Burlesques William Makepeace Thackeray

27
"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 frequented it.
"Wait till he's quite well, Miss," said Lanty, who waited always behind me. "'Faith! when
he's in health, I'd back him to ate a cow, barrin' the horns and teel." I sent a decanter at the
rogue's head, by way of answer to his impertinence.
Although the disgusting Cambaceres did his best to have my parole withdrawn from me,
and to cause me to be sent to the English depot of prisoners at Verdun, the Marquis's
interest with the Emperor prevailed, and I was allowed to remain at Paris, the happiest of
prisoners, at the Colonel's hotel at the Place Vendome. I here had the opportunity (an
opportunity not lost, I flatter myself, on a young fellow with the accomplishments of Philip
Fogarty, Esq.) of mixing with the elite of French society, and meeting with many of the
great, the beautiful, and the brave. Talleyrand was a frequent guest of the Marquis's. His
bon-mots used to keep the table in a roar. Ney frequently took his chop with us; Murat,
when in town, constantly dropt in for a cup of tea and friendly round game. Alas! who
would have thought those two gallant heads would be so soon laid low? My wife has a pair
of earrings which the latter, who always wore them, presented to her—but we are
advancing matters. Anybody could see, "avec un demioeil," as the Prince of Benevento
remarked, how affairs went between me and Blanche; but though she loathed him for his
cruelties and the odiousness of his person, the brutal Cambaceres still pursued his designs
upon her.