"Kill an innocent woman! Oh, Madame, what makes you say so? It must be that grief for my absence has turned your brain."
"Sir!" cried Geneviève, "sir, I beseech you to kill me at once, rather than torture me with these cruel railleries. No, I am not innocent; yes, I am criminal; yes, I merit death. Kill me, sir, kill me!—"
"Then you acknowledge that you merit death?"
"Yes! yes!"
"And to expiate this I know not what crime of which you accuse yourself, you will submit to death without complaint?"
"Strike, sir, I will not utter a cry; and instead of cursing I will bless the hand that strikes me."
"No, Madame, I do not wish to strike you; nevertheless in all probability you will die. Only your death, instead of being as you seem to fear an ignominious one, shall be most glorious. Thank me, Madame; while punishing, I will immortalize you."
"What then will you do, sir?"
"You will follow the end to which we were tending when interrupted on our route. In your own eyes and in mine, you will die guilty; in the eyes of the world you will die a martyr."