"Have you seen my son, general?"
"I have never had that honour."
"Ah! He is a good lad, very quick, very heedless, but French through and through, like myself."
"You love him greatly?"
"As much as a mother can love her son."
"Well, will Madame permit me to say that I do not understand how, since all is at an end in la Vendée—as, after the battles of Chêne and of la Pénissière, all hope was lost—she did not think of returning to the side of the son she loves so much: we have beaten her, however." "General, it was you who seized my correspondence, I think?"
"Yes, Madame."
"Have you read my letters?"
"I have committed that indiscretion."
"Well, then, you must have seen that, directly I put myself at the head of my brave Vendéens, I resolved to submit to all the consequences of insurrection.... Why! it was for me they rose up and risked their heads, and should I have deserted them?... No, general, their fate shall be mine and I have kept my promise to them. But I should have been your prisoner a long time before; I should have put an end to it all by giving myself up, if one fear had not pursued me."