When Rosalie was in bed she opened the letter, dated from day to day, so as to give the Duchess a faithful picture of Albert’s life and feelings.

“25th.

“My dear Soul, all is well.  To my other conquests I have just added an invaluable one:  I have done a service to one of the most influential men who work the elections.  Like the critics, who make other men’s reputations but can never make their own, he makes deputies though he never can become one.  The worthy man wanted to show his gratitude without loosening his purse-strings by saying to me, ’Would you care to sit in the Chamber?  I can get you returned as deputy.’

  “‘If I ever make up my mind to enter on a political career,’
  replied I hypocritically, ’it would be to devote myself to the
  Comte, which I love, and where I am appreciated.’

  “‘Well,’ he said, ’we will persuade you, and through you we shall
  have weight in the Chamber, for you will distinguish yourself
  there.’

“And so, my beloved angel, say what you will, my perseverance will be rewarded.  Ere long I shall, from the high place of the French Tribune, come before my country, before Europe.  My name will be flung to you by the hundred voices of the French press.

“Yes, as you tell me, I was old when I came to Besancon, and Besancon has aged me more; but, like Sixtus V., I shall be young again the day after my election.  I shall enter on my true life, my own sphere.  Shall we not then stand in the same line?  Count Savaron de Savarus, Ambassador I know not where, may surely marry a Princess Soderini, the widow of the Duc d’Argaiolo!  Triumph restores the youth of men who have been preserved by incessant struggles.  Oh, my Life! with what gladness did I fly from my library to my private room, to tell your portrait of this progress before writing to you!  Yes, the votes I can command, those of the Vicar-General, of the persons I can oblige, and of this client, make my election already sure.

“26th.

“We have entered on the twelfth year since that blest evening when, by a look, the beautiful Duchess sealed the promises made by the exile Francesca.  You, dear, are thirty-two, I am thirty-five; the dear Duke is seventy-seven—­that is to say, ten years more than yours and mine put together, and he still keeps well!  My patience is almost as great as my love, and indeed I need a few years yet to rise to the level of your name.  As you see, I am in good spirits to-day, I can laugh; that is the effect of hope.  Sadness or gladness, it all comes to me through you.  The hope of success always carries me back to the day following that one on which I saw you for the first time, when my life became one with yours as the earth turns to the light. Qual pianto are these eleven years, for this is the 26th of December, the anniversary of my arrival at your villa on the Lake of Geneva.  For eleven years have I been crying to you, while you shine like a star set too high for man to reach it.

“27th.