The
phenomenon of belief, or of admiration which is ephemeral belief, is
not so easily maintained when in close quarters with the idol. The
mechanic distrusts the machine which the traveller admires; and the
officers of the army might be called the stokers of the Napoleonic
engine,--if, indeed, they were not its fuel.
However, the Baron Wallenrod-Tustall-Bartenstild promised to come if
necessary to the help of the household. Charles loved Bettina
Wallenrod as much as she loved him, and that is saying a good deal;
but when a Provencal is moved to enthusiasm all his feelings and
attachments are genuine and natural. And how could he fail to adore
that blonde beauty, escaping, as it were, from the canvas of Durer,
gifted with an angelic nature and endowed with Frankfort wealth? The
pair had four children, of whom only two daughters survived at the
time when he poured his griefs into the Breton's heart. Dumay loved
these little ones without having seen them, solely through the
sympathy so well described by Charlet, which makes a soldier the
father of every child. The eldest, named Bettina Caroline, was born in
1805; the other, Marie Modeste, in 1808.
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