Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 190: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ie —unshackled by i OF A FRENCH GENTLEMAN. 159 rbtained. Your obedience to the wishes of your benefactors is a condition of your receiving the proinised indulgence. “ Rue de la Channoinesse, ‘¢ Your well-wisher, ‘ Paris, June, 1830. ‘CA, LEBLoND.” This letter troubled and pleased De Rosann at the same time. The hope of procuring a full pardon was the most important object of his wishes next to the desire of possessing Eloise. He loved his native France as dearly and as enthusiastically as a William Wal- lace or a Tell could have adored, the one the Highlands of Scot- iand, the other the Canton of Uri; and his heart leapt at the idea of being shortly able to tread his parent soil a free-man once again gnominious bonds—unaccused of damnable frauds—fearless of being recaptured and conducted to a gaol. But, in order to obtain that unconditional pardon—in order to regain his forfeited rights as a citizen of France, and to return to its shores as the free-man he was desirous of becoming—he must succumb toa jiard condition, and linger idly in a land which he did not love, and whence he was anxious to depart. He hai visited England for the purpose of ascertaining if the property of the late Marquis dc Denneville still remained at the disposition of an heir—and he not only felt it his duty to place the documents, which alone could recover that property, in the hands of their rightful owner, and thus secure to himself the pleasure of fulfilling a sacred trust re- posed in him by something more than chance; but he was anxious so to do for other reasons that savoured of an interested and selfish nature. It was true he could effect the same purpose by means of epistolary communication: but he had so fondly calculated upon being the bearer 01 such important tidings as the recovery of a con- siderable sum of money to a person who deemed it lost for ever, that he would have shed tears to resign the joy he thus anticipated with such pure and fervent delight. And surely, after all the trouble and labour he had undergone in terminating the affair so promptly and so judiciously, the reward he promised himself cannot appear too exorbitant. It was in vain that the perplexed mind of our hero sought to reason calmly on both sides of the question, and to arrive at some conclusion relative to the importance he ought to attach to Le- blond’s letter. If he waited to obtain his pardon, he would cer- tainly have a better claim on the indulgence of Mrs. Ciayton, when he should implore her to forget the past—although he had no occasion to blush for his misfortunes—and should solicit her to receive him as a son-in-law. By remaining in London he was moreover certain of securing a continuation of that unsolicited favour which had already done him essential service, and which promised a permanence of its good feelings and protection towards him. He could, without materially offending against the laws of propriety and rigid honour, retain the documents in his possession a short time longer, and keep the heir ignorant of their existence until his return to France; and he might enclose Leblond’s letter tn Mr. Clayton, as an apology for his prolonged absence. Were EOMICLOOKS»E©