Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 58: what you’re looking at

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

48 LOST ILLUSIONS. ‘‘Nothing. Soldiers fight and the officers close their eyes.”’ : ‘‘Therefore I have nothing to do.”’ ‘You have only to keep silence. Bouletord will be car- ried to the hospital and will say nothing; your two wit- nesses will be mute as carps; it is the soldier’s religion. Perform your duties as if you were not concerned in the affair, and if Monsieur de Naucrais learns all about it, be sure that he will pretend to know nothing.’’ ‘*But the surgeon will visit Bouletord?’’ ‘The surgeon will say that Bouletord has the fever; if he gets well, it will be said that the fever has left him.”’ ‘‘And if he dies?’’ ‘‘He will be dead of the fever.”’ Belle-Rose laughed. ‘*T do not laugh,’’ continued the corporal; ‘‘I have al- ready seen die in that fashion half a dozen sappers, and some of the malignant fever, others of the red fever. The red fever is a saber cut, the malignant fever is a sword thrust; itis the most dangerous. Fever is the soldier’s providence. Go to bed.”’ CHAPTER VI. LOST ILLUSIONS. Everything passed off as Déroute predicted it would. Bouletord entered the hospital; the surgeon visited him and declared that he was sick of an intermittent fever. Monsieur de Naucrais feigned to believe what the surgeon had said, but meeting Belle-Rose alone one day upon the rampart, he brusquely said to him: ‘‘T have been told that you recently came near contract- ing the fever. Take care, I do not likeit to be given or re- ceived. I can, however, look over it for once.’’ ‘‘Tt has stopped,’’ boldly replied Belle-Rose, ‘‘the attack has passed away.’’ Monsieur de Naucrais smiled. Bouletord got well, and nothing more was said about it. Some months passed, then a year, then two, then three; Belle-Rose wrote fre- quently to St. Omer; in the replies which he received from there there was always some souvenir from Suzanne, a word, a flower of the new season, something which came from the heart and went tothe heart. Already the fal- coner’s son had passed beyond Déroute; Monsieur de comicbooks (eo)