I recognised on the envelope the handwriting of Count Godensky.
I know that I am not a coward.

Yet it was only by the strongest effort of will that I forced myself to open that letter.

I was afraid--afraid of a hundred things.

But most of all, I was afraid of learning that the treaty was in his hands.

It would be like him to tell me he had it, and try to drive some dreadful bargain.
Nerving myself, as I suppose a condemned criminal must nerve himself to go to the guillotine or the gallows, I opened the letter.