Such feelings occupied me during the whole of that evening and night with such intensity, that I certainly forgot all form and ceremony. I remained silent, gloomy, abstracted; and both my little page and Monsieur de Villardin concluded that I was seriously ill. The next morning early I found a surgeon in my room, who, informing me that he had been sent for to attend me, felt my pulse and proposed to bleed me. Although I knew that the malady which affected me had nothing to do with my corporeal frame, and that, unless he could give medicine to my mind, the most skilful son of Esculapius could effect no ultimate cure upon me, yet I suffered him to do his will, and perhaps did feel relieved in some degree from the sort of burning headache which I experienced, as the blood flowed from the vein, and my frame began to grow weaker from the loss of that fluid which had been flowing like liquid fire through every limb. As we were to set out for the army, however, at mid-day, I went in search of Monsieur de Villardin as soon as the operation was over; and, notwithstanding all his remonstrances, insisted upon accompanying him, declaring that I felt better for the bleeding, and should soon be quite well. Not long after, my commission arrived; and, having by this time given up all thought of making the Count de Laval the victim of my disappointment, I set out for the camp with the stern and gloomy determination of never returning from the field alive. I will do my duty, I thought, in every respect; and, by exposing myself on all occasions wherever danger is to be found, I shall surely at length be enabled to gain that fate, which will set these warring passions at rest for ever. According to the rule which I have laid down for myself, I shall speak of the events of my military career as briefly as possible. Our regiment had been quartered in the neighbourhood of Senlis; and, as the inferior officers were generally steady and experienced, we found it already in marching order when we arrived. By this time, Turenne had determined to open the campaign by an attack upon some of the enemy's towns in Flanders, and--being joined at Condé by Monsieur de Villardin, with our own regiment and two or three others, which were now united under his command,--that great general first marched upon Tournay. Finding, however, that he had been deceived in regard to the state of preparation of that town, he instantly fell back upon Condé, and thence marched direct for Valenciennes, which was invested the night of his arrival.