"Billet, a day will come when my son will see me laid out like that," was the stoical response.
"So much the worse for you, doctor, if he is as cold as you over it."
"I hope he will bear it better than me and be all the firmer from having had my example."
"Then you want to inure the youth to seeing blood flow. At his tender age, to be accustomed to fires, murders, gibbets, riots, night attacks; to see queens insulted and kings badgered; and when he is cool like you and steel like a sword-blade, do you expect he will love and respect you?"
"No; I do not want him to see any such sights, which is why I have sent him down to Villers Cotterets along with Ange Pitou though I almost regret it at present."
"You say you are sorry for it to-day, why to-day?"
"Because he would have seen the fable of the Lion and the Mouse put in action, which would be reality to him henceforth."
"What do you mean, Dr. Gilbert?"
"I say that he would have seen a brave and honest farmer come to town, one who can neither read nor write; who never dreamed that his life could have any influence, good or bad over the highest destinies: he would have seen that this man, who was about to quit Paris, as he wishes once more to do—contribute efficaciously towards saving the King, the Queen and the two royal children."
"How is this, Dr. Gilbert?" asked Billet, staring.