'On receipt of this you are directed to release Colonel Etienne Gerard,
of the 3rd Hussars, who has been exchanged against Colonel Mason, of the
Horse Artillery, now in Verdun.'
And as he read it, he laughed again, and the warders laughed, and the
two men from the cottage laughed, and then, as I heard this universal
merriment, and thought of all my hopes and fears, and my struggles and
dangers, what could a debonair soldier do but lean against the porch
once more, and laugh as heartily as any of them? And of them all was it
not I who had the best reason to laugh, since in front of me I could see
my dear France, and my mother, and the Emperor, and my horsemen; while
behind lay the gloomy prison, and the heavy hand of the English King?