He cursed his luck impulsively, not being able at the first glance to
discern all the advantages of a nasty wound. And yet it was by this
heroic method that Providence was shaping his future. Travelling slowly
south to his sister's country home under the care of a trusty old
servant, General D'Hubert was spared the humiliating contacts and the
perplexities of conduct which assailed the men of Napoleonic empire at
the moment of its downfall. Lying in his bed, with the windows of his
room open wide to the sunshine of Provence, he perceived the undisguised
aspect of the blessing conveyed by that jagged fragment of a Prussian
shell, which, killing his horse and ripping open his thigh, saved him
from an active conflict with his conscience. After the last fourteen
years spent sword in hand in the saddle, and with the sense of his duty
done to the very end, General D'Hubert found resignation an easy virtue.
His sister was delighted with his reasonableness. "I leave myself
altogether in your hands, my dear Leonie," he had said to her.
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