highness, but he is suffering so from his old wounds that he can hardly walk, still he said, 'It is no matter if I die--if I die at the feet of our duke,' for it is thus they speak of you in the familiarity of their devotion."
"The poor Rothsay, always the same!" said Croustillac, passing his hand across his eyes, with a touching air. "The dear friends."
"And Lord Mortimer, then, your highness; he is as if mad. If it were not for the king's orders, which were of the strictest, it would have been impossible to have prevented his coming on shore with me."
"Lord Dudley is as wild as the others, I wager?"
"He threatened to swim ashore as the captain had refused to give him a boat."
"Such a friend is a true spaniel for fidelity and love of the water!" thought Croustillac, very much embarrassed.
"What a great day it will be for your highness."
"Ah, your highness, what a touching scene! what a moment for you and for those who are so devoted to you. Happy indeed are the princes who find such friends in adversity."