He and his friends went on
foot to the little wood where they had left their horses tied to the
trees, found them undisturbed, mounted and returned to Paris.
"What do you think, my lord, of all these wonderful events?" said the
tyrant, after a long silence, to de Sigognac, beside whom he was
riding. "It all ends up like a regular tragi-comedy. Who would ever
have dreamed, in the midst of the melee, of the sudden entrance upon the
scene of the grand old princely father, preceded by torches, and coming
to put a little wholesome restraint on the too atrociously outrageous
pranks of his dissolute young son? And then the recognition of Isabelle
as his daughter, by means of the ring with a peculiar device of his own
engraved upon it; haven't you seen exactly the same sort of thing on the
stage? But, after all, it is not so surprising perhaps as it seems
at the first glance--since the theatre is only a copy of real life.
Therefore, real life should resemble it, just as the original does the
portrait, eh? I have always heard that our sweet little actress was of
noble birth. Blazius and old Mme. Leonarde remember seeing the prince
when he was devoted to Cornelia. The duenna has often tried to persuade
Isabelle to seek out her father, but she is of too modest and gentle a
nature to take a step of that kind; not wishing to intrude upon a family
that might reject her, and willing to content herself in her own lowly,
position.
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